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Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
Buying chilli powder in Spain
Some time ago I sent friends in Córdoba some chilli powder from California, along with a recipe for chilli, which they like.
Now they need to buy some more powder, and apparently it's a problem in Spain: the one product amazon.es has looks like crap, and amazon.co.uk won't ship out of the country. I found an online Mexican food shop in Madrid, but they don't appear to stock it, and an e-mail got no response.
So I'm wondering if anyone might possibly know of anywhere, in Córdoba or online, to try?
Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Escribano)
I’m currently working my way through a bunch of chilli recipe books I got out of the library. An interesting one was the recipe that included 1½ cups of tequila; but so far I haven’t found one to beat our default recipe, which is in The Spicy Food Lover’s Bible (Cincinnati Chile, minus the specified carbs, i.e. beans and spaghetti (!)).
We realise of course that using chilli powder is a compromise; but at least we try to get quality powder
Chilli powder appears to be chile en polvo, but a Spanish friend tells me it is pimentón picante. However, my (Cassell’s) dictionary tells me the latter means cayenne pepper…
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
quote:
P.S. What is pimentón de la Vera? Paprika again?
pimentón de la Vera is smoked paprika from La Vera, and its simply wonderful. all other smoked paprika, in comparison, is just red powder its usually available in 3 varieties sweet, hot and bittersweet (although I cant find bittersweet in the uk)
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
sounds like your friends have it sorted, but the grocery store in the basement of the corte ingles has a small mexican section, with some of the larger american tex-mex brands; i haven't checked it for chili powder, but i bet it's there.
you may already know this, but ... chili powder is not paprika or cayenne, but is most commonly made (in prepackaged chili powder) from dried new mexican red chiles, or secondly ancho chiles, with some other spices like cumin and garlic.
both chiles are more like paprika in that they have very little heat, so you can use a whole lot of them in making chili. if you made a chili powder with that same amount of cayenne it would blow your roof off!
Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to hhmusic)
quote:
if you made a chili powder with that same amount of cayenne it would blow your roof off!
I was just thinking that: I’ve been reading a recipe book that says ¼ cup of chilli powder or cayenne, and I thought, You’ve got to be joking: there has to be a translation problem somewhere.
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
The problem that the Spanish dont generally eat spicey food and what they call here "picante" is to my taste very mild. They consider peppercorns and mustard picante. The Pimenton picante is a mild chili by most standards. To make any flavour you have to add a lot of powder.
If you live near the costa del sol or near Benidorm it is easy to find Hot chili powder or even fresh chili from the English/asian supermarkets. In Malaga I found that you could buy pretty decent Chili powder from the municipal market where you could buy every dried herb and spice you could think of. Even there, the hottest chili powder was only just hot enough for my taste. Its not something widely available and in the interior of Spain you will find it only in the provincial cities.
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Pimientito)
As an alternative, I'd recommend keeping a chilli plant on your windowsill in Spain. I've had in the UK for a while and it gives out of a fair number of chillis.
My favourite Chilli powder is the Kashmiri variety, not the hottest but it has a great flavour.
Posts: 6441
Joined: Jul. 6 2003
From: England, living in Italy
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Paul Magnussen)
Having lived in Spain and England and spent some time in Mexico, the best chiles are from Mexico and England (believe it or not). Spanish generally hate curries and chili.
Posts: 1809
Joined: Nov. 8 2010
From: London (living in the Bay Area)
RE: Buying chilli powder in Spain (in reply to Escribano)
quote:
The problem that the Spanish dont generally eat spicey food and what they call here "picante" is to my taste very mild.
quote:
Spanish generally hate curries and chili.
Indeed: my friends in Córdoba must be freaks.
But spicy food is also, to a certain extent, an acquired taste. I got into it at university, where the man who could order and finish the hottest curry was the best man (childish, I know, but what are your university years for, after all?)
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