What's paprika good for?

I'm making home fries, asked Mr. PITA what I was missing, paprika was his answer. :eyes:
I asked why does he like it? He told me it adds color, even though I'm frying these
fries, flipping every 5 minutes, and the color will get lost, and smothered by ketchup eventually.
So I ask ya; what is paprika good for?
PS I loaded them with good ground pepper, so I'm not seeing the point.

Most paprikas are loaded with potassium, in case anyone's taking corticosteroids or diuretics.

There are so many different kinds of paprika, though. It's a real red world out there.

Look here - it's fun: http://www.fiery-foods.com/dave/profile_paprika.html

adds a kick of flavor as well as color. There are sweet paprikas and hot paprikas. The stuff in the supermarket is in the middle, but you have to know how old it is.

I use different paprikas for different things, but find I tend to like the hot more than the sweet (I do live in NM).

around Szeged lake region in Hungary. Depending on what you're using it for, you can use sweet paprika or hot paprika and it adds FAR more than just colour. Try making Chicken Paprikash, gulyas or any number of dishes without paprika and a GOOD quality at that. Here in California, it's commonly available in the spice sections of groceries and comes in red metal container with the Szeged prominently written on the outside.

First, there are two basic kinds, and you're probably talking about the Hungarian kind (comes in various degrees of sweet and hot, but that's not the "kind" I mean). It's a rather delicately flavored spice, so for full effect use it generously, like by the tablespoon. Its flavor MUST be brought out by gentle frying in oil, otherwise it's just red, but it burns quickly, so the best way to use it is to stir it in last when frying ingredients, mix with the hot oil, and turn off the heat for a couple of minutes before adding liquids, etc. The hot variety can be quite hot, so stick with the sweet unless you really like heat, or mix the two-- just using a sprinkling of hot paprika shortchanges the flavor.

The other "paprika" is smoked pimento made in Spain, and it is much stronger flavored-- use sparingly to get a taste for how much you like. But if you're buying paprika in the big red cans, it's the Hungarian kind.

...because a family member does humanitarian work in the villages of Romania and the ethnic Hungarians who live there load her up with both the powdered paprika and the tubes of paprika paste. Much more than we can use. I've got to find more recipes that will use it up. She's over there this week -- we'll have more coming home.

...anything with browned meat and onions, basically.

Besides that, you can put paprika on just about everything.

particular ingredient. You could find recipes using paprika by doing a search.

http://search.allrecipes.com/recipe/ingadv.asp

A staple of pot lucks around here, deviled eggs with a bit of paprika sprinkled on top.

of paprika!

rub for X-mas each year. Duh! I'm sure it's made primarily of paprika.

No kidding.