Every once in awhile, I get obsessed with something. It usually involves aroma. When I was a teenager it was Christian Dior Diorissimo perfume, because it reminded me of my grandmother, and then it was Halston lotion, because it reminded me of my best friend. Then I turned to Opalescence Borghese lipstick-- I think I …
Every once in awhile, I get obsessed with something. It usually involves aroma. When I was a teenager it was Christian Dior Diorissimo perfume, because it reminded me of my grandmother, and then it was Halston lotion, because it reminded me of my best friend. Then I turned to Opalescence Borghese lipstick– I think I still have some somewhere. And then in college it was Grey Flannel men’s cologne. I used to spray it on my pillow because it reminded me of this amazingly handsome guy I knew—that and gin and tonics which for a short time in college, meant: freedom and sophistication.
During my first pregnancy, it was Orange blossom room spray from L’Occitane. 
It made my husband’s eyes sting. The whole house was thick with it. At one point, I was so addicted to it, that I just started spraying it all over my body even though technically it was room spray. Now I can’t get near the stuff.
Then, more recently, it was this Mexican cocoa candle by Pacifica. I’m not really a scented candle person, but this candle is insane. Makes you feel like you’re in an opium den only the drug is chocolate and somewhere someone is eating spicy, and a little bit feral, Mexican food in the barrio nearby and it’s probably Hemingway or Steinbeck or Frieda Khalo.
When I splurged and spent a night at the Park Hyatt in Milan, one bath with Laura Tonatto’s special line for that marvelous hotel had me stalking the housekeeping cart until I had a year’s supply. Two years later, I still keep an empty bottle by my bathtub just to open it up and take a whiff. And not I’m not being paid by anybody to endorse these products. Though, Signorina Tonatto, if you’d like to advertise on my blog, feel free. Especially if there are free samples involved.
And then one day last summer, I met Pimenton. It’s not just a smell, or a flavor. It’s food for the senses and the soul. It takes a simple scrambled egg and soars it toward the heavens. Throw it in the Crock Pot with your roast and…six hours later…shenendoah. Got some ground chuck and some canned beans and tomatoes? Forget chili powder—use this stuff. People will think you are an exotic gourmet. Making a lime, mango, red pepper relish for fish or grilled sweet sausages? Add a few shakes of Pimenton and you’ll feel like you just spent the afternoon in a Spanish fishing villiage. I can’t not use Pimenton. My family calls it “that thing that everything tastes like now.” I love it so much I keep it on my kitchen window sill just so I can look at it. When I travel from the small mountain town where I live, I steal into specialty food stores and stock up on the stuff like a junkie. If you’ve never tried, it, here’s what it looks like.
Here’s what I learned from a quick twirl around the internet.
About Spanish Smoked Paprika – Pimentón (taken mostly from Latienda.com )
When Ferdinand and Isabella in the monastery of Guadalupe received Christopher Columbus at the completion of his second voyage to America, they were astonished when he presented them with paprika from the New World. The biting sharpness of some of the peppers took their breath away, but that did not stop the monks from cultivating them and soon the peppers spread throughout Extremadura. But it was not until the 17th Century that pimentón, the crushed powder from the red spicy pepper began its general inclusion in Spanish cuisine.
Today the finest paprika powder in Spain is made close to the original monastery garden in the fertile alluvial soils around the Tietar River in La Vera where the climate is mild and the rain is plentiful. Here the farmers cultivate different varieties of the paprika genus Capiscum annum, each with varying degrees of pungency.
The harvest begins in the fall where entire families go out into the fields to harvest the little peppers and place them in drying houses where they are smoke-dried with oakwood which must be about five times as great as the amount of the paprika to be obtained. No other wood may be used if the genuine pimentón de la vera is to have its typical taste. The farmer has to go into the smoking house every day for two weeks to turn over the layer of peppers by hand.
Finally the peppers are milled by electrically powered stone wheels which must turn very slowly since friction heat affects the color and flavor. It comes in three varieties: sweet and mild (dulce); bittersweet medium hot (agridulce) and hot (picante) and normally keeps for two years.
The precious powder is indispensable, for many types of Spanish sausage such as chorizo and lomo pork loin. It adds the absolutely perfect taste of authenticity to paellas. It crosses into regular American cuisine as a seasoning for barbecue pork, rich beef and lamb stews, kebabs etc. Pimentón de la Vera is unique – it is only a distant cousin to the Hungarian paprika that is used for Eastern European dishes. Although it is not generally available, even in many gourmet shops, there is no substitute for use in authentic Spanish cooking.
Capsicum peppers used for paprika are unusually rich in vitamin C, a fact discovered in 1932 by Hungary’s 1937 Nobel prize-winner Albert Szent-Györgyi. Much of the vitamin C content is retained in paprika, which contains more vitamin C than lemon juice by weight.
Paprika is also high in other antioxidants, containing about 10% of the level found in açaí berries. Prevalence of nutrients, however, must be balanced against quantities ingested, which are generally negligible for spices.
And since we’re going into fall, here’s a recipie from the New York Times that I can’t wait to try:
Smoky Quick-Cooked Kale
Yield 4 servings
Time 20 minutes
Ingredients
1 1/4 pounds kale (about one bunch)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon pimentón de La Vera, preferably agridulce
1 tablespoon lime juice
salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Remove tough stems and center ribs from kale. Stack half of the leaves and roll into a cigar shape, then cut crosswise into very thin strips. Repeat with remaining leaves.
2. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until hot, then add shallot and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly softened, about 2 minutes. Add garlic and pimenton and cook, stirring frequently, until garlic is softened, about 1 minute.
3. Add kale and cook, tossing very frequently, until tender and bright green, about 5 minutes. Stir in lime juice and salt and pepper to taste.
Source: The New York Times
