Bulgarian sweet pepper can be eaten both raw and cooked. Like the related chili pepper, sweet varieties are sometimes dried and ground. Such powdered spice of non-volatile varieties is called paprika. Although in Hungarian culinary practice, where paprika has become particularly widespread, there is also a sharp burning paprika, which includes pepper seeds containing burning capsaicin. All kinds of paprika are added to dishes to give them varying degrees of spice and special flavors. In addition, paprika is often used as a dye in the manufacture of sausage and other meat products. Peppers of any color are used for food, but when selecting fruits, it should be taken into account that green (unripe) and purple vegetables have a slightly bitter taste, and red, orange and yellow have sweeter, almost fruity “notes”.
How to Cook with Bell Pepper?
Sweet peppers perfectly complement fried meat dishes, go well with stewed pork and chicken. In real French ratatouille, Hungarian and Bulgarian lecho, Hungarian goulash and paprikash, Turkish gyuveche, sweet pepper is one of the important ingredients. Fruits baked in the oven or on a charcoal grill acquire a particularly expressive aroma and taste. Fresh and pickled peppers get along harmoniously with scrambled eggs and omelette.
How to Choose and Store Sweet Bell Peppers?
When choosing sweet pepper, preference should be given to hard-to-the-touch fruits of bright color with glossy, dry and smooth skin without damaged areas (without dark putrefactive spots and cracks). On yellow peppers, spots of red, green or orange colors are acceptable, on orange – red or yellow. Bright spotting, as a rule, will indicate incomplete ripening of fruits, although such peppers can be bought. The peduncle from which the fruit is torn off should not be dried or black. Its drying is a sign of long–term storage, and the moisture content of the skin around the “tail” is a sign of the beginning of rotting. Regardless of the degree of ripening, it is better to keep pepper in the refrigerator, but at the same time, unripe fruits (at the stage of technical maturity), when stored for up to 2-3 months, are first placed in a relatively warm compartment of the refrigerator (about +10 ° C), and then, after acquiring a bright uniform color skin, they are moved to a cold compartment (0-1 °C).
Peppers already ripe at the time of purchase are placed in the cold compartment immediately. They are packed in plastic bags or placed in trays lined with crumpled porous paper to absorb excess moisture and create air pockets that provide ventilation. To preserve Bulgarian pepper until the next season, freezing in the freezer is used. To do this, the pepper is washed, the stalk and seeds are removed, and then dried well. You can freeze whole cups by inserting them into each other, as well as sliced fruits. But it should be borne in mind that even in frozen form, pepper gradually, albeit slowly, loses its flavor.
Delicious salad! In our family – a favorite! For any holiday, there is no doubt about which salad to cook. The amount of ingredients I have turned out to be enough for a decent bowl, so you can safely halve it.
Everyone is used to the fact that a strudel is necessarily a baked roll. I want to convince you of this. Perhaps in the original it is, but not in this case. I suggest you try a very tasty and hearty dish consisting of strudel with cheese and potatoes.
A very tasty and spicy salad with an oriental flavor. Original and simple at the same time. An interesting, original and new taste for me. Light, but quite satisfying, fresh, crispy, juicy.
I needed to cook something very, very fast. I found a couple of smoked chicken legs in the refrigerator, leafed through an old book to write down recipes, remembering that there was something suitable there.
My family is used to me often cooking things that I don’t expect to see on the table. Therefore, this time I decided to approach the white chicken fillet in a special way, with the idea that it should turn out juicy and without roasting. Well, vegetables are always a great addition to any meat or poultry!
Juicy and tender strudel with chicken fillet, vegetables and dill – this snack will perfectly fit into any New Year’s table. A separate advantage is that you can cook this dish the day before, and bake it before serving or even just reheat it.
Salad with shrimp, vegetables, cheese and crunchy crackers. Interesting, original, beautiful, quite easy and delicious. This salad will look good on the festive table.
