Fried peppers with cheese, prepared according to various recipes, are found in almost all national cuisines of the Balkans and the Mediterranean region. For example, in Bulgaria a very popular dish is chushka burek, a real masterpiece of Bulgarian cuisine.

At its core, the Chushka Byurek dish is nothing more than bell pepper stuffed with a mixture of feta cheese, tomato and herbs, generously seasoned with aromatic spices, primarily savory (chubritsa). Then the pepper is dipped in a dough of a special recipe, or simply covered with breading. And fried in oil.

The term burek, burek (Turkish Burek) is a pastry, dough. This term has a very wide application in relation to dough products. But, most often, this term is borrowed from Turkish, and means baking from a special dough. For example, in Bulgaria, burek is usually called a banitsa made from unleavened phyllo puff pastry, stuffed with cheese, fried or baked in oil.

Fried peppers with feta cheese in dough or breading are very tasty. An excellent snack. However, it may well serve as a main dish, and as a side dish.

The ease of preparation allows you to make peppers for breakfast quite often, if fresh bell peppers are in season and there is good brine cheese.

Brynza is a pickled cheese made from various types of milk. Of all the types of cheese that I tried, the most delicious was fresh sheep's milk cheese, lightly salted and with a very delicate, slightly yellow tint. The cheese must be free of cracks and inclusions; small and rare “eyes” are allowed. The consistency of the cheese is slightly brittle, but to crumble the cheese you need to try.

Roasted pepper. Step by step recipe

Ingredients (2 servings)

  • Bulgarian pepper 4 things
  • Cheese cheese 100 g
  • Tomato 1 piece
  • Dill 3-4 sprigs
  • Eggs 1-2 pcs
  • Savory, sunflower oil, flour, breadcrumbs, black pepper, salt taste
  1. Remove stems and seeds from peppers. Remove internal partitions.
  2. Lightly coat the skins with vegetable oil and bake the peppers in the oven or microwave until soft. Roasted bell pepper retains all the taste qualities of fresh. If you can peel off the film-like outer peel, that’s very good. If not, don't worry.

    Pepper, cheese and vegetables

  3. Let the peppers cool.
  4. Prepare the cheese filling. Grate the cheese onto a fine grater.

    Grate the cheese on a fine grater

  5. Remove leaves from dill, removing rough stems. Chop the dill very finely. Scald a ripe tomato with boiling water and remove the skin. Using a spoon, remove the seeds and chop the tomato pulp very finely with a knife. Mix grated cheese, dill and tomato pulp. Add dry savory, pepper to taste, and, if the cheese is lightly salted, add salt to taste.

    Mix grated cheese, dill and tomato pulp

  6. If the cheese is a little dry, you can add one egg white to the mixture.
  7. Mix everything thoroughly with a fork until you get a homogeneous paste.

    Mix everything thoroughly with a fork until you get a homogeneous paste.

  8. Loosely stuff the peppers with the mixture. If it leaks a little, it's not a big deal. Fried peppers with cheese should become oval and flat in cross-section so that it is convenient to fry.

    Loosely stuff the peppers with the mixture

  9. Pour vegetable oil into a frying pan and heat it high enough.
  10. Place the egg in a bowl and beat it with a fork.
  11. Fried peppers with cheese must be sprinkled with flour - otherwise the breading will not stick well.

    Sprinkle pepper with flour

  12. Dip the pepper in a beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs, or better yet, in grated stale white bread.

    Dip peppers in beaten egg

  13. Place the fried peppers and cheese into the vegetable oil heated in a frying pan.

    Place breaded peppers in vegetable oil heated in a frying pan.

  14. Fry the pepper on both sides until golden brown.

Tomorrow I’m flying to Bulgaria for a week, and before leaving I want to tell you about the Bulgarian miracle. Do you think I'm going to talk about Wang or the inventor of computers? Fiiii...I'm not so primitive. I'll tell you about the chushkopek, about this great everyday invention of Bulgarian engineering. And I'm not being ironic. I quote: It easily defeated all other acquisitions of civilization and received a gold medal in the BNT audience rating “Bulgarian Events of the 20th Century” - category “Revolution in Everyday Life.”
Nothing compares to it. Ever since I dragged 9 kg of live weight through 2 customs, in my hand luggage, because the miracle is broken (ceramic inside), friends began to come to visit me, bashfully hiding a bag of peppers behind their backs: Well... while we're drinking tea here (beer, wine, chatting, trying on a dress...), peppers and baked. That’s how I realized that they love me for a reason, from the bottom of their hearts, but for the sake of self-interest, and with a large share of mercantile interest. But I’m not offended, I’ve been in love with chushkopek since the first day we met.
Chushkopek is translated from Bulgarian as “pertsepek”, that is, a device for baking peppers. Chushka is a Bulgarian word for pepper. Remember the famous dish “chushka-byurek”.


