Did you know that you can make paprika powder at home? You can, but it will take you several months to complete the process. If you don’t have the patience, you can simply fry your chilis in olive oil with a little garlic. But if you’re game for making your own paprika spice, here’s how to do it:

Chiles need to be dried in arid, hot shade. Drying in the sun bleaches away color. Heat adds an almost cooked aroma to the chilis, and humidity is the enemy.

Once chilis are completely dried, making the powder consists of breaking the peppers into pieces small enough to jam into a spice grinder. Remove the seeds first. The grinding takes a few steps, because you always get a a few pieces that don’t want to grind. Keep sifting the bits through a fine-mesh sieve until you get an even powder.

That’s it! Store in a spice jar and it will last as long as store-bought paprika powder (and taste much better)!

Adapted from: Hunter, Angler, Gardner, Cook