Zzz: May 15, 2008

Note to self #61: Someone with a plainly Asian name living in France is likely originally from Vietnam or Cambodia.

Sugar Snap Peas Paprikash

I've been industriously using up the spare ingredients for the shepherd's pie I made last week, which mostly means I've been cooking a lot of stir-fry with celery and carrots. Along the way I also dug into the bag of dried mild peppers I'd picked up somewhere years ago. On the weekend I did the usual routine of reconstituting them by simmering them in water for a while.

On Tuesday I was bored at the prospect of doing all that again, and just stuck them in the spice grinder. I hadn't known until a few days ago that paprika was ground up dried peppers, and the result looked superficially similar. It didn't quite taste the same, but it was still good.

Filling out the recipe was a bunch of sugar snap peas, since I also bought a bag of them 2 weeks ago and want to use them up before they turn to white fuzz. So far I've tried my standard stir-fry spices and herbs of pepper, dried chilies, garlic, and ginger, and this time I also tried the neopaprika and some five spice powder. The result was interesting but not quite right. I think I'd better just crack open Joy of Cooking and Chinese Vegetarian Cookery and see what they suggest.

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