Lecho cook for 40 minutes .
Lecho in a slow cooker cook for 35 minutes .
In total, the preparation of lecho will take from 1.5 hours, depending on the quantity being harvested.
How to cook lecho
Products
for cooking 1 liter lecho
Sweet bell pepper – 900 grams
Tomatoes – 600 grams
Vinegar 9% – 1 tablespoon
Vegetable oil – 1/5 cup
Onion – 1 large head
Garlic – 4 teeth
Ground black pepper – 1 teaspoon
Sugar – 1 -2 tablespoons depending on the sweetness of peppers and tomatoes
Salt – 2-3 teaspoons to taste
How to cook lecho in a saucepan
1. Wash and dry vegetables for lecho.
2. Cut the skin around the circumference of the tomatoes.
3. Generously pour over the tomatoes with 1 liter of boiling water.
4. Peel the tomatoes, remove the stalks, cut each tomato in half.
5. Grind the tomatoes with a knife or with a mixer, or grate, pour into a saucepan and put on medium heat, before adding pepper, boil the tomatoes from half an hour to 45 minutes, depending on the water content of the tomatoes. The tomato mass should be similar to tomato juice.
6. Peel the garlic, cut off the tips and pass through a garlic press (you can also chop with a knife).
7. Remove the stalk from the bell pepper, clean the seeds and cut off the partitions (if they are rough).
8. Cut the bell pepper into a 3×3 square or shavings 6-7 centimeters long.
9. Peel and finely chop the onion.
10. Put the pepper, onion and garlic in a saucepan and put on medium heat.
11. Pour oil into lecho and mix.
12. By the time of boiling, when the pepper is completely immersed in the tomato mass, start stirring constantly.
13. Add pepper and salt to the lecho, taste the lecho (the taste of the lecho can be most clearly assessed when the lecho is cold) and, if necessary, add sugar.
14. Boil lecho for another 30 minutes until the pepper softens, then pour in the vinegar and mix.
15. Wash the jars, pour 1 cm of water on the bottom of each and put in the microwave.
16. Set the microwave for 1.5 minutes at a power of 800 watts, turn it on; make sure that the water in the jars boils and the steam covers the entire inner surface of the jar. If the water does not boil, repeat the procedure.
17. Scald the lids with boiling water.
18. Put the jars with potholders or towels on a board or towel, pour in the 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 with a blanket and wait until completely cooled.
21. Remove jars from lecho for storage.
Tasty Facts
The classic proportions for cooking lecho are for 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 per pound of fleshy tomatoes. It is not recommended to put more pepper, so that the pepper in the jars is completely immersed in the tomato mass (important for storage).
To keep the pepper in the lecho crispy, it is recommended to add 1 tablespoon of vinegar along with a bookmark of bell pepper tomato paste.
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 initial amount of lecho depends on the quality and density of the products used. So, from the indicated fleshy tomatoes and juicy peppers, you get 1 liter of lecho, 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 turn out to be 50-100 milliliters less. Keep this in mind when preparing jars.
Lecho is a dish of Hungarian cuisine. The Hungarians themselves do not prepare lecho for the winter, but cook it as a separate hot dish, with the addition of lard instead of butter, chicken eggs and smoked sausages.
Store 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 quite short, usually lecho is rolled into jars with a volume of 500-700 milliliters. The shelf life of a closed homemade lecho at room temperature is 1 year.
For lecho, varieties of Hungarian peppers, banana peppers, and lecho varieties are most suitable . However, regular vegetable peppers can also be used. Tomatoes for lecho are suitable for fleshy, late varieties – they will give lecho density. Depending on the sweetness of vegetables, the amount of sugar should also be adjusted: 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 replaced with tomato paste, which already contains vinegar. 1 kilogram of tomatoes should be replaced with 0.5 liters of dense paste. Tomato paste must be diluted with 400 milliliters of water. Vinegar when using tomato paste, you must pour 1 tablespoon for each kilogram of bell pepper.
Lecho can be served as a sauce for potatoes , pasta and rice ; hot or cold, as a side dish for sausages and sausages ; as an independent snack.
The cost of products for harvesting 1 liter of lecho in the summer is 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 lecho in the cellar or in a dark place on the balcony. You can also add a little more sugar as a natural preservative.
For harvesting lecho, spices such as marjoram, dried parsley, cloves and garlic are used. 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 taste of lecho sweeter, and the consistency more dense, you can add 1 carrot for each liter of lecho. However, it is worth noting that the traditions of cooking lecho cancel the use of carrots.
Chop the pepper to taste. It can be large squares – then the lecho will be crispy, or thinner – and then the lecho will acquire a sauce-like consistency.
For a change, you can prepare lecho with rice, eggplant, carrots or beans.