Currently, thanks to globalization, national dishes of the peoples of the world have gradually begun to lose their individuality. For example, pizza is the number one food in Europe and America, especially among young people. But not everyone knows that from ancient times in Russia they baked flat shangi rolls with open filling (potatoes and buckwheat), in Armenia the national dish was lamajo - thin flat cakes with smeared meat (what is not pizza?) And so on. There are many similar examples.
Lecho
But that’s not the fate of the lecho (with and without garlic), the name of which in Hungarian means “baked vegetables”. That is, this is the Hungarian version of the French ratatouille. The dish not only did not lose its name, but was also supplemented with all kinds of ingredients. In Russia, lecho fell in love in Soviet times, when winter blanks became fashionable.
Now they cook lecho with garlic, herbs, carrots, apples, and from this the taste of the dish not only does not deteriorate, but becomes richer and more interesting. In the original recipe, lecho contains three components: tomatoes, onions and bell pepper, and serves it as an addition to meat and other products.
How to eat lecho
In Germany, a dish is used only as a side dish for meat, but in Hungary itself, lecho is more often served as an independent meal, in which they put savory home-made sausages or smoked meat and fill them with beaten eggs (like casseroles).
In general, this vegetable dish can be different: thick and thin, sweet and spicy, with and without meat. Often, women roll lecho with garlic for the winter, put it in the first and second courses, and so on.
The classic recipe for a vegetable dish
The following products are used in this recipe: bell pepper, tomatoes, onions, salt, garlic, other seasonings to taste and vegetable oil. Peppers and tomatoes for lecho are taken in equal parts, onions are cut two hundred and fifty grams, and vegetable oil - one hundred grams.
To prepare a lecho of tomatoes with garlic, wash the vegetables and remove the seeds from the bell pepper. In tomatoes, make notches and pour boiling water so that the skin can be easily removed. Peel the onion, rinse and chop into a cube (large can be). Pour half of the cooked oil into the pan, put chopped onions and fry for five to seven minutes until transparent.
Cut bell pepper into small pieces and add to the onion, fry a little (about five minutes), pour water so that it slightly covers the vegetables. Close the lid and simmer in this way for thirty minutes. Peel the tomatoes and cut them into small pieces.
After thirty minutes, add the tomatoes and crushed garlic to the onion and pepper, salt, pepper, pour in the remaining sunflower oil and simmer for another thirty minutes under the lid. From time to time, open the lid and interfere with the contents. The classic lecho is ready. Pour the dish into banks and put on sterilization for about fifteen minutes.
Garlic lecho recipe
This recipe is useful to everyone who loves spicy dishes. Garlic, vinegar and 2-3 pcs are added to the traditional ingredients here. red hot pepper. The number of products is as follows: 5 kilograms of bell pepper, 3 kilograms of tomatoes, 2-3 pcs. capsicum, 10 cloves of garlic, a glass (200 ml) of granulated sugar, 50 g of salt, half a glass of apple cider vinegar, 100 ml of sunflower oil.
This recipe for lecho with garlic is used for winter harvesting. First, peppers are cleaned of seeds and stalks and washed under running water. Tomatoes in this case are not put in boiling water to remove the skin. They are scrolled in a meat grinder or crushed in a blender.
Cooking
The scrolled mass is put in a pan and put on moderate heat. Pepper, meanwhile, is cut into small strips. As soon as the tomatoes boil, add sugar, salt, black pepper and other spices, pour in sunflower oil and cook for another fifteen minutes. After a quarter of an hour they put chopped bell pepper, reduce the fire, close the lid and simmer for about twenty minutes. Meanwhile, garlic is finely chopped or crushed in a mortar, and hot pepper is finely chopped into circles.
After the set time, they are added to the pan, and vinegar is poured next. Then the pan is closed with a lid and the mass is boiled for another five minutes. Chili pepper and garlic ready. It is poured into cans and rolled up, then the cans are turned over and covered with a warm blanket for sterilization.
Autumn Lecho
This lecho recipe is actually one of the most delicious and popular. The composition of the products includes carrots, which gives the dish a natural sweetness and goes well with onions, garlic, tomatoes and bell peppers. The recipe for lecho with carrots and garlic requires increased attention, since it is important to strictly observe the proportions of the products. And one more thing - it is better to cut carrots with an average cube.
For cooking lecho you will need: 1 kg of pepper, 1.5 kg of tomatoes, 200 g of onions, 400 g of carrots, 6 cloves of garlic, salt, black pepper and spices to taste, sunflower oil.
How to cook lecho
Tomatoes are washed, chopped randomly, placed in a pan, poured with water so that the tomatoes do not stick to the bottom of the pan, and boiled for ten to fifteen minutes until the vegetables are softer. Then they are thrown back into a colander, allowed to cool slightly and, passing through a sieve, squeeze the juice. While preparing the tomatoes, chop the bell pepper and carrots, preferably into the same squares.
In a large pan or pan, pour vegetable oil, put onions and fry until transparent, add carrots after a quarter of an hour and, after pouring a little water, stew the vegetables under the lid for another twenty minutes. As soon as the carrots are softer, pour the prepared tomato juice into the pan, let it boil for a while (10 minutes), add the bell pepper, salt, black pepper, and put chopped garlic five minutes before cooking.
If 9% table vinegar is poured into the mass, then a winter harvest will be obtained from this lecho with garlic and carrots. 50 grams of vinegar per kilogram of food. Then all the actions are repeated: the cans are sterilized in advance, a hot lecho is poured into each and immediately rolled up with a machine. Then the cans are turned over and wrapped in a warm blanket.
Tomato paste with garlic
In cold weather, it is almost impossible to buy juicy ripe tomatoes, so many housewives have adapted to preserve them for the winter. Each woman has her own secret of storage. For example, vegetables are kept in the freezer or canned. But these stocks “disappear” quickly and imperceptibly, and with the advent of spring, women are increasingly looking at store shelves where there are cans of tomato paste.
This recipe is also suitable for winter harvesting. The taste with garlic (for the winter) and tomato paste in taste is not only not inferior to the classic vegetable dish, but also saves time for women who devote much effort to professional work.
The composition of the dish includes: 1 kg of bell pepper, 300 g of tomato paste, 4 cloves of garlic, 1 pod of hot pepper, 1 teaspoon of salt, 1.5 tablespoon of sugar, black, allspice, cloves to taste, 6 tablespoons of vegetable oil, 50 g of 9% wine vinegar.
How to choose tomato paste and cook lecho
When preparing this dish, you should carefully consider buying tomato paste, since not only the taste of the lecho, but also its useful properties will depend on its quality. It is advisable to choose a paste, which includes only tomatoes, salt and sugar, without any additives.
The first step is to dilute the paste with water, about 1: 3, add spices (cloves and black pepper with peas) to it and put on a slow fire. Meanwhile, bell peppers need to be washed and chopped randomly, added to the paste. As soon as the mass begins to boil, add spices, vegetable oil and cook for another twenty minutes under the lid, reducing the heat.
Ten minutes before the readiness to throw finely chopped garlic into the pan, and after two minutes - pour vinegar, close the lid again and turn off the heat. Pour hot lecho into clean, sterilized jars and roll up.
The dish is ready, bon appetit!