Best Food Recipes 2023 Step by Step with Pictures
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”.
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.
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.
One of the most popular Turkish meat dishes is prepared on a skewer and has a history that goes back deep into antiquity. Initially, kebab was prepared in cauldrons or forms for meat without sauce or any liquid on an open fire. There is a legend about the origin of meat dishes cooked on skewers or wooden skewers, associated with the name of the Persian ruler Darius, who went to war, with the words: “This is what will happen to our enemies,” he forcefully stuck a sharpened wooden rod into the cauldron with meat. The recipe offered to you today is one of the variations of a kebab made at home from available products.
“Avji koftesi” translates as “Hunting meatballs” – a dish from the menu of the Ottoman court, served at a reception at the Sultan in honor of the palace military leaders. Initially, it was prepared from chopped meat in a cauldron on an open fire, served in shallow copper plates. With the increasing influence of European cuisine, the dish received a European addition in the form of additional ingredients and cooking methods. Nowadays, this dish is in the diet of all Turkish houses. Each hostess prepares it in her own way, but the main ingredients invariably remain-small meatballs, potatoes, onions and tomatoes.
