Do you like lecho - often sharp, usually sweet and sour, which can be added to sauces, and there is a spoon straight out of the jar licking with pleasure? Then this article is for you!
How and from what to do lecho?
Recall that the so-called prepared dish, and seasoning, came to us from Hungarian and Bulgarian cuisine. For Hungarians, for example, it is considered an absolutely indispensable universal additive to various kinds of vegetable, fish and meat dishes. It is usually done lecho with tomato juice, from Bulgarian pepper and spices, with the addition of other vegetables. The simplest recipe looks like this: 2 liters of juice, one and a half kilograms of Bulgarian pepper, 1 or a half tablespoons of salt, 2-3 such spoons of sugar. First, prepare the pour for lecho. With tomato juice, you do this: red, full ripeness, tomatoes need to be cut into pieces.
Then put them in an enamel saucepan, add water (about 15% of the total mass of tomatoes) and cook until soft. Wipe through a sieve. Suitable for lecho with tomato juice and pasta from tomatoes. Just need to dilute it with an equal amount of water and boil. Then put sliced pepper, sugar and salt there and cook for about 20 minutes over medium heat. Everything, lecho with tomato juice is ready. Pour it over clean jars, sterilize (half a liter 25 min, 35 liter) and roll up.
Lecho in a peasant way
Long since the preparation of lecho for the winter was the lot of the Bulgarian peasant women, who took care that the family had vegetables on the table all year round. Because the recipes for the dish was invented a lot. And we can choose the most interesting and suitable for the ingredients. For example, the preparation of lecho for the winter in this way. Each batch requires 3 kg of pepper, 1 kg of tomatoes, one and a half liters of tomato juice, greens of dill or parsley, a little cumin, from 2 teaspoons of salt. Bulgarian pepper, fleshy, harsh, peel off seeds and cut into strips or tongues. Recipe lecho with tomato juice recommends to lower them for 3 minutes in boiling water for blanching and immediately cool. Bat the tomatoes with boiling water and peel them off, cut into halves. Put a few pieces on the bottom of jars, followed by twigs of parsley and pepper, and on top again are tomato slices with greens. Tomato juice boil, put salt. When it cools down a little, pour into cans with a preform. Sterilize for about 30 minutes, then roll.
Lecho "as in Bulgaria"
In general, cooking lecho with tomato juice is one of the simplest preparations for the winter. But, of course, any hostess wants the recipes known to all to be modified, supplemented, improved to their taste. How it will look like: for a consignment of cans of 8 liters it will take about 5-6 kg of tomatoes, 4.5 kg of bell pepper, 200-250 g of sugar, as much vegetable oil, salt to taste (from 2 tablespoons). Tomatoes grind through a meat grinder and simmer for an hour, then grind through a sieve, having received juice with pulp. Peel the chopped pepper with straws or rings. Dip into the juice and cook for 20 minutes. After that, pour in the oil, pour the salt and sugar and cook until they dissolve. Then lay the seasoning, without removing from the plate, in sterilized jars and immediately roll. Here's how to make lecho of pepper with a pleasant sweetish taste, as it is done in Bulgaria.
Lecho onion
The following recipe for snacks is good in that cooked lecho includes not only pepper and tomato, but also onions. Thus, the seasoning is ideal for refueling many first courses. Take 3 kg of tomatoes, 4 peppers and 2 kg of onions. And also 300 g of vegetable oil, 200 g of 9% vinegar, a glass or a little more sugar and salt to taste. First you should prepare tomato juice. To do this, cut the tomatoes in small slices, cook half an hour on low heat and wipe through a sieve. Pepper and onions cut into rings. How to make lecho by this recipe: Boil the juice, add in it oil with vinegar, salt and sugar. When the pouring boils again, put the vegetables in it. Cook, stirring, 20 minutes, then in a hot kind pack on sterile jars and roll up.
And again greetings from Bulgaria
This time you can try a delicious snack with eggplant. The composition of the ingredients of this lecho is much richer than in previous recipes. To cook it, you should stock up 3 kg of red bell pepper, 2 kg of young eggplants, a kilogram of carrots, 4 large heads of garlic. It comes in lecho parsley (it will take quite a bit, about 2 large bunches), 2 liters of tomato juice, 2-2.5 tablespoons of salt, 200 g glass of sugar, for the same amount of butter and 9% of vinegar. What with all this set to do? Garlic and parsley finely chop. Pepper free of seeds and cut into 4 parts. Carrot grate on a grater, and cut aubergines with mugs. Boil the juice, pour in the oil and vinegar, add salt with sugar. Then put the vegetables and cook for about 35 minutes. 5 minutes before the meal, greens and garlic are put. Do not let the lecho cool down, spread it over sterile jars and immediately close it.
Pickled vegetables
As you might have guessed, the snack described by us can include a wide variety of vegetable supplements and do not get any worse from it. Make sure, by making lecho with zucchini or the usual vegetable squash. Believe, you will be satisfied! Cut cubes and a half kg of zucchini (you can also old, overripe) and straws 10 pieces of Bulgarian pepper. Rings crumble 6-7 medium bulbs. Through a meat grinder, grind a half kilogram of tomato. Pour into the pot, where lecho will be cooked, a mixture of 175 g of vegetable oil, half a glass (100 g) of vinegar 9%, 2 tablespoons of salt and 175 g of sugar. Put on the fire, let it boil and pour the zucchini first, stir. After 5-6 minutes, put the onion, let it simmer for another 5 minutes. At the end, add the pepper. When vegetables are fried, that is, after 7 minutes, pour in the tomato mass. Stew under the lid, stirring, 15 minutes (over medium heat). When the lecho is ready, spread it over the cans in a boiling form and close it. By the way, if you make some improvements and add a fruit ingredient (grams of 800 sweet apples or plums that are crushed in a meat grinder), then the taste of lecho will turn out to be quite unusual, soft, more tender and pleasant. Experiment, dear housewives. And remember that the best recipes are born by trial and error!
Delicious juice for lecho
Often the quality of canned foods cooked on a tomato basis depends on how delicious it turned out. Therefore, as an additional bonus for the most inveterate cooks, who read the article to the end, we offer a recipe for excellent juice from a tomato. It is necessary to take only ripe sugary tomatoes, with a red or pink flesh and a thin skin. A knife from stainless steel is cut into slices. Simultaneously with tomatoes put a few cut onions, salt (about 15 grams for each kilogram of the main vegetable), a little ground red hot pepper and fragrant peas, a pinch of ginger, grated lemon peel, always sugar. The contents of the pan should be boiled until soft, focusing on the onion. Then always rub everything with a wooden spoon through a thick sieve. Dilute with a little water and use for lecho!