I don’t show my chushkopek, because it has lost its luster and presentation (the legacy of defeated socialism affects it). Therefore, I found a picture on the Internet. Mine was the same at the dawn of my youth. In those years, they did not pursue external beauty, the main quality was considered to be the functionality and reliability of the unit, so the design and color have not changed since the invention, that is, since the 70s of the last century. I have plastic handles dried out and fell off from constant heating, the “beautiful” dark brown enamel coating, reminiscent of a freshly painted Soviet entrance, became cloudy and lost its original shine. But the hardness of the enamel and the thickness of the ceramic more than compensate for these minor shortcomings. We continue to love the husbands of close men even after they turn gray, go bald and get a belly. It’s the same story here. It still stands in a prominent place in my kitchen, between the microwave and the sink, periodically spreading the divine aroma of baked peppers or eggplant throughout the entire entrance. Yes, yes, I didn’t wet myself, it was the eggplant. The fact is that over time, real treasures often reveal more and more new advantages.

After all, how does a chushkopek work? I quote:
It has a cylindrical shape, in the middle there is a nest surrounded by a heater, into which one bell pepper is placed. There are such devices for more than one pepper, for example, the so-called “Mercedes type” with a dividing plate in the middle for three peppers. This device is named so because when viewed from above, three plates form a sign of a famous car brand.

Thanks Todor, todorside , of course, I became the happy owner of a Mercedes (it doesn’t get wasted on small things), and by pulling out the separating plate, I can place a small eggplant there. The smell of eggplant baked in a chushkopek is in no way inferior to that cooked on the grill. However, you have to bake the peppers one at a time, because real Bulgarian ingots are thin and long, shaped like carrots, and our thick and pot-bellied ones don’t fit in 3. It’s rare that you can buy the Bulgarian variety at the market, which, oddly enough, is written in Hebrew like this and it's called "chushka".

The cooking technology is incredibly simple

I apologize for the photo. I started writing this post half a year ago. when instead of a camera I took pictures with God knows what, and I don’t have the courage to repeat the feat of hovering over the hot mouth of a chushkopek.
1. Place the washed pepper, with the stalk cut off and the seeds removed, into a pre-heated device. Close the lid for a couple of minutes.
2.Open, admire and make sure the crust is charred.
3. Use a hook to fish the finished pepper out.
And quickly wrap it in a plastic bag for about 20 minutes (you can do without it).
4. Peel the skin... (you can do it the next day). I usually bake it in the evening, put it in the refrigerator, and sand it in the morning.

If you bake an eggplant, then after it is ready, you need to cut it lengthwise and scrape out all the pulp with a spoon.

Cooked and peeled peppers, the basis for many dishes.
The easiest:

Liver pigs with garlic

Chushka-burek

In fact, the post was delayed precisely because of the photographs for this recipe. They didn’t turn out more or less photogenic.

I cook by eye, but I specifically looked in books and weighed all the ingredients.
Recipe for 4-5 servings:
1kg red bell peppers
200gr. feta cheese (cow, sheep, goat or buffalo)
4 eggs
1-2 sprigs of parsley or dill
flour
breadcrumbs
Vegetable oil for frying

For the sauce:
curdled milk or yogurt
crushed garlic to taste
dill
a pinch of salt

1. Wash the peppers, cut off the stem, shake out the seeds and bake in a chushkopek, on the grill. Owners of electric stoves can bake them directly on the burner; for a gas stove you will need a divider (without holes)
When the crust is charred and a mind-blowing smell floats, wrap the pepper in a plastic bag and, after cooling, remove the skin
2.Mash the cheese with a fork, add one egg, finely chopped dill and parsley, and mix well.
3. Slightly cut the entrance to the baked and peeled pepper, and carefully fill it with filling.
4. Distribute the flour, remaining eggs and breadcrumbs into separate plates and roll each piece first in flour, shake off excess, dip in egg and lastly roll in breadcrumbs.
Fry in hot oil for a few minutes on each side until golden brown and place on a paper towel to drain excess oil.
5. Prepare a sauce from yogurt, garlic and dill. It is better to serve the sauce separately from the chushka-byurek.

