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.
Autumn is the time of pickling, pickling and pickling cabbage. That’s why I pickle, salt, and kvash… to keep up… For example, today – rolls of Peking cabbage with a variety of vegetables. It is good as a snack for a daily lunch, it will also decorate a festive dish. To heal.
Recently, my husband and I chose a new cereal from spelt, as it turned out that this is a very useful product. We gave up meat broths for a while. After that, lean soups become the basis of our hot dishes. Because of this, I began to add cereals to vegetable broths, trying to make the soup more satisfying. For borscht, the most suitable porridge for me was spelt. Try this soup, I think you will like it. Spelt is the progenitor of wheat. It grows only on clean soils. For several thousand years, spelt has not undergone any genetic changes and is a real, 100% natural product. This porridge is great for a healthy diet: minerals and vitamins are preserved during processing, it is rich in fiber and protein.
I wanted vegetable soup, my husband asked for soup. I thought, I thought… and I decided to combine everything in one dish. Why not? It turned out to be an incredibly delicious soup: fragrant, light and satisfying at the same time. It seemed very harmonious to me.
An unusual way to serve your favorite vegetables. A variation on the theme of fried cabbage in batter, only baked. Potatoes with sauce will also “play” in a new way. Use any additional vegetables. The author is cherry, I took carrots and paprika. Thanks to Maria from Germany for the recipe! You can cook in portions.
A recipe from the “two in one” series. These Mediterranean dishes complement each other so much that it just didn’t make sense to present them separately! They will fill your home with fragrance and delight you and your loved ones with their appearance and amazing taste!