Almost every housewife prepares squash and eggplant caviar for the winter. And each has its own subtleties in preparing this seemingly ordinary dish. There are no clear rules or requirements. Due to this, caviar can be anything you want: spicy, sweet, tender, with a pleasant sourness. The main thing is that there is a lot of it so that you can eat enough.
Thanks to pepper and an impressive amount of garlic, the caviar turns out spicy and rich. Representatives of the stronger sex clearly will not refuse such a dish. Not only can you eat it with bread, but it also goes very well with vodka.
The main difference between this recipe is the absence of vinegar and other acids. An excellent option for those who are not a fan of using these same acids when canning. Despite their absence, caviar is well stored and has excellent taste characteristics.
Do you want something unusual? Here it is - an exquisite dish that cannot be ignored. By combining such different components, a dish is created that cannot evoke any emotions other than delight.
Tip: the proportions of vegetables are very arbitrary. To achieve a sweeter taste, increase the amount of ingredients such as carrots and onions. Tomato will help add acid. The more it is, the more sour the finished product. But you shouldn’t get carried away with tomatoes; their abundance can lead to the finished product having a too runny consistency.
The original taste of such a snack will be an excellent addition to any dish. The pleasant sweet and sour aftertaste makes you remember this simple culinary masterpiece for a long time.
Important! It is worth taking seriously the choice of dishes in which caviar will be cooked. The use of aluminum pans is highly discouraged, as in such dishes the dish will acquire a very unpleasant metallic taste. The ideal choice is thick-walled cookware. In it, vegetables will be fully stewed, and the possibility of burning will be minimized.
There is no simpler recipe for making eggplant caviar. Unlike other variations, in this case the vegetables are prepared in pieces; they do not even need to be passed through a meat grinder. The dish turns out amazing.
Eggplant caviar is one of the best ways to prepare this vegetable. Children really like this dish; they have gotten used to it since kindergarten. It is impossible to refuse it during dinner with the family. It itself is so homely and cozy that you just want to eat more of it.
We continue the theme of preparing vegetables for the winter - we will prepare very tasty and aromatic eggplant caviar. It can be served as a cold or hot appetizer with meat, spread on bread, or simply eaten with spoons. Homemade eggplant caviar is an excellent dish that is not ashamed to serve to guests even at a festive table.
Undoubtedly, you can prepare eggplant caviar in a variety of ways, but I suggest the option of pre-baking the vegetables in the oven. Thanks to this technique, the finished snack will pleasantly surprise you with its aroma and thick consistency. Many cooks prepare eggplant caviar with tomatoes, but I prefer to use tomato paste. This is a concentrate, due to which the taste of the finished dish becomes richer, the color more saturated, and you need to stew the caviar less (there is no need to evaporate the excess liquid from the tomatoes for a long time).
From the specified amount of ingredients used, approximately 1 liter of ready-made eggplant caviar is obtained, the recipe for which is simple and does not require special cooking skills. You can safely replace apple cider vinegar with wine or table vinegar (take a little less), and fresh garlic with dried garlic (a little less than a teaspoon is enough). In addition, if desired, you can add aromatic herbs (dill, parsley, cilantro, basil), but I prefer the result without such additives.
(1 kg ) (400 grams) (100 milliliters) (50 grams) (1 teaspoon) (2 cloves) (1 teaspoon) (1 pinch) (1 pinch)
First, let's deal with the eggplants, which I suggest not just stewing, but pre-baking. What does this give? Deeper taste and rich aroma. To do this, wash the vegetables and place them on a baking sheet. I advise you to cover it with baking paper or food foil so that you don’t have to wash the baking sheet later (a tip for lazy people like me). Preheat the oven to 230-240 degrees. Let the eggplants bake until soft. By the way, here’s the thing: in general, it is recommended to pierce whole eggplants so that they do not explode during baking, but I don’t do this (I recommend that you do this for the first time). This is because I don’t want to lose the aromatic vegetable juice, which in the process may simply leak onto the baking sheet. As a rule, my eggplants don’t burst in this form.
After 30-40 minutes, the vegetables will be ready - they will first puff up, and then immediately begin to shrink on the table. But the main indicator that the eggplants are almost ready will be the aroma that you will clearly feel. You see, one still managed to explode, and it exploded at the 35th minute of baking. But it’s not scary - the oven remained clean.
To easily and quickly peel the vegetables (it is of no use in eggplant caviar, since it is quite hard), they need to be steamed. We create a bathhouse for them in any convenient way. To do this, you can place the eggplants in a bag, seal it tightly and wrap it in a towel. Or, as I did, put it in a container and close it with a lid. Let the vegetables sit for about 15 minutes and soften even more.