Shopska salata

Only the lazy haven’t written about it. A must-have everyday salad, served in any restaurant, in any rain-fed home.
By the way, about the Shops, an ethnic group living in western Bulgaria...
There are many jokes about them as greedy, stubborn people who do not perceive progress, and at the same time, strong and brave warriors, true Bulgarians. I don’t know how true this is, but “shopska siren” and “shopska salata” characterize them only on the positive side.

Both baked and raw peppers can be used in the salad, depending on the time of year and the preferences of the owners. I have seen many disputes and battles over what is more authentic, raw or baked, and that baked ones are prepared only to please Black Sea tourists. I've met both in restaurants. And in winter, only baked ones are everywhere. I don't mean tourist places, but restaurants in small towns and villages, and in my friends' houses. To be honest, I like it better with baked ones, and as always, chushkopek comes to the rescue. Sometimes I add pickled peppers from the first recipe to the salad.

By the way, when you add a hard-boiled egg, ham and champignons, the Shopska salad turns into.....into Ovcharska salad (Ovcharska salata). "Ovcharska" is translated into Russian as "shepherd".

Bulgarian housewives also freeze baked peppers and wrap them in jars. If anyone is interested, I can write in more detail; I don’t can it myself.

And finally, about the most important dish of Bulgarian cuisine, which includes baked peppers. This, of course Lyutenitsa . I don’t specifically write anything about it, because it deserves a separate post, the recipes for its preparation are so varied.

And finally, a small deviation from the course of Bulgarian cuisine, which I cannot help but mention in connection with baked peppers, is

Eggplant Tangier

Eggplant Tangier, which I saw at marg_f . Recipe from M. Gendelev’s book “The Book of Tasty and Unhealthy Food” Moreover, I have this book, but only Rita paid attention to this recipe. After reading an ode to eggplants, even a hater should try them, but I’m silent about us, the admirers.
I always add a few baked peppers to them. They are simply divine in the marinade.
I'm copying the recipe so it doesn't get lost.

6 eggplants
10-12 cloves of garlic
salt, vegetable oil for frying

Peel the eggplants (5-6 pieces).
Cut lengthwise into slices no thicker than 1 centimeter.
Sprinkle them with coarse salt and let them sit for 20 minutes.

Make the marinade:

150 g 5% light wine vinegar
300 g boiling water
3 heaped tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 tbsp. spoons of table salt,
10 English peppercorns (allspice)
5 bay leaves,
4 cloves of cloves.
And boil for 3 minutes on the fire.

Wipe the eggplant layers from salt and juice, fry in hot vegetable oil until soft (do not overcook!) on both sides.
Cut the garlic into thin slices.
Place the fried eggplants in a container, layer with garlic, and pour in the marinade. The marinade should cover the eggplants.

In general, that’s all I can say briefly about chushkopek, the great invention of all times and peoples of the Bulgarian people, although it is simply impossible to list all the recipes in which baked peppers can be used. Their aroma is the calling card of every Bulgarian restaurant, and not a single holiday meal. Not a single dinner in a Bulgarian home goes by without “chushka liver”, spicy or sweet.
And therefore, a clouded, scary-brown miracle unit with fallen off handles stands in a prominent place in my kitchen, causing the envy of my girlfriends, and all other household inventions pale in front of it. Who needs a TV? I haven’t watched it for 5 years, but it’s still working...

information from the Internet, stories from friends and the book “Bulgarian National Cuisine”

Stuffed peppers At the end of summer, all of Bulgaria smells of peppers. This smell is haunting, it is impossible to hide from it: in any house there is a chushkopek, and where this masterpiece of engineering is not there, peppers are baked on the grill or in the oven. Roasted peppers are the basis of many Bulgarian dishes. It is eaten simply, sprinkled with oil and vinegar and flavored with garlic, it is stuffed, it is used to make “chushka burek”, it is added to salads, it is poured with marinade and stored for the winter... In general, Bulgarian cuisine is unthinkable without it. No matter what Russian journalists say, they claim that they stopped growing peppers in Bulgaria after joining the EU, and in August the markets are full of these fragrant fruits.

