Featured Ingredient

Jay Williamson

Personal Chef
Seattle, Washington

Featured Ingredient

August 2008

Pimenton de la Vera

Pimenton is smoked Spanish paprika from the La Vera valley of the Extremadura region in western Spain. Pimenton is not like other paprikas, not even like other paprikas from Spain. Do not substitute pimenton into recipes that call for regular paprika. Your dish will turn out very differently. This paprika is produced by drying and smoking vine-ripened pimiento chiles when they reach maturity in the fall. This is done slowly over oak fires. It is quite an arduous process, as the peppers are hand-turned during the smoking everyday for 10-14 days. Finally, the chiles are slowly stone ground over a period of hours in a temperature-controlled stone mill.

Pimenton is one of the defining foods of Spanish cuisine, especially, of course, in its native region. Its uses include soups, stews, rice dishes (paellas), potato dishes, bean and chickpea dishes, seafood dishes, and more. Its most prevalent use in Spain is flavoring chorizo sausages. With a fine, talc-y texture, it easily dissolves into liquids. It comes in three different varieties or grades: dulce (sweet), agrodulce (bittersweet), and my favorite - picante (hot).

Pimenton is one of only two chiles with its own Denomination of Origin. This is what legally ties a certain product to a particular region and with particular product specifications. Think: wine. Nevertheless, pimenton is not particularly expensive, not much more than regular paprika. To find it online go to The Spanish Table or La Tienda.

Featured Recipe

Smoky Spanish Pork Tenderloin

INGREDIENTS

2 1-lb. pork tenderloins

4 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. sherry vinegar, preferably reserva
1 1/2 tbsp. Pimenton de la Vera, picante
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. sugar
2 medium-sized garlic cloves

Salt to taste
Oil for the grill

- Trim the large pockets of fat and the visible silverskin from the tenderloins. The silverskin is the thin, tough, white membrane that runs part of the way down the tenderloin. If you don't remove this, your pork will buckle when it cooks. Cut each tenderloin into three equal (by weight) sized portions. Set aside.
- Add the olive oil, vinegar, Pimenton, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, and garlic to a mini food processor. Process until you have a smooth runny paste. If you don't have a mini food processor, mince the garlic and whisk it together with the other marinade ingredients. Don't try to process this in a standard-sized processor or a blender - it won't work.
- Massage the marinade into the tenderloin portions. Place in a bowl or a gallon-sized freezer bag and refrigerate for at least 8 hours, preferably 24 hours. If possible, turn the pork in the marinade every few hours.
- Remove the pork from the refrigerator 1/2 hour before you start to cook. Set on a plate and season each portion on all sides with salt to taste. Cook on an outdoor grill or a grill pan to desired doneness. If you have neither of these available, roast in the oven, but in that case the pork will not come out as smoky. Serve with a Romesco sauce, a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce, or another sauce with a bit of sweetness in it that will offset the heat of the marinade. Serve with roasted potatoes.

Serves 6.

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For more ingredients and recipes, see my Ingredient Archive.

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(This dish) is also one which I served at a ten-course dinner party I once cooked in an alcoholic blackout so you can see that it is not difficult.
-Clarissa Dickson Wright, Two Fat Ladies: Full Throttle