Lecho is one of the most popular snacks that our compatriots close for the winter. The dish has Bulgarian roots. Bulgaria is famous for good harvests of vegetables, especially for sweet peppers. He is the main ingredient lecho, which is a piece of pepper in tomato sauce. The use of other vegetables does not provide for a classic recipe for this dish, although many housewives are used to adding onions, carrots, and eggplants to it. This makes the appetizer richer, resembling a salad, but many gourmets believe that the most delicious lecho remains in its modest original form, when it consists of only tomatoes and peppers. If you want to make lecho in Bulgarian for the winter, it is better to limit yourself to the minimum number of components.
Cooking Features
Many hostes cook lecho, and each snack has its own taste. This is due to many factors: the ratio of the main ingredients, the use of different seasonings and spices, the nuances of cooking technology, variety and degree of ripeness of vegetables. The result will meet your expectations if you take into account a number of points when preserving lecho.
- For lecho, it is better to take ripe and fleshy tomatoes, peppers. If the pulp in the vegetables is small, then the yield of the finished dish will be much less than expected, and almost only one skin will remain from the pepper as a result of the heat treatment.
- It is undesirable to peppers be subjected to long-term heat treatment, they can be boiled for no more than 15 minutes, otherwise the skin will peel off, which will negatively affect the taste of the finished dish. If you intend to cook thick lecho, you can reduce the tomato sauce to the desired consistency before adding the pepper.
- Tomato sauce for lecho can be cooked in different ways: turn the tomatoes through a meat grinder, smash with a blender, rub through a sieve, or just cut and cut into small pieces. The taste of the snack will depend on the crushing of the tomatoes. The most delicate texture allows you to get the mashing tomato pulp through a sieve, the most juicy sauce with pieces of vegetables can be obtained by refusing to use kitchen appliances.
- It is advisable to peel the tomatoes before chopping, then the appetizer will have a more refined taste.
- Many housewives prefer not to use green pepper for cooking lecho and are limited to red and orange, considering that green vegetables make the appetizer less aesthetic and spoil its taste, giving the bitter taste unusual for it. If saving for you is not too important, it is advisable to follow their example.
- Banks for lecho should be sterilized, lids should be boiled. You can use metal covers of any type (screw and under the key seaming), so long as they are intact and provide tightness.
Lecho in Bulgarian is prepared without sterilization in cans, therefore it should be cooked for at least 15 minutes. The longer you cook the vegetables, the less you need to add to the vinegar preparation. There are recipes to do without him.
The classic recipe for Bulgarian lecho in the winter
Composition (4 liters):
- Bulgarian pepper - 3 kg;
- tomatoes - 2 kg;
- vegetable oil - 0, 25 l;
- sugar - 0, 2 kg;
- salt - 40 g;
- Table vinegar (9 percent) - 100 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Peppers remove seeds from them by removing the stem. Each fruit cut lengthwise into 4-6 parts, then cut the resulting strips across into 2-3 parts.
- Wash the tomatoes. Notch crosswise on the side opposite the stem. Dip in boiling water, after 2-3 minutes, catch the fruits with a slotted spoon and transfer to a container filled with cold water. When the vegetables have cooled, peel them off.
- Cut a tomato seal around the stalk. Crush pulp with a blender or cut into cubes no larger than 1.5 cm.
- Place the tomato pulp in a thick-bottomed pot. Dip the prepared pieces of pepper into it.
- Put on a slow fire, bring to a boil.
- Pour sugar and salt, pour in oil. Stir.
- Allow the snack to boil for 10-12 minutes. Pour in vinegar, mix.
- Boil the lecho for 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Sterilize the jars and their lids.
- Spread leco on the banks, tightly close them, turn them over, cover with a blanket. Leave to cool in a steam bath for additional preservation.
An appetizer made according to this recipe is well worth it at room temperature. The minimum shelf life is one year.
Bulgarian Bulgarian Lecho with Garlic
Composition (4 liters):
- Bulgarian pepper - 2, 5 kg;
- tomatoes - 2, 5 kg;
- garlic - 8 cloves;
- sugar - 100 g;
- salt - 40 g;
- refined vegetable oil - 60 ml;
- table vinegar (9 percent) - 80 ml.
Method of preparation:
- Wash tomatoes, dry with a napkin, cut into slices, and pass through a meat grinder.
- Peppers free from seeds, remove their stems.
- Cut the pepper into squares of about 1.5-2 cm.
- Pass the garlic through the press.
- Pour the tomato puree into a saucepan, mix it with salt, sugar, butter.
- Put on a slow fire. Wait until the tomato mass boils, boil it for 5 minutes.
- Add the prepared pepper, wait for the pot contents to boil again, cook for 10 minutes.
- Add garlic and vinegar, mix. Continue cooking for 3-4 minutes.
- Spread the hot lecho on sterilized cans, hermetically cork.
- Leave to cool upside down under a blanket for better preservation.
After cooling, the billet can be stored in the pantry or any other place where you used to store supplies for the winter.
Bulgarian Bulgarian lecho for the winter without vinegar
Composition (2 liters):
- tomatoes - 3 kg;
- Bulgarian pepper - 1 kg;
- sugar - 60 g;
- salt - 20 g;
- spices - to taste.
Method of preparation:
- Cut the tomatoes into slices, then simmer until they give out so much juice that they are almost completely submerged.
- Allow the tomato mass to cool slightly, wipe through a sieve.
- Place the tomato puree in a saucepan, heat over low heat until boiling and boil, stirring occasionally, until the volume of tomato puree is halved.
- Add sugar and salt, mix.
- Pepper, cleared of seeds, cut into thick quarters of rings.
- Add pepper and spices to tomato paste. Boil the pepper for 15 minutes.
- Spread over sterilized jars. Roll them up.
- Turning over, wrap the banks. Leave to cool in this form.
Store canned food prepared according to this recipe in a cool room, because they were closed without using vinegar.
The Bulgarian lecho is a tasty, moderately savory, bright-looking snack, which many of our compatriots close for the winter. There are several options for this preparation, so that every cook will be able to choose a recipe for food that meets his preferences.