How to bake peppers

Every self-respecting Bulgarian has in their home a simple device with the funny name “chushkopek”. This masterpiece of engineering is a heavy cylinder with a cylindrical hole inside. A raw pepper is put in there (and in some models - three peppers), and after a couple of minutes the baked pepper is pulled out. Chushkopeki are inexpensive, they are sold everywhere during the season, and even at a discount. For example, right now there is a special promotion - chushkopeks for 28 levs, it seems.
In principle, you can do without this device. Chushki (that is, peppers) are perfectly baked both on a wire rack in the oven and on the grill. The main thing is to increase the temperature and place some kind of baking tray underneath to catch the flowing juice.
In order for the skin to be easily removed from baked peppers, they must be put in a bag and let them “sweat.” In our opinion, the most delicious variety of pepper (of the many Bulgarian varieties) is Kapia. Red large, almost flat (this is especially important for preparing “chushka burek”) pods with fleshy pulp and a strong aroma.
So, the pods need to be washed and placed on a wire rack. And before that, it’s best to clean it - that is, cut off the tails and remove the seeds. But, in principle, this can be done later, it’s just less convenient. That's all. Now they need to be put under the grill until the skin begins to blacken.
Now it is better to remove the rough skin. To do this, hot peppers are placed in a plastic bag and tied. Once cooled, the skin will peel off easily.

What to do with roasted peppers?

Anything! It can be frozen. It can be put into jars, filled with marinade and sealed for the winter. But the best thing to do is eat it. There are many options:

  • - cut into strips, salt, season with garlic, herbs and vegetable oil (you can add vinegar);
  • — it’s even tastier to use grated cheese instead of salt;
  • - add to any fresh vegetable salad (for example, to the Shopska salad, which we wrote about in);
  • - stuff and bake;
  • — prepare “chushka burek” — an ideal Bulgarian appetizer.

Perhaps it’s worth talking about the last two options in more detail.

Pilneni ingots

Filling for peppers: siren, egg, herbs, garlic. This name, funny for a Russian-speaking person, simply means stuffed peppers. In Bulgaria, what is most often used as minced meat is not meat and rice, but cheese. Although there are also stuffed peppers with meat. But with feta cheese it turns out an incredibly tasty dish.
The recipe for “pilneni ingots” (“pylenni ingots”) is very simple. You can stuff raw peppers, or you can bake them. The second option is more gentle because the skin of the peppers is removed. But the decision is up to the cook.
The filling is easy to prepare. You need to grate the Bulgarian cheese (or you can buy it already crushed - it’s called “grated siren”). Peppers before baking. A little more and there will be a delicious lunch. Brynza should be of high quality, tasty and tender. Add a raw egg and a little crushed garlic to the cheese. Add greens if desired. Some people add pieces of multi-colored peppers or tomatoes to the filling - it also turns out delicious. We once added chopped sun-dried tomato and it turned out fabulous. But even in the basic configuration this filling is very good. Its consistency should not be too liquid, so you should add eggs one at a time. Ready stuffed pepper. A dietary, low-fat, tasty and satisfying dish. By the way, this filling can be used for hot sandwiches and as a spread on bread (for those who are not afraid of raw eggs).
Now the peppers are filled with filling. If you use pre-baked peppers, you need to fill them carefully; they may tear. Raw peppers are not afraid of anything.
Well, now all that remains is to put the peppers in a greased form and put them in the oven. If the peppers are raw, then for 20-30 minutes. If baked, then 15 minutes will be enough.
The dish turns out to be tender, dietary, but at the same time satisfying, excellent both hot and cold. And very, very tasty.

Pig burek

Stuffed peppers fried in flour breading - amazingly delicious! The name of this Bulgarian specialty can be translated as “pepper pie”. Well, yes, there is a pie, only instead of dough there is sweetish and aromatic pepper pulp. So, pig burek: recipe and photo.
Raw peppers are not suitable for this dish - only baked ones. Moreover, you need to choose the flattest pods possible. They are sparingly filled with cheese, egg and garlic filling. After this, the pepper is breaded in flour, egg and breadcrumbs, and then quickly fried in oil until golden brown.
Chushka burek is especially good when served hot. By the way, we usually deviate from the canonical recipe, limiting ourselves to flour breading. But this is a matter of taste.
The dish turns out simply magical. Salty cheese, hot garlic and sweet pepper generally combine wonderfully with each other. The food turns out nourishing and tasty. In Bulgarian restaurants, it is in the “snacks” section of the menu, but with a couple of these peppers you can fill up perfectly – no worse than meat chops. Of course, preparation takes some time, but the result is worth it.

Chushka burek is a traditional Bulgarian dish, which is a hearty and original appetizer made from bell peppers and feta cheese. Read our recipes and delight your guests with unusual deliciousness!

Chushka burek recipe

Ingredients:

  • bell pepper – 2 pcs.;
  • homemade cheese – 100 g;
  • cottage cheese – 100 g;
  • fresh herbs - to taste;
  • chicken egg – 1 pc.;
  • fine breadcrumbs – 50 g;
  • wheat flour – 40 g.

Preparation

So, we cut off the caps from the peppers, clean them of seeds and internal partitions. knead with a fork or grate on a coarse grater, add cottage cheese and beat in a chicken egg. Mix all the filling thoroughly and taste it, adding a little salt. Blanch in boiling water until soft and carefully remove the skin. Now we fill the peppers with cheese and egg filling and give them a flattened shape using a rolling pin so that it is convenient to fry on both sides. Beat the remaining 2 eggs with a mixer, dip the vegetable preparations into the egg mixture, roll the peppers in breadcrumbs and fry 2 sides in hot oil. We serve the dish both hot as a second course and cold as an appetizer.

A simple recipe for chushka burek

Ingredients:

  • bell pepper – 3 pcs.;
  • soft homemade cottage cheese – 200 g;
  • garlic – 2 cloves;
  • egg – 2 pcs.;
  • dill – 5 sprigs;
  • spices;
  • flour – 0.5 tbsp;
  • breadcrumbs - 0.5 tbsp;
  • ground paprika – 0.5 teaspoon.

Preparation

So, we start preparing the dish by preparing the peppers. Light the oven in advance and preheat it to 220 degrees. We process the pepper, cut off the tails, remove the seeds and place them on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes, then cool slightly and carefully remove the skin. Now let's move on to preparing the filling: grind the cottage cheese, throw in chopped fresh herbs, squeeze out the garlic and break the egg for ligaments Add salt to taste, mix until smooth and stuff the mixture into the prepared peppers.

Then press them tightly and flatten them, making the peppers flat. Next, prepare 3 plates for rolling the workpieces. Alternately dip the pepper first in the egg, then in flour, egg and breadcrumbs mixed with paprika. Heat oil in a frying pan and fry the peppers on all sides. We transfer the finished pigs bureks to a paper towel, and then put them on a plate and serve, garnished with herbs.

Pig burek- This is simply baked bell pepper with feta cheese, which is then fried in breadcrumbs.

In Bulgaria pig burek distributed everywhere and deservedly enjoys great love. Served pig burek both as an appetizer and as a main course.

To prepare pig burek you will need

  • Bell pepper. 1 PC. per serving.
  • Brynza. ≈50-70 g per serving. Depending on the size of the pepper.
  • Egg. 2 pcs.
  • Garlic. 1-2 cloves.
  • Greenery. Parsley, dill, green onions, basil - to your taste.
  • Flour. 2 heaped tablespoons.
  • Breadcrumbs.
  • Salt. Pinch.
  • Freshly ground black pepper. Taste.

Cooking pig burek

First of all, bake the bell peppers.

It is better to take the most common pepper, with not very thick walls. If it is possible to use a ground one, then this will be the best choice.

Place the peppers on a baking sheet and place in an oven preheated to 200ºC for about 10-15 minutes.

While the peppers are baking, prepare the filling.

If the cheese is very salty, you can soak it in milk or water.

Finely chop the greens and garlic.

Place feta cheese, chopped herbs, garlic in a deep plate and break 1 egg. Season with freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Mix very thoroughly.

When the bell peppers are baked to black marks, take them out of the oven.

Immediately transfer them to a plastic bag and close well. Leave the peppers in the bag for 10 minutes.


Then we take the peppers out of the bag and peel them, cut out the stalks and remove the seeds.

We stuff the peeled peppers with the prepared cheese filling.

Break the second egg into a deep plate, add a little salt and beat with a fork.

Dredge the stuffed peppers in flour.

Then dip into beaten egg.

And roll in breadcrumbs.

Heat vegetable oil in a frying pan and place the peppers in the frying pan.

Fry over medium heat on both sides until golden crisp. The oil should be well heated so that the breading does not absorb a lot of oil.

Serve pig burek hot, fresh vegetables are best as a side dish.