What's Cooking (Take Four)

Aleppo pepper is pul biber in Turkish. It also is flakes of a variety of dried red chile, but it has a bright red color. Urfa biber appears deep purple to black and has a distinct smoky quality. Or so says Wikipedia.

-Paul W.

Aleppo pepper is pul biber in Turkish. It also is flakes of a variety of dried red chile, but it has a bright red color. Urfa biber appears deep purple to black and has a distinct smoky quality. Or so says Wikipedia.

-Paul W.

That's the stuff. After reading the label, I realized that it definitely is not smoked, but is very dark colored.

I have that spice in my spice cabinet and have used it a few times. I'm not really a fan, but I will have to use it a little more. I prefer freshly ground three pepper blend, or white pepper. I also use red pepper flakes a lot.

I'll have to give those tomatoes a try, Karen.

Lunch today (and for the past several days) has been a slab of homemade ciabatta, sliced and drizzled with EVOO and then toasted for a bit. After that, I put a couple of thin slices of mortadella on one of the bread pieces and stick it under the broiler for a few minutes., Then some sauteed shishitos and then some mild provolone go on top and it gets put back under the broiler to melt the cheese. The other piece of ciabatta goes on top of that. It's a very tasty sandwich.

Yum, it sounds delish.

[Jenise]

I have that spice in my spice cabinet and have used it a few times. I'm not really a fan, but I will have to use it a little more. I prefer freshly ground three pepper blend, or white pepper. I also use red pepper flakes a lot.

Except to express an opinion like this, I wouldn't even put black pepper, white pepper and aleppo pepper (which is a chile) in the same sentence. They're each suited to different end results, and not interchangeable in my kitchen. I do love Aleppo pepper though. Haven't owned any in a while, because of the oily quality already mentioned it doesn't last very long. Has to be fresh.

The drupes of the pepper vine are peppercorns, which may be green (unripe), black (unripe and dried), white (ripe with skin removed) or red (ripe with skin intact). Aleppo pepper is dried and ground chile (capsicum)--completely unrelated and as Jenise said with a completely different flavor profile. Pink peppercorns are the fruit of a different plant entirely. The only thing they all have in common is tasting hot on the palate.

-Paul W.

And while we're at it... there are two ways to remove the black skin to produce white peppercorns. There is the running water method and the soaking in water method. Both work but you get a slightly different outcome. The soaked ones have a slightly fermented taste to them.

Breakfast this morning is a thick slice of a multi-grain bread, toasted with mashed avocado sprinkled with Truffle salt. A Satsuma mandarin on the side, along with my tomato juice concoction.

[Jenise]

Karen, I would happily share that breakfast with you!

Btw, funny thing just happened, I was booking a rental car and the software asked for my last night and offered up two options for me to select from: my last name and yours. HUH? Yes I recently sent you a package, but I've probably typed 1400 other last names since then. Crazy!