Almost Hungarian lecsó with yellow peppers

Good time for lecsó. Especially when you’ve got 8 peppers and one mouth to feed. You can happily eat a pot of this stuff for a couple of days. This time, though, a mate from Kraków said he was coming over, so there were two mouths, one of them rather tired from the journey.

Unfortunately, it turned out the travel-weary mouth only developed an appetite for lecsó after the requisite amount of beer. The perfect critic at that point, though. Everything tastes good.

OK, so where did the idea for lecsó come from? Way back when I lived with my parents, or at least closer to them (I’m currently colonising Warsaw), Mum made lecsó fairly often. Back then I thought it was a fearsomely difficult dish to make. Delicious, but difficult, and basically no point even trying (I thought the same about stuffed cabbage rolls until I made them, and about pierogi. With pierogi, unfortunately, it’s true).

Then one day in Warsaw I got a craving for lecsó that just wouldn’t go away. Mum was a long way off and I’d be wary of ordering lecsó in a restaurant (does anyone in Warsaw even serve it?), so I had to take the plunge. Turned out it wasn’t exactly rocket science. In fact, it’s as straightforward as the motorway to Poznań.

All right, but why yellow peppers? And why only almost Hungarian? Yellow because someone gave them to me. Hope you’re not disappointed by such a mundane explanation. What can you do with yellow peppers (I hate stuffed peppers: “Ewwww, yuck,” as my daughter would say)? Yes, the more classic mix would be red and green with a little yellow. And it’s almost Hungarian because although I’ve been to Hungary a few times, I’ve never eaten lecsó there. A Hungarian chap once cooked me an outstanding goulash (I’ll try to recreate it one day), but never lecsó. So it’s almost…

At a glance:

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 2 hours

Serves: 4 hungry people

How many calories: hihetetlenül magas kalória, még akkor is, elsősorban a zöldség- (that’s Hungarian. Best not check what it means on Google Translate)

Ingredients for almost Hungarian lecsó:

• 8 large yellow peppers
• Half a green pepper (it was lurking somewhere in the fridge)
• One hot red chilli
• Two good-sized onions
• Two large tomatoes (peeled)
• A tin of peeled tomatoes in sauce (which meant I didn’t have to add tomato purée)
• Three lengths of juniper sausage (that’s what I had)
• Finely ground black pepper
• Ground chilli
• Salt
• A tablespoon of sugar
• Olive oil (I fry almost everything in olive oil. Very primitive of me)

Method (recept in Hungarian):

Kezdek összes folytatja a zöldség. A paprikát alaposan tisztítja a coring és a vetőmag is. Pick paradicsom bőr (nagy tálba öntsünk forró vízben, majd a bőrt magát, csak legyen óvatos, mert a paradicsom lehet égetni.). Oh right, it was only meant to be almost Hungarian 😉

I start by peeling and prepping all the vegetables. I take great care to remove the cores and all the seeds from the peppers. I skin the tomatoes (cover them with hot water in a deep bowl and the skins just slip off. Mind you, a tomato like that can scald you). I chop all the veg: the onions fairly fine, the tomatoes into cubes (for this dish you don’t have to remove the tomato seeds, just the skin), and the peppers into medium-sized rectangles.

Actually, I do things in a slightly different order to save time. I chop the onions first and heat the olive oil in a deep pot while I’m at it. In go the onions to soften until nicely translucent. I sprinkle half a tablespoon of sugar over them because I once heard (on the TV show Kuchenne Rewolucje, I think) that it helps. Can’t say I think it makes much difference, but give it a try.

While the onions are frying (don’t let them burn), I chop the peppers. I add them to the translucent onions and keep frying. While that’s happening, I chop the tomatoes. I fry the peppers and onions for about 7 minutes before the tomatoes go in. Once they’re in, I wait for the water to evaporate so the veg gets a chance to fry properly, then add the finely diced sausage. I give everything a good stir every minute so it doesn’t catch and fry for about 5 minutes.

Now I add the tinned tomatoes, sauce and all. I stir thoroughly, turn down the “heat” and add the seasonings. Plenty of pepper and ground chilli (I like it hot), salt to taste and the rest of the sugar (that’s half a teaspoon). Now for the simmering. Give the whole thing about 1.5 hours so it gets nice and soft and fragrant. If you prefer your peppers firmer, with a bit of bite, try a shorter cooking time. I taste it often as it cooks to check the seasoning. And if it starts getting too thick, I add half a glass of boiled water.

Of course, while it’s cooking over a low “heat”, I try to give it a thorough stir every 5 to 10 minutes. Voilà, the lecsó is ready. I serve it with buttered dark bread. At home I allow myself the pleasure, like the country bumpkin I am, of dipping that bread in the lovely sauce. Enjoy!