Kedvenc magyar ételünk, a lecsó

The history of lecsó, the Hungarian counterpart of the French dish ratatouille, began in America with Spanish mediation, and not surprisingly, Turkish-Serbian influence. However, we can also say that while keeping these international origins in mind, lecsó is a very Hungarian dish, as it is not similar to any other nation’s paprika-tomato dish, neither in its garnishing nor its preparation.

The first peppers were brought home to Europe by the Columbus’s doctor, and then, as a result of a later expedition, tomatoes also made their way to the old continent. However, for a long time, Europeans failed to use the amazing new vegetable, as surprisingly it was believed to be poisonous for an incredibly long time.

To Hungary, the tomato – and with it a dish similar to today’s Hungarian lecsó – arrived across the Balkans during the Turkish occupation. Although the Turkish course was suspiciously similar, the traditional Hungarian lecsó only appeared much later, so we probably didn’t get the idea of the dish from the Turks.

In its present form, the food first appeared around the 1870s, and was prepared on an open fire by Bulgarian gardeners who settled down in the country. In 1902, the magazine A Hét first published a recipe for lecsó, although at that time it was still called “rácz omácska,” where the word “omácska” meant ‘sauce.’

The word lecsó first appeared as a provincial word from Diósjenő, collected by Sándor Horváth in the form lëcső, lëcsó (green pepper with tomatoes) in the 1914 issue of the Magyar Nyelv (Hungarian Language) magazine’s Volume 10. According to some experts, the word is a distorted version of the term všeličo (mixed, of all kinds) used by the Slovak-speaking population of Kistompa, just 20 kilometers from Diósjenő.

The ‘real career’ of lecsó, on the other hand, began when the First Hungarian Can and Ore Factory made canned lecsó so successful under the brand ‘Globus’ that it also became a serious export item as well. This was the time when the dish’s foreign name, the German-sounding “letscho” was also born.

Today, we consider ‘letcho’ to be one of the cornerstones of Hungarian cuisine, and just as the other main dishes of the country, there are just as many recipes of it as many houses from lecsó with rice, lecsó with eggs, and lecsó with sausages.

Lecsó

– ingredients –

8 Hungarian wax peppers

4 large tomatoes

1 large onion

100 grams of bacon

100 grams of sausage

salt, pepper to taste

Wash and slice the peppers, chop the tomatoes and finely chop the onions as well. Cube the bacon and start frying it. Once the fat has melted, add the onion, sauté it and then after a few minutes add the wax peppers too. As soon as it shrinks a little, add the sausages and the tomatoes as well. Add salt and pepper to taste, and after cooking together the mix for 10 minutes, the basic Hungarian lecsó is ready, which we can soup-up a little by adding rice, eggs, or more sausages.

Source: Hungary Today

Igaz/Hamis feladatban döntsd el, hogy a feladatban lévő mondatok a cikk alapján igazak vagy hamisak.

Decide whether the following statements of the article are true or false.

1. The Hungarian lecsó is similar to other nations’ paprika-tomato dish, both in its garnishing and its preparation.

2. Europeans didn’t dare to use the amazing new vegetable because they thought it was poisonous.

3. Tomato arrived in Hungary during the Turkish occupation and people started making lecsó then.

4. Bulgarian gardeners made the first present form of lecsó in their kitchen around the 1870s when they settled down in Hungary.

5. The word lecsó was first used in Diósjenő which is not far from Kistompa.

6. Globus lecsó was sold only in Hungary.

7. There is only one recipe of lecsó Hungarian people use.

8. Only after the wax peppers shrinks, add the tomatoes and sausages.

Key: 1. F, 2. T, 3. F, 4. F, 5. T, 6. F, 7. F, 8. T