How to cook lecho
Products
for making 1 liter of lecho
Sweet bell pepper - 900 grams
Tomatoes - 600 grams
Vinegar 9% - 1 tablespoon
Vegetable oil - 1/5 cup
Onions - 1 large head
Garlic - 4 prongs
Ground black pepper - 1 teaspoon
Sugar - 1-2 tablespoons, depending on the sweetness of the peppers and tomatoes
Salt - 2-3 teaspoons to taste
How to cook lecho in a saucepan
1. Wash and dry vegetables for lecho.
2. In tomatoes, cut the skin around.
3. Sprinkle tomatoes generously with 1 liter of boiling water.
4. Peel the tomatoes, remove the stalks, cut each tomato in half.
5. Chop the tomatoes with a knife or with a mixer, or grate, pour into a saucepan and put on medium heat, before adding the pepper, boil the tomatoes for half an hour to 45 minutes, depending on the wateriness of the tomatoes. The tomato mass should be similar to tomato juice.
6. Peel the garlic, cut off the ends and pass through a garlic press (you can also chop with a knife).
7. Remove the stalk from bell pepper, peel the seeds and cut off the partitions (if they are rough).
8. Cut the bell pepper into a 3x3 square or 6-7 centimeters long shavings.
9. Peel the onions and chop finely.
10. Place the peppers, onions and garlic in a saucepan and place over medium heat.
11. Pour oil into the lecho and mix.
12. By the time of boiling, when the pepper is completely immersed in the tomato mass, proceed to constant stirring.
13. Add pepper and salt to the lecho, taste the lecho (the taste of lecho is most clearly appreciated when the lecho is cold) and, if necessary, add sugar.
14. Cook the lecho for another 30 minutes until the pepper softens, then pour in the vinegar and stir.
15. Wash the jars, pour 1 centimeter of water on the bottom of each and put in the microwave.
16. Set the microwave for 1.5 minutes at 800 watts, turn on; make sure that the water in the jars boils and the steam rushes over the entire inner surface of the jar. If the water does not boil, repeat the procedure.
17. Scald the lids with boiling water.
18. Using oven mitts or towels, put the jars on a board or towel, pour lecho and tighten the lids.
19. Pour hot lecho into hot jars and tighten the lids tightly.
20. Turn over the jars with lecho, wrap it in a blanket and wait until it is completely cooled.
21. Remove jars with lecho for storage.
Fusofacts
Classic proportions for cooking lecho - 1 kilogram of pepper, 1 kilogram of tomatoes and 1 head of onion. The rest depends on the desired consistency. If you want more pepper in lecho, you can provide 1.5 kilograms of pepper for a pound of fleshy tomatoes. It is not recommended to put more pepper so that the peppers in the jars are completely immersed in the tomato mass (important for storage).To keep the pepper crisp in the lecho, it is recommended to add 1 tablespoon of vinegar along with a tab to the tomato paste of bell pepper.
To to save time processing tomatoes, you can cut each tomato in half without peeling and grate on a coarse grater, while separating the tomato pulp from the skin.
The original amount of lecho depends on the quality and density of the products used. So, from the indicated fleshy tomatoes and juicy peppers, 1 liter of lecho will turn out, and if the tomatoes are liquid and vegetable peppers (dry-green), then it will take longer to boil the lecho and the total amount of lecho can be 50-100 milliliters less. Consider this when preparing cans.
Lecho - dish Hungarian kitchen. The Hungarians themselves do not prepare lecho for the winter, but prepare it as a separate hot dish, with the addition of lard instead of butter, chicken eggs and smoked sausages.
Keep lecho after cooling in a dark place at room temperature, open jars - in the refrigerator for no more than 2 weeks. Because The shelf life of an open lecho is rather short, usually lecho is rolled up in jars of 500-700 milliliters. The shelf life of a closed home lecho at room temperature is 1 year.
Most suitable for lecho pepper varieties Hungarian, banana peppers, lecho variety. However, regular vegetable peppers can also be used. Fleshy, late varieties are suitable for lecho tomatoes - they will give the lecho its density. Depending on the sweetness of vegetables, the amount of sugar should also be regulated: for sweet vegetables, sugar may not be enough, and for unsweetened varieties, 2-3 tablespoons per liter will be needed.
Tomatoes in lecho can be replace tomato paste that already contains vinegar. 1 kilogram of tomatoes should be replaced with 0.5 liters of thick paste. Tomato paste must be diluted with 400 milliliters of water. Vinegar when using tomato paste, you need to pour 1 tablespoon for every kilogram of bell pepper.
Serve lecho as a sauce for potatoes, pasta and rice; hot or cold, as a side dish for sausages and sausages; as an independent snack.
Product cost for harvesting 1 liter of lecho in the summer - 150 rubles. The store price of lecho is about the same, the difference in the quality of the products used, which undoubtedly affects the taste and benefits of lecho.
You can cook without vinegar according to the same recipe, then you need to take special care of storage - the jars must be sterilized, stored in a cellar or in a dark place on the balcony. You can also add a little more sugar as a natural preservative.
For harvesting lecho, such spicelike marjoram, dried parsley, cloves and garlic. The taste of lecho - sweetish from the pepper and sugar used - can be sharpened a little if you add more garlic, for each liter of pepper an additional 3-4 cloves of garlic. If you want to make the lecho taste sweeter and the consistency denser, you can add 1 carrot for each liter of lecho. However, it should be noted that the tradition of cooking lecho cancels the use of carrots.
Slice pepper is necessary to taste. It can be in large squares - then the lecho will be crispy, or it can be thinner - and then the lecho will acquire a sauce-like consistency.
For a change, you can prepare lecho with rice, eggplant, carrots or beans.