Hungarian Letcho Recipe - Guest Post

Hi everybody, I am Ivett, writing from Hungary, Europe. I started blogging over at mackosagok.wordpress.com a year ago, right after the birth of my son. I usually write about my diet, my daily life and some DIY issues. As my blog is Hungarian, here I am writing a special post just for you. Today I would like to share with you a typical summer recipe, if you like vegetables, you will love it! It is a kind of Ratatouille, here in Hungary it is mostly done from tomato and green pepper. But, before cooking, let me just share some photos from my family album. Europe has so many interesting spaces, maybe you have already imagined visiting the Eiffel tower in Paris; those beautiful, small, white houses in Greece or Buckingham Palace in London. Guess what, these are the places I ALSO would like to visit, because I have not seen them yet :) But I am pretty sure, that USA has several beautiful and gorgeous places we have never ever heard about here in Europe. So let me show you some of my favorite pics about places which you may not heard about yet. If you will ever have the possibility to visit Hungary, I am sure, you would visit Budapest, or other well-known bigger cities, but I would ask you not to be afraid visiting countryside, because you can find really nice places there as well. Like Tata and its Castle next to the Old Lake. Though Lake Balaton is one of Hungary's foremost tourist destinations, I cannot say else that it is a must see, as the largest lake in Central Europe. It is not just beautiful, but is a great bathing possibility as  well. In Germany, one of my favorite area is Munich and Bavaria: As summertime the weather is nice in Hungary, but cannot be forecasted during springtime, usually we choose to spend our family vacation in Croatia, the region of Sibenik and Split. Gorgeous!

Okay, I don't know about you, but I already started dreaming about my Croatian vacation this year :) But let's see, why we are here, the recipe: LecsÛ (Letcho), just the way I do :)

 What you will need for 4 person: - 1 big onion - some oil or any kind of fat - 4 teaspoon of sweet paprika powder (as I am not sure you use this spice, I use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0012690UC ) - 1.3 lb. of tomato - 1.3 lb. sweet pepper - 1 small sized zucchini (at early age, or if itis mature you should remove its seeds) - 1.5-2 cups water - 5 eggs -optional - salt and black pepper It is just as simple as it looks like on the pictures below. Slice the vegetables into bigger pieces, slice the onion into small pieces (you can prepare it with a grater too). You will need the onion first, but the smell of it can wait... :)

When you are ready, preheat the oil, and first put the onion in it, salt it a little and braise it until it becomes a little glassy. Than take it off from the heat, and add the paprika powder. This you should never do when the pan is heated, as the paprika can become bitter. When the oil-onion-paprika mix is stirred, add the sliced paprika and zucchini and put it back to the fire. At this point add some water. You don't want the vegetables to swim in it, maybe you should start with 1 cup. After a few minutes of braising add the tomatoes too.

Add salt and black pepper according to your taste, and braise it until the vegetables become just as cooked as you like it (sometimes stir it). I know somebody like when the vegetable is not overcooked, and it is still crunchy a little bit. I did it a little overcooked, and it is fine for me :) (I think I cooked it for 30 minutes) What you now have is a basic LecsÛ. At this point you have several choices. You can eat it with fresh bread, but this is the stage when you can cool it down, and put in the freezer. It is a great choice if you have just too many tomatoes at the end of the summer. Later it will be a great dinner after a long day at work. I also put a part of it to the freezer, but for lunch I decided to finish the dish with some eggs. For the whole serving you will need 5 eggs, stirred. You only have to pour the eggs to the dish still on fire, and continuously stir it, until the egg-mixture is cooked too.

If you are not a big egg lover, you can simply eat the basic LecsÛ with rice. LecsÛ is typically something you will adore or hate, but if you have time, give it a chance :) The number of varieties are endless, you can add some sausage to it in the beginning, but you can change zucchini to eggplant or just leave it. Quick, cheap and delicious! Hope you will enjoy it! If you have any question, please don't hesitate to contact me at orosz.ivett.gm@gmail dot com, or just leave a comment if you tried the recipe ;) Ivett :) (Fingers crossed that my measurement conversions are correct ;) )

Thank you Ivett for guest posting.

DON'T FORGET TO STOP BACK TONIGHT AT 8PM EST 

FOR MY SIZZLE INTO SUMMER PARTY

Hope to see you then!

-Judy