This is my shortcut for salt-preserved chilies. I’m not really sure if it actually approximates salt-preserved chilies, but it does add really great spice and texture! Set aside and prepare the rest of your ingredients.

While paprika also comes from the capsicum plant, it is sweeter and milder than the hot varieties of red chili peppers. Though the paprika pepper is commonly used in Hungary and Spain, it also grows extensively in the US. Red peppers that are bright red in color when growing are typically sweeter and milder than the yellow or brown ones, which may be hotter.

Guajillo chili powder also has a reddish brown color instead of bright red, so keep this in mind if you're very particular about the resulting color of what you're preparing.

Paprika can be made from several different varietals of the chile pepper family Capsicum annuum, though the different peppers all tend to be of the relatively long, tapered kind with thinner flesh. Fat, thick-fleshed sweet peppers, like a standard Bell pepper that you’ll find in your average grocery store, often don’t dry well enough to make a ground product and are prone to mold. They are valued for their bright red color as much as--or even more than--their flavor. The American Spice Trade Association, or ASTA, came up with a scale to measure paprika's color. The ASTA score goes from 50-180; 85 is a standard-grade color value. As the numbers go up, the color of the paprika is more saturated and vibrant.