Tsitsak is a dish of Armenian cuisine, but the pepper variety, which is most suitable for its preparation, began to be called so. It is spicy, so it is most often used as an addition to dishes of meat, fish and vegetables, although lovers of spicy can use tsitsak and as an independent dish. Preservation will help preserve this vegetable for the winter.
Important! Git is not necessary to catch fresh pepper. You need to give him a couple of days to stand in the kitchen, a little graft and wrinkle.
Selection and preparation of ingredients
It is best to take yellow-green, oblong and thin fruits. Bitterness is not lost even after cooking, although they are not too burning. The stems of this pepper are not removed, as are the seeds. And before the cooking procedure, the fruits must be pierced with a fork several times so that they are saturated with brine and air comes out of them. It is difficult to say exactly what time of the year it is better to preserve, since this can be done at any time, since it is recommended to take not a fresh vegetable for cooking.
- This vegetable crop has the following beneficial properties:
- when used in moderation, it stimulates appetite and a beneficial effect on digestion;
- contains vitamins of groups B, A, especially a lot of vitamin C;
- stimulates the production of endorphins;
- Includes fatty acids, oils, saccharides, capsaicin (responsible for severity, used in medicine and cosmetology);
- improves blood circulation;
- used in dietetics.
Recipes for the preparation of Tsitsak pepper for the winter
The easiest way to cook is salting. This will result in a pickled or soaked product. But there are other options for winter harvesting of delicious hot pepper.
Pepper Salting
10 cans per 1 liter 30 minutes
coarse rock salt
1 cup
- Salt completely dissolved in water. It is better to take an enameled pan or a wooden barrel, but a container made of food-grade plastic is also suitable.
- Put the washed tsitsak there.
- You can add any spices: bay leaf, cilantro, dill, garlic, allspice, etc. This is the simplest pickling of this vegetable. It is more usual to salt in this way, for example, cabbage. In fact, the classic tsitsak is obtained in this way.
- Put under oppression for a week (during which time it will become more yellow). The result is a salty tsitsak.
- It can be consumed as such or rolled up in jars.
Did you know? In Europe, blooming peppers are used as Christmas decorations. It is also often called “Christmas pepper”.
Pickled Tsitsak
12 cans per 1 liter 40 minutes
- Hardened peppers are washed and pierced with a fork in several places.
- Fruits are placed in a suitable container along with chopped herbs and garlic cloves (you can not use garlic and dill or use any other spices at your discretion).
- The salt is stirred with cold water, and the peppers obtained by the brine are poured so that they are completely immersed in the liquid.
- Put an inverted plate on peppers and some oppression.
- Leave at room temperature for a couple of days. You need to navigate by color: it should turn yellow. It usually takes at least a week. Do not worry about the duration - if the product lasts a little longer, nothing bad will happen to it.
- Let drain and squeeze out excess liquid.
- Tamp the fruits tightly in clean jars (just rinse them with soda in hot water) along with dill and garlic. In this case, if a liquid appears at the bottom, you need to drain it.
- If you plan to spin in banks, then you can do this in 2 ways. You can sterilize them in boiling water for 10 minutes, and then roll them up. You can pour fresh brine: the proportions must be left the same, but the brine will need much less (only about 1 liter). It needs to be boiled, poured hot over the jars, then sterilized and rolled in the same way.
Important! If roll-up is not planned, then tsitsak is poured with chilled fresh brine, covered with a lid and put in a cold place.
Spicy pepper
4 cans per 1 liter 30-40 minutes
coriander (ground)
1 tbsp. l
- Dissolve salt in water in a convenient container.
- Pour all the spices into the brine.
- Place washed peppers pierced with a fork.
- Put under oppression for 2 weeks in a dark place.
- To decompose everything that was in the tank into banks.
- Boil the brine for 1 minute and pour into jars.
- Spin the jars and let cool.
- After cooling, tsitsak is ready for use.
Did you know? Wealthy merchants in the Middle Ages were called "sacks of pepper." This was considered an honorary title.
In oil
6 cans per 1 liter 1 hour
- Wash and cut the pepper fruits with a knife on the tip, or make punctures with a fork.
- Parsley with garlic is finely chopped and mixed with salt. Peppers need to roll in this mixture. After this, the products are covered with a lid and left for a day without oppression and adding fluid.
- Peppers are fried in oil with vinegar. You can pour vinegar into a container with oil and shake it every time you add a new portion.
- Fried tsitsak is tightly packed in sterilized jars.
- Banks are sterilized for 20 minutes and rolled up.
With honey
2 cans of 750 ml1 hour
- Liquid honey is poured into sterile jars at the bottom - it slightly softens the severity of tsitsaka. Its amount can subsequently be adjusted at your discretion. You can find recipes where honey is poured on top, this does not change the essence of the matter. As a result, all components dissolve in vinegar. All source ingredients are proportionally distributed among the banks depending on their quantity.
- Then tsitsak is densely packed, sprinkling with sugar.
- Pepper is poured with vinegar.
- The cans are closed with lids and turned over for half an hour to check that the marinade is not leaking. Due to vinegar and honey, this product can not be sterilized.
- Ready for use in 2-3 months.
In tomato sauce
4 cans per 1 liter 1 hour 40 minutes
hot red pepper
1 kg
vegetable oil
1 cup
- Grate the tomatoes in a blender or grinder.
- Boil the tomato puree until thickened (40-50 min), adding salt, oil, sugar and vinegar.
- Leave tsitsak with ponytails, remove red pepper. The fruits are pierced with a fork.
- Boil red pepper in tomato until it sinks to the bottom (about 20 minutes), then tsitsak - also about 20 minutes.
- When the tsitsak is easily pierced, finely chopped parsley is added and cooked for another 5-10 minutes.
- Tsitsak is put into sterilized jars, filled with tomato and clogged.
Features of storage of blanks
If the vegetable is rolled up for long-term storage, then the storage conditions are standard, as for any preservation: a cool dark place without direct sunlight. An unsealed product may be in the refrigerator for several weeks.
Thus, there are several options for snacks that can be made from zitsa pepper, tightly closed for the winter, or simply stored in the refrigerator as an addition to the main dishes. For lovers of spicy recipes for this pepper, you’ll just lick your fingers.