While the eggplants are resting, move on to the onions - peel them and chop them finely with a knife. In total you will need 400 grams of already peeled onions.
Pour 100 milliliters of refined vegetable oil into a thick-walled bowl, heat it and add chopped onions. Fry it over medium heat, stirring, until soft, lightly browned and pleasantly aroma. For this you will need 12-15 minutes.
We need to get rid of the skin in any convenient way. You can cut each eggplant lengthwise and scrape out the flesh with a spoon. Or, as I did, remove the skin with a knife, not forgetting to cut off the stalk.
For many, eggplant caviar for the winter is the same obligatory preparation as zucchini caviar. The recipe with photo that I offer can perhaps be called the simplest of all possible options for preparing eggplant caviar. Here you do not need to pre-bake the eggplants or fry all the vegetables for caviar separately from each other, and then simmer them all together. For me, everything is much simpler: all raw vegetables are minced in a meat grinder, and then stewed until tender. Simple, right? And how delicious! Caviar has a pronounced eggplant taste, is slightly spicy and very aromatic.
Ingredients:
You can twist the vegetables onto the caviar in any order. I suggest starting with eggplant. But first they need to be soaked in cold salted water, then rinsed and squeezed to remove the salt. For a liter of water we take 1 tbsp. l. salt. Cut the eggplants in half (if they are large, you can cut them into 3-4 pieces) and put them in salted water. And since eggplants tend to float, they must be pressed down with pressure.
We leave the eggplants in this bath for 20-30 minutes, meanwhile preparing the rest of the vegetables for the caviar. We clean the hot and bell peppers from seeds and stalks. Peel the onions and garlic. Using a vegetable peeler, peel the carrots. We also cut out the stems of the tomatoes.
Next, twist all the vegetables. I twist the eggplants first. They can be peeled if you want a more delicate consistency in the finished caviar. But I prefer this slightly grainy structure of caviar, so I leave the eggplants in the skin.
Next, tomatoes and bell peppers are twisted (I had green ones, but this is not particularly important).
After onions and carrots. I twist the carrots last, since they are the driest vegetable of all that are used to prepare caviar. And when twisting, it perfectly “picks up” all the vegetable juices left in the meat grinder receiver by other vegetables (I use an old Soviet meat grinder).
Mix the vegetables, add some salt, and add sugar.
And transfer it to a saucepan where the caviar will be cooked. Add oil to vegetables. Stir and, closing the lid, bring the caviar to a boil, and then reduce the heat to medium and cook it for about 60 minutes.
Then add garlic, bay leaf and peppercorns passed through a press to the vegetables.
Simmer the caviar for another 15 minutes, then add vinegar. Stir the caviar and keep on the stove for another 10 minutes. - and the caviar is ready. We put it in sterile jars (I pour a little water into them, then heat them in the microwave at maximum power for 5 minutes).
Screw on with sterile caps. We turn the jars over, wrap them and leave them in the kitchen overnight. After the jars have cooled, we put them away for storage.
From the specified amount of ingredients I got 2 jars of 700 ml each + about a glass left for sampling. Let the eggplant caviar cool completely and sit for at least 3-4 hours, then you can try it. Bon appetit!
Eggplant caviar will not only be an excellent winter snack, but also a side dish for main courses. Another advantage is that it is easily prepared from available and inexpensive ingredients. There are many recipes for eggplant caviar, differing in the set of ingredients and method of preparation.
Eggplant caviar will not only be an excellent winter snack, but also a side dish for main courses.
This recipe requires a minimum of ingredients, which make the most tender and delicious snack:
Step-by-step cooking method:
Eggplant caviar for the winter is an excellent canned vegetable, loved by many, suitable as a side dish for almost all dishes. It is prepared everywhere, fortunately the ingredients are available and inexpensive during the season. I suggest you compare recipes from national cuisines of different countries.
My selection is seven types of blue caviar. Choose a simple, fragrant and original dish - the best!
Any vegetable caviar has a special consistency, so the ingredients for it must be thoroughly crushed. The easiest way is to do this in advance, before subjecting them to heat treatment. Shall we get started?
Ingredients :
These products will yield approximately 6 half-liter jars of caviar.
Preparation:
Rinse the eggplants and tomatoes well, remove any remaining stems. Remove the seeds from the peppers.
Cut all the vegetables into pieces and pass through a meat grinder - the order does not matter.
Pour the resulting puree into a large enamel pan and put on fire.
Add spices, mix thoroughly and taste. If necessary, add salt, additional pepper or sugar - cook to your taste.
