The extraordinary and complex flavor is an elusive quality that is worth searching and striving for. In cooking one of the most commonly used spices are dry ground peppers. As a majority of home cooks over the years I habitually used pre-made ground pepper spice without giving it much thought. The meals were always decent and tasty and I did not give it any further consideration. At least not when it comes to assessing the role of this spice. At first look it would make you think that is pretty much it and as good as it gets. Beyond these boundaries is “no mans land” and likely it would take an extraordinary effort and skill to make it much better. It ain’t so.
For starters it is logical and obvious that freshly made spices should make a difference. When it comes to cooking everything makes a difference, every single component. As a rule nothing can be simply omitted, ignored or substituted. Cooking process is like a set of fine design principles. To make it perfect (or nearly perfect) you don’t have to have all principles employed, but the more of them you have covered the greater are your chances of success.
To be sure I tested it and was wowed with the impressive difference in results. The best of all, although counterinuitive it didn’t take much of an effort.
The fact is that dried chili peppers over time loose their aroma and heat strength. That initially might seem as marginal and insignificant, but as with many other things it is so until you put it to test and find otherwise. Chef Greg Easter published 3 volumes of cookbook titled “Cooking in Russia”. In Volume 1 he addressed a subject of home dried chili peppers. Being curious as I am, I oven dried Serrano chili hot peppers and Super Shepard sweet peppers. That was my opportunity to first hand experience the difference from commercial ground peppers. The difference is astonishing! Even just smell of oven dried peppers is delicious! As chef Easter stated; the difference in flavor could be compared with ground pepper siting in the shaker for five years and pepper you just ground yourself from peppercorns. It is easy to loose sight that there is more to flavor than simple sweetness or heat that we are accustomed to from commercially made ground peppers. Home dried peppers have that added rich dept of flavor that will make your dish extraordinary.
I don’t know why I did not think of this earlier since I am coming from country with a long culinary tradition, that includes abundant use of fresh and dry peppers in the recipes. Ground paprika is a vital spice in Balkan cuisine and southern Serbia is a hot bed of pepper growers. Everybody, even people living in cities air dry their peppers by keeping them hanged in the shade on their balconies. Freshly dried whole or ground peppers are also readily available at the local farmers markets. These are pictures from our visit last year:
The whole process of drying peppers at home is extremely simple and satisfying. Canada’s cold climate makes it more difficult to air dry but you can do it any time in the kitchen oven. All it takes is to put washed and dried peppers straight on a oven wire rack, placed in the middle of the oven, set the temperature at 93ºC (200 ºF) for conventional oven that I have, or 79ºC (175 ºF) for convection oven with fan assist on. Leave it overnight and in the morning take a rack out and let the peppers cool off for about an hour. If peppers are dry and brittle, they are done. If some of peppers are leathery or soft put them back in the oven for a few more hours.
Store dried peppers in a sealed container and keep in the fridge for as long as needed. Over time their flavor profile will gradually improve by developing additional complex aromas.
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