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.
I offer another option of delicious meat hot. Tender pieces of pork in a velvety vegetable sauce, the meat literally melts in your mouth, great with any side dish. Don’t be ashamed to serve it to your guests.
The appetizer has a very interesting taste due to the sweet and sour marinade. Pepper can be marinated in advance, it can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week. This is very convenient if you have some kind of celebration. And add the carrots just before serving.
In Georgian cuisine, eggplants occupy a special place, and there are many ways to prepare them. The recipe that I offer you does not require any special expenses – neither in time nor in products, and the result is simply wonderful!
Delicious, tender and healthy shish kebab-Turkey breast rolls in a slice of zucchini, with bell pepper and orange. This shish kebab is easy to cook, does not require pre-marinating, is prepared quickly and served with garlic and soy sauce!
If you bought a huge Peking cabbage, here’s the idea to bake it under a cheese flavored cap. Juicy, delicious turns out! Basic ingredients: cheese, egg, cottage cheese, sour cream, and other additives-whatever you like.
Sach – a special clay pan of the black sea region and any dish prepared in it. My recipe is based on Bulgarian recipes, but archaeologists have been finding Sach pans all over the region up to the Crimea since ancient times, where the ancient Greeks cooked, so the name is given in honor of the pan, not the ingredients. The ingredients are the most common, modern. If you suddenly do not have a clay Sacha, you can take a tray for baking.
This salad will not leave anyone indifferent. It can be prepared in advance at home and take on a picnic or cook over a fire on vacation, in nature. The salad is delicious, both warm and chilled, when the vegetables and Turkey are already marinated.
