Paprika Party

It's time to sample some of the Hungarian paprika that Simon brought me back from Vancouver. Mushrooms, meat and potatoes seem to be the common pairings with paprika, so I figured I'd try out something like that. I'll have to wait until after the year is over to recreate the Mushroom Paprikash and give it a fair shot.

My main dish was Roast Paprika Chicken. The paprika sort of worked in conjunction with the garlic and pepper, rather than being the star of the show. Still, I did find it noticeable. Shoving garlic cloves under the skin really infused the meat with a roasted garlic flavor. Shoving onions into its cavity didn't hurt either. I really wish I had a rotisserie, because I think that would've made this even better, assuming the onions didn't fall out and catch fire.

To showcase the flavor of paprika, I made Paprika Potatoes, which was basically paprika, sour cream and potatoes. I thought this was delicious, and definitely helped determine the difference between Hungarian paprika and whatever bland powder I normally ended up with. "Real" paprika is kind of smoky and spicy, especially compared to the typical store bought stuff, which is more like unnoticeably flavored red chalk. I'm not sure the difference is so extreme that paprika is going to go from ho-hum spice rack filler to one of my favorites, but I can definitely see it as being a worthwhile addition now. Perhaps more experimenting will change my tone on that altogether. I added a simple green salad to the plate for a bit of color contrast and because the crisp greens and vinegar helped to cleanse my palette between the 2 paprika flavors. Plus, more vegetables.