Durham House Peanut Bisque
10 servings

Ingredient
1/2 cup celery, chopped
1/2 cup onion, chopped
6 tbl unsalted butter
3 tbl flour
4 1/2 cups strong chicken stock
1 cup creamy peanut butter
2 1/2 cups half-and-half
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 tsp sweet paprika
3 dsh Tabasco sauce
Instructions: Saute the celery and onion in the butter in a skillet until tender.

Transfer to a blender container. Process until smooth. Pour the vegetable mixture into a large saucepan.

Add the flour, stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Cook over medium heat until blended, stirring constantly.

Whisk in the chicken stock gradually. Cook until the mixture begins to boil and thicken, whisking
Constantly.

Stir in the peanut butter, half-and-half, salt, pepper, paprika and Tabasco sauce.

Ladle into soup bowls. Garnish with chopped chives.

"Note:
The Durham House was Waxahachie's finest restaurant for many years. A beautiful Victorian
home a couple of blocks from the town square housed this institution, and back in the 1980s
limousines would line up outside the house bringing hungry customers from miles around. The
Durham House closed several years ago, but one of our dear friends and great customers, Mary Jo
Blaine, gave me their famous recipe for Peanut Bisque. She said the owners gave it to her as a
wedding gift when she and her husband held their rehearsal dinner there. "

If possible, please forward..

I worked at the Durham House through High School and occasionally when I was home from college and still think often of Bob, Jerry, Louise and all of the various personalities that came through. Truly a wonderful place with wonderful people.

Paprika

Paprika Facts
Paprika History
Production of Hungarian Paprika
Hungarian Paprika Types
Where to Buy Hungarian Paprika
Cooking Tips
Common Paprika Dishes
Wine Recommendation

Hungarian Paprika Facts

*
Paprika powder is produced by grinding the dried deep red paprika pods of the pepper plant (Capsicum annum L. is the botanical name)

* Although paprika is the syambol of Hungary's cuisine the plant was brought to the country by the Turks only in the 16-17th centuries.

* its pungency ranges from sweet to mildly hot and very hot, depending of the type of pepper the powder was produced. The colour of the spices varies from mild to bright red and there are papika powder types with brownish colour too.

* Note that not the brightest red paprika is the hottest!
The orange coloured one will make you really cry.

* the hotness is caused by capsaicin, a chemical that is extracted from paprika plants to use in pharmaceutical production due to its pan killer effect

* The fresh red pepper is rich in vitamin C (150mg/100g paprika) and other important minerals

* Albert Szent-Györgyi, Hungarian scientist was awarded the Noble prize in 1937 for discovering vitamin C, its anti-scorbuitc and other physiological effects.
He and his colleagues worked at the laboratory of the Szeged University. Szent-Györgyi and his collegues experimented with the paprika plant and they extracted vitamin C first in the world form the vegetable.

* Would you think that even pálinka (brandy) is made from paprika?

History of Hungarian Paprika

The Turks introduced the pepper plant to Hungary during their rule in the 16th-17th centuries.

At first it was regarded and used as an ordinary plant and decorated the gardens.

Sheperds and herdsmen who had more contact with the invaders started spice their meals with the fiery powder.

Then paprika got to the kitchens of the peasants.

Aristocrats found the peasant foods flavoured with the red spice very tasty and slowly they started to use paprika too.

By the 19th century paprika became a dominant spice in Hungarian kitchens and restaurants.
Production of Hungarain Paprika

Due to the favourable climate and geographical conditions Hungarian paprika has a bright red colour and a distinctive rich flavour that allowed Hungary to became one of the leading paprika producers in the world.

Kalocsa and Szeged in the southern part of Hungary are the heart of paprika production in Hungary. These regions have the highest amount of sunny hours a year and paprika plants need lots of sunshine to get ripe and sweet.

Riped peppers are harvested in September. Kalocsa, Szeged and the neighbouring villages are adorned with bright red, threaded paprika strings, hung from the fencesa and porches.

Paprika

The farmers used to hung the paprika string in a rainproof area and let them desiccate by the sunshine then dried them in earthenware ovens.

Today the fresh peppers are dried artifically in ovens.

The dried pods were crushed by foot then ground into a fine powder using a mortar and a pestle.

Water mills and later steam-powered mills replaced the manual kulu towards the end of he 19th century.

During the first decades of paprika production the pungency of the powder couldn't be controlled.

The pepper's veins and seeds that contain the capsaicin responsible for its pungency were manually removed from the dried, crushed pods prior to grinding.

Not only the process was lenghty, but some capsaicin always remained in the pods which made it impossible to predict the hotness of the powder.

In the mid 1800ies the Palfy brothers from Szeged invented an efficient way to remove the veins and seeds thus enabling mass-market production of the sweet Hungarian paprika that has always had a larger market than the hot types.

Paprika

Ferenc Horváth and Jenő Obermayer form Kalocsa developed the first non-pungent pepper variety in the world through cross-breeding.

This pepper type is sweet and there's no need to remove the veins and seeds.

Today automatic machines do everything from sorting, washing, grinding to packaging.

Many farmers make paprika powder at home to this day, especially in the villages in the Great Plain.

Types of Hungarian paprika

In the shops you can find 8 brands of Hungarian paprika varying in colour and pungency:

1. Special quality (Különleges) - this is the mildest of all paprikas and has the most vibrant red colour
2. Delicate (csípősmentes csemege)-mild paprika with rich flavour,
3. Excuisite delicate (csemege paprika) –slightly more pungent than the Delicate,
4. Pungent Excuisite delicate (csípős csemege), even more pungent
5. Noble sweet (édesnemes) – the most common type, slightly pungent with bright red colour,
6. Half-sweet (félédes) – a medium-pungent paprika
7. Rose (rózsa) – light red colour, mildly pungent
8. Hot (erős) – the hottest of all paprikas, light brown-orange colour

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It is so wonderful to see the continued interest and the wonderful shared memories that so many of us have about the Durham House.

I was by the house just a few sort months ago and it stands as proud as ever.

I enjoyed many meals there throughout the life of the restaurant, entertaining business associates and friends alike with the fabulous food and the impeccable service.

Tonight the idea hit me to try to recreate the bisque for supper. I was surprised and gratified to find this site.