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.
Baked chicken is a classic of the genre on the Christmas table. This year I want to diversify this dish a little and offer an unusual option. A bright, fragrant and incredibly delicious dish will not leave anyone indifferent on a festive evening.
Bright healthy side dish in oriental style. Rice is cooked the longest in the recipe, the rest is done very quickly! We cook in parallel with the main product, for example, I have chicken.
I offer you very tasty potatoes in cream sauce with herbs, with bell pepper, cheese crust. The ideal pair for baked potatoes will be sauerkraut in a quick way. Try this!
A simple and delicious salad. In the eggplant season, various salads are prepared with them – both spicy and spicy, it seems, and the sets of vegetables are almost the same, and spices, and the proportions or cooking method have changed a little, and a new taste of salad is ready! In the salad, all vegetables that are not thermally processed, except eggplants, put butter.
Vegetable pizza on a bright beetroot dough will appeal to both adults and children. Any seasonal vegetables are suitable for cooking. The dish is light, low-fat, and also suitable for a lean table.
Chicken in tomato, and even with mushrooms, how can it not be delicious. A very interesting dish for dinner. After cooking it, you can’t help but fall in love with its taste.
This bright soup, not only in “appearance”, but also in taste, occupies the top lines of the “hit parade” of our family’s favorite dishes. I suggest you appreciate it…