After the puree boils, reduce the flame and simmer over low heat for 30-40 minutes, periodically skimming off the foam. During the cooking process, excess moisture will boil away, the caviar will decrease in volume and become thicker.
Pour vegetable oil into the sauce. Let the dish with it simmer for about five minutes.
Add vinegar to the mixture, stir, remove the pan from the heat and quickly pour the caviar into sterile jars with a twist. The containers should be prepared in advance - the jars should be washed, steamed and dried.
Seal the canned food, turn it upside down, cover with a blanket and let cool. After a day, the jars can be stored in a cool place.
Typically, canned caviar is made from zucchini or eggplant - its consistency is similar, but the taste is different. Combine these two vegetables and you get a wonderful and original “hodgepodge”.
Ingredients :
The output is approximately 3 liters of finished caviar.
Preparation:
Wash the eggplants and cut crosswise into slices (thick as thick as your finger). Bake on a dry baking sheet until brown (about half an hour).
Remove the zucchini peel and inner pulp with seeds. Cut the vegetable into slices, sprinkle with oil and also put in the oven - after 15-20 minutes they will become soft and slightly baked.
Coarsely grate the carrots. Finely chop the onion. Peel the sweet pepper from the “entrails”, divide into quarters and chop. Place the prepared vegetables in a deep frying pan, add oil and sauté until soft and light golden brown. Add tomato paste. Simmer for a couple more minutes.
Combine all the fried and baked vegetables in one pan (preferably enameled). Using an immersion blender, turn them into a smooth puree.
Place the pan on the stove and bring the caviar to a boil.
Cook the mixture for about twenty minutes, stirring and adding spices to taste (the usual ratio of sugar and salt is 1 to 2, but it depends on your taste preferences). Place the pepper carefully so as not to make the dish too spicy - as the caviar cools, it will be felt more strongly.
Place the caviar in jars (I recommend taking a volume of 0.5 liters), add half a teaspoon of essence to each one on top.
Cover the filled containers with lids and place to sterilize in a water bath or in the oven (for twenty minutes). Is time running out? Carefully remove the jars (so as not to lift the lids) and immediately roll up.
This delicious dish can be prepared for every day or stored in reserve.
Ingredients :
The result should be approximately 1.5-1.8 kg of caviar.
Preparation:
Cover a baking sheet with foil. Place washed vegetables (eggplant, tomatoes and peppers) on top. There is no need to pre-clean or cut the ingredients!
Place the baking sheet with vegetables in a hot oven for half an hour - so that the skins bake and excess moisture evaporates. The products are already ready to eat!
Carefully remove the skins from all vegetables. Remove the core and seeds from the peppers.
Grind the baked foods with a blender or meat grinder. Add salt to taste. Add all the greens (finely chopped) there.
Separately, fry the onion chopped (in tiny squares) in olive oil, add hot pepper to it.
Pour the onion dressing into the vegetable puree. Squeeze all the garlic there. Stir. The dish is ready.
Attention! If you plan to eat the caviar right away, let it brew for a couple of hours and cool (preferably put it in the refrigerator).
Do you want to roll up? Then put the resulting dish on the fire (in a saucepan) and cook for about ten minutes. Then transfer the caviar into jars, add a few drops of vinegar essence to each. Line a baking sheet with a towel. Place the jars on it, cover with lids and put in the oven for half an hour. After this, roll it up and put it in a cellar or cool niche.
Do you have a multicooker in the house? Use it to whip up vegetable caviar. No special ingredients are required, only the algorithm of actions will change. The whole process will take about an hour and a half.
Ingredients :
The result is one and a half liters of caviar.
Preparation:
Grate the carrots. Cut all other ingredients (peppers, eggplants, onions) into small cubes with a knife (place the products in separate bowls).
Dilute the tomato with a glass of boiling water and stir.
On the multicooker, set the “baking” or “frying” mode, depending on the model of household appliance. Pour oil into a bowl, add onions and fry until beautifully golden brown. Add carrots to the sautéed onions and fry for a few more minutes.
Place the eggplants in the carrot-onion mixture and fry for about ten minutes.
Then add sweet peppers to the fried vegetables. Change the mode to “quenching”, time – 40 minutes. When half of this period has passed, open the multicooker. Pour the diluted tomato into the “stew”, squeeze out the garlic and add spices to taste (do not do this earlier, so as not to over-salt).
Close the lid and simmer until signal. Caviar is ready! Now you can serve it to the table or close it in jars and leave it for the winter. In the second case, it is best to sterilize canned vegetables in a water bath before sealing (10-15 minutes per liter jar).
A very original dish. The cooking recipe is