The pantry staple to transform your cooking style – San Diego Union-Tribune

By Eric Kim

The New York Times

Growing up in an Armenian household in Santa Clara, Levon Minassian remembers trips to the spice shop in the Middle East where his parents would buy Aleppo pepper, the mild, fruity red chili flakes named after the Syrian city, to use in a variety of dishes at home . The crimson powder was taken from large bins and decanted into bags and hauled home. It was sprinkled over labneh, baba ghanoush and soups, with every pinch of sunlight a burst.

Now, as the founder of Firetongue farmsAbout 50 kilometers south of Santa Cruz, Minassian, 34, grows fresh Aleppo peppers and many other chili varieties, dries them and processes them into flakes. Right now his Aleppos are green, but soon they will be red, sun-dried and ground, fragrant with the sweetness of time.

Like Aleppos (also known as Halaby peppers), many of the world’s tastiest dried red chili powders and flakes belong to the species Capsicum annuum, a plant with many varieties and what the chef and food historian Maricel Presilla calls in her book ‘Peppers of America’, “both the greatest world traveler of all peppers and the one that comes in the most incredibly diverse forms.” These include jalapeños, cayenne peppers and bell peppers.

Do you know what else belongs to this pepper group? Gochugaru, the sweet, fragrant Korean chili flakes that dye kimchi red; togarashi, a bright orange chili powder from Japan; fruity, moderately spicy Espelette pepper, named after a French municipality and common in Basque cuisine; ground chipotle, jalapeños that have been dried and smoked; paprika, which comes in many styles, but mainly sweet, hot and smoked; and more.

By looking at chili peppers not just by heat level but also by flavor, we curious home cooks who like to linger in the kitchen can wander into a world of culinary possibilities. So my question to you is: What’s in your pepper stash?

There’s nothing wrong with the pizza shop red pepper flake shaker—the one next to the oregano and Parmesan—but it’s just one color on a spectrum of chili possibilities. The fun of cooking with dried chili peppers is mixing and matching. Why paint gray when you have access to a full palette of brilliant colors?

Ultimately, it all comes down to preference. “Do you want it sweet or do you want it hot or do you want it red or do you want it yellow?” said Ethan Frisch, founder and CEO of Jute & barrela company that sells single-origin spices.

For Frisch, 37, who has purchased several red peppers from the Minassian farm for Burlap & Barrel, every dried chili flake has a story: As with coffee and wine, terroir is a key determinant of a chili’s ultimate flavor. “It won’t be long before Chile starts to evolve to meet the demands of the local climate,” he said. “And that of course changes the taste and is of course also shaped by human interest.”

As an example, James Dong, an old friend from high school, recently gave me a plastic resealable sandwich bag of Korean red chili peppers he had grown in Georgia (from seeds he bought on Etsy), which he had smoked and crushed himself to to make gochugaru. His chili flakes had the same red sheen and jammy flavor as those from Asia, but the smoking process had given them the scent of Mexican chipotles. The burning perfume was so strong that I felt like I was carrying a flame. I reached into that bag to spread on all kinds of meals throughout the month, but the best use for it was in this tomato sauce.

Whichever pepper you choose, this recipe makes the most of the flavor and heat of Capsicum annuum and celebrates its journey. Using a mix of dried chili flakes and accepting that it’s okay to have more than one in your pantry (they all taste so different!) leads to exciting results.

This recipe, an homage to Marcella Hazan’s famous tomato sauce, lets you switch up the order: first, the butter is melted, allowing a generous tablespoon or two of your favorite blend of chili powder and flakes to bloom to bring out their fruity heat. . Instead of red pepper flakes made by a childhood friend, you can use regular gochugaru, Aleppo pepper, or even togarashi, among other things, along with a little smoked paprika, to mimic the explosive flavor that smoking gives wonderful red chili peppers.

Ultimately, dried chili peppers have so much to offer besides their spiciness. All it takes is a little playful tinkering in the kitchen to bring out those coveted qualities.

Spicy pizza sauce

A tribute to the famous Marcella Hazan tomato sauce, this version switches up the order: first the butter is melted, allowing it to then bloom a generous tablespoon or two of chili flakes to bring out their fruity heat. Any kind will work, but what this recipe can teach you is how to mix and match different chili powders to find exactly the flavor you’re craving at any given time. Because ultimately, chili peppers have so much flavor and so much nuance, in addition to their spiciness. Use this universal red sauce for pizza, pasta, sandwiches and everything in between.

Makes about 1 quart

INGREDIENTS

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 to 2 tablespoons red chili powder or flakes (any mix of gochugaru, togarashi, Aleppo pepper, Espelette pepper, and red pepper flakes, plus 1 teaspoon smoked paprika)

1 (28 ounce) can whole plum tomatoes, crushed with your hands

1 large red or yellow onion, quartered lengthwise and peeled

1 (square inch) Parmesan zest

Salty

1 teaspoon sugar (optional)

DIRECTIONS

1: Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat, then add the chili powder and stir until fragrant, just a few seconds (be careful not to burn the chilies). Add the tomatoes, along with 1/2 cup of water swishing around the can to catch any clinging sauce. Stir in the onion, Parmesan rind, 1 teaspoon salt and the sugar, if using.

2: Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Partially cover the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thick and jammy, about 45 minutes. Discard or eat the onion. Discard the crust. Taste and add more salt or sugar if necessary.

3: Use it immediately or store it in a tightly sealed container. The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for up to 5 days (and is even easier to cook with when it’s cold).

Recipe by Eric Kim.