Hungarian Pepper Stew: Lecsó

"Lecsó," pretty much pronounced like "let-cho," is a common Hungarian pepper and tomato stew or braise. It spread into German areas in Austria and Germany, where it is known as "Letscho," pronounced like, "let-show." The dish spread further in eastern/southeastern Europe because of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, which included a number of nationality and ethnic groups. This is a great dish, which is really easy to make. I've seen it made with red peppers, yellow peppers, green peppers, or a mix of colors. I used bell peppers, as they are readily available, and I added some Hungarian banana peppers, which are pretty common in American produce stores and supermarkets. It's my understanding that some Hungarians like to use "hot" Hungarian peppers, while others use a mix of mild and hot, so it depends upon your own preference. Hungary is known for its paprika; that is, ground dried red peppers, where it comes in sweet and hot varieties, and it is used in many Hungarian dishes, including this one. By the way, I've never had any imported "hot" Hungarian paprika that was blazing hot, but rather it has a little kick to it. Of course, there may be brands that are much hotter. 

Ingredients:

2 red (or yellow) bell peppers, chopped
2 or 3 Hungarian banana peppers, chopped 
2 cups diced tomatoes (canned are fine, with the juice)**
1 large chopped onion
3 large cloves garlic, chopped 
3 tablespoon olive oil (or if you want tradition, use bacon fat)
1 heaping tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons tomato paste (mixed into the water)
1 teaspoon sugar (mixed into the water/tomato paste)
sliced "debreceni páros kolbász" (Hungarian for "pair of Debrecen sausages")*

In a skillet or sauce pan, heat the oil over medium heat, add the onion and cook for about 3 minutes before adding the garlic. Cook the onion and garlic until somewhat softened, but not browned, then add the peppers and tomatoes. After about 3 minutes, add the water (mixed with the tomato paste and sugar), the salt, the pepper and the sweet and the hot paprika. Slice the Debrecen sausages into pieces of  about 1/4 to 1/2 inch and add them to the pepper mixture, folding them in to distribute the sausage pieces throughout. You can cover the skillet, if you'd like, and turn down the heat a little, or you can leave the skillet uncovered, in which case you may need to add a little water, if the mix cooks down too much. Cook everything, stirring occasionally, until the peppers and other vegetables are nice and tender. Good crusty bread is a nice accompaniment, although some serve the dish with rice.  
 
* Debrecen sausages are a Hungarian specialty (and yes, they contain paprika as one of the ingredients), but they are common in German areas, especially in Austria and southern Germany, and they are commonly offered in many Austrian/German meat shops. They are often sold in pairs. During production, as the casing is filled with the sausage mixture, it is twisted to form two sausages, before the casing is cut. In German the spelling is, "Debreziner," and while there are variations by producers, the German variety "tends" to be a bit spicier than the "real" Hungarian version. "Debrecen" is a city in eastern Hungary, but it is "my understanding" that the sausage was simply named after the city, and that is was not invented there.

** You can use fresh tomatoes and blanch them in some hot water and then peel and core them, and then chop/dice them. Use what you have, though. When I made this dish for this article, I used a mix of diced canned tomatoes and some grape tomatoes I had that were just starting to "wrinkle" a little, so I used them up in this dish (I halved them).

WORD HISTORY:
Beckon-This word, closely related to the noun "beacon," a word from the Germanic roots of English, goes back to Indo European "bhah," which had the notion, "to shine, to be bright, to appear as bright." This gave West Germanic "bauknan" (English is West Germanic), meaning, "signal light," and the verb, "bauknonan," meaning, "to signal with a light," but seemingly also the more general, "to signal in some way by sight (as opposed to sound)." This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "beacnian," meaning, "to signal, to beckon." This later became "beknen" (or "bekonen," "bekenen"?), before the modern version. While the closely related noun "beacon" has relatives in some modern Germanic languages, the English verb "beckon" is apparently a lone survivor, although Old High German had the relative "bouhnan/bouhnen," and Old Saxon (the Saxon that remained in northern Germany after some Saxons went to Britain and helped to found England) had "boknian."