Ñoras - Dried Peppers by La Dalia

Ñora peppers (also known as pimiento choricero) are a small, round, intense and sweet-fleshed red bell pepper that is always used dry, to add flavor to stews, cocidos or soups. It may also be an ingredient in some chorizo sausages.

In Spanish cuisine they are much more commonly used than chili peppers. They lend a wonderfully earthy taste to many rice dishes, such as paella and arroz a banda, where they lend their distinctive flavor.

Most of all, they are essential to one of the most outstanding dishes of Spanish cuisine: Bacalao a la Vizcaína -- Baked Cod, Basque Style.

To prepare the ñoras remove their stems and seeds and either add directly to a dish scraping off the softened flesh and discarding the skin, or soak in warm water about 15 minutes, then add the flesh. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

This shatterproof jar contains approximately 25 peppers, with a net weight of about 3.5 ounces.