Pepper Paste - The Secret Ingredient

via Turkey-in-photos.com

I found some really nice eggplant today at the store, so I'm going to make some dolmas for my dh, since it's his birthday. It got me to thinking (the dolmas - not the birthday) about the secret ingredient. Well, actually there are a couple secret ingredients, but one I can't omit is the Turkish pepper paste. Yummy stuff, I tell you.

In the villages around Mersin, women dry their peppers on a string in the sun. Then they add salt and put them though a mill, whole. Sometimes they're dried on a sheet in the fields. I buy a commercial variety in a jar which isn't quite the same, but works better than not having any at all. I get it where I get all my other Turkish stuff, on Tulumba.com.

So I'm off to stuff some eggplants... check these sites out for more ideas.

Turkish Hot Pepper Paste - Biber Salcasi

Turkish pepper paste: Magic in a bottle