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Turkish pepper paste
Curing, processing and drying food under sun to prepare so-called value-added food products is a very old, generational tradition in Turkey, like in many other cultures that wrote the agricultural code. In Turkey, this practice is still a common part of homesteading, with the main goal being to preserve summer flavors and use these products in cooking throughout winter and spring, until the next growing season arrives.
Although the history of pepper and tomato is only about 250 years old in Turkey, both of these crops are commonly used for cooking as communities incorporated them into their traditional recipes in various ways across the country. One common way of processing these vegetables is to make paste out of them.
In this post, we wanted to summarize the steps to explain how we make pepper paste on our farm.
Step 1: Choosing the right pepper
We typically choose a pepper variety such as Yağlık 28 to make sweet pepper paste and Kale or Pul Biberlik Antep to make hot pepper paste not only because we tested these varieties over and over again to deliver excellent results, but also their fruit size and flesh yield, thanks to the fruits’ wall thickness, are ideal for pepper paste recipes.
Step 2: Saving seeds first and cleaning the fruit shells
Once we harvest seeds from our pepper crop to process and offer them in our catalog, we keep the leftover fruits, cut the stem, remove spoiled parts of the fruits, if any, and thoroughly wash the shells.
Next, we thoroughly wash the fruits, making sure that there is no dirt left on the shells. We use this large, 20 qt. stainless steel bowl to wash the fruits.
Step 3: Blending the shells to make pulp
Then, we toss all of the shells into a 6-cup smoothie blender to blend them into pulp and run this pulp through a large colander into the bowl we have to remove left over coarse, fibrous parts and fruit skin.
Step 4: Drying the pulp
Finally, we pour the sieved pulp in the bowl into a shallow tray. At this stage, it is important to use a tray with a large surface area and shallow depth to make it easier for the pulp to evenly lose moisture and to gain paste texture.
Make sure to evenly spread the pulp over the tray and mix it 3-4 times a day. One of the important things to remember is to check the weather channel and make sure to make your paste in a sunny and dry week since the entire process needs to be completed outside. In addition, you can use cheese cloth to cover the tray and prevent dust particle or bugs to get stuck in your paste.
If you know that it will rain at any point during the curing process, you can also move the tray into your oven which was pre-heated to 175F for the pulp to eventually reach paste consistency.
As you keep stirring the pulp for 2-3 days, you will notice that it becomes more solid as the sun removes the moisture in it.
Step 5: Bottling the paste
Finally, remove the pepper paste from the tray to preserve it in a mason jar. As you may have noticed, we did not add any preservatives to the paste. If you would like to, you can add 1 tablespoons of salt to 2 lbs of pulp on Day 1 of drying the pulp.
We love to spread this paste on bread for snacking. It is delicious! We also love to cook all sorts of stews with it. Let us know in the comment section below if you have any questions or how you would like to use the pepper paste you make.
We are also adding links to some of our favorite seeds in our catalog that make great pepper paste below. Check them out! Bon appétit!
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Sweet Pepper Seeds, Yağlık 28
$3.50Add to cartRated 4.70 out of 5Staple Turkish sweet pepper used for making paste and sauces. Very productive, tall plants. Juicy and large fruits with thick walls. Great performer in open field conditions.
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