Paprika: a few great uses

Paprika is something of an underrated ingredient, at least in the U.S.  Sure, a lot of recipes call for it, but usually as a garnish (like with potato salad) or to add a rich reddish color.  It seems that many people cannot even identify that paprika is a type of pepper because it's too frequently purchased on the cheapest end of the scale imaginable.  Some folks don't even know that paprika has a flavor, it seems.  It's "just what you put on top of deviled eggs and potato salad."  That's a myth, it's sad, and it's perpetuated by the ready accessibility in many grocery stores of huge volumes of cheap, dull, almost flavorless red powders they call paprika for ridiculously low prices (so low that they should probably scare people off).

Good paprika tends to come in small steel cans, although sometimes its found in glass bottles, and it tends to have a vibrantly red color.  It isn't terribly cheap and is frequently imported (some of the best paprika is Hungarian paprika, in fact).  Once you go out and get some better paprika (e.g. Mas Portell), always available at upscale grocers like The Fresh Market and Earth Fare, among other places, you can try the following ideas for using it:

• Add it to scrambled eggs, particularly the smoked kind, extra particularly if you're lucky enough to find or make some chilpotle pepper flakes as well;
• Every time you fry potatoes or make home fries, paprika should go in;
• Mix it into your burgers, especially the bittersweet smoked paprika, for an almost unbeatable taste;
• Rub it liberally all over your steaks or chicken before grilling or baking them;
• Mix it into some hummus or at least garnish your hummus with it -- very nice;
• Make Chicken paprika, the recipe on the link by world-famous celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck, courtesy of the Food Network;
• Mix it with some mayonnaise to make a delicious sandwich spread -- amp this up by adding a dash of your favorite hot sauce too;
• Add a little of it to homemade pasta dough for a great, if interesting, flavor that accompanies meaty ragouts very well;
• Make some rocking potato salad or deviled eggs and put it on top! (This had to be here, didn't it?)  You'll be stunned at the difference you get as compared with the cheap stuff.

Paprika isn't just for color or presentation.  It's downright delicious! 

Buy it locally!  Great smoked and sweet paprika are available at The Fresh Market stores, two of which are in Knoxville.  Also, check the small but often worthwhile gourmet foods section in your local T.J. Maxx store.  Often enough, delicious ingredients (including these paprikas, the aforementioned chipotle flakes, and many nice oils, vinegars, syrups, and extracts) are available there for a lower price than at your favorite upscale grocer.

For the recipe shown in the photo above and many others, visit the author's personal cooking blog, The Untrained Gourmet.  The recipe pictured above can be found here; and another great use involving potatoes here.