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.
A beautiful and very tasty cheese snack in the form of a pumpkin is perfect for decorating an autumn festive table. Roll a cheese ball from a mixture of cream cheese and parmesan cheese, adding a little green onion, and shape it into a pumpkin, and to make the pumpkin turn bright orange, roll it in crushed corn sticks with cheese flavor, (for example, “Cheetos”). Serve the cheese pumpkin on a plate, spreading crackers around it, on which guests can spread a delicious cheese snack.
October is the carp fishing season. I offer you a warm, cozy and warming dish. I baked carp portioned with spicy buckwheat porridge, which I first cook separately from vegetables and spices. Buckwheat porridge is an independent dish in itself. Carp harmoniously complemented it. You can use other fish in this dish, for example: red.
A simple familiar dough stuffed with seasonal vegetables. I used to prepare the dough for pouring on mayonnaise, but today without it, only on yogurt. Such a pie with a rich filling will replace your second course, for example, for dinner. I recommend serving warm, warmed up. Form 21 cm in diameter.
With the onset of cold weather, you want so much warmth, more energy. To replenish stocks, a vegetable kebab is ideal – a hearty dish without unnecessary hassle. And cooking in the oven will make it more intense.
It will appeal to lovers of healthy, light and fresh food. In addition, the beauty of this salad is that it can be stored for a long time, and every day it becomes tastier. Due to this, zucchini turns out to be very satisfying and can easily replace dinner.
On autumn evenings, when it gets cold, the best dish will be a warm salad of eggplant, pepper and tomatoes. Spicy and a little spicy, it warms up perfectly and is suitable as a snack.
I suggest you try to cook fish in sweet and sour sauce. Quite a common dish in China. As always, simple and fast. It turns out a very interesting combination of flavors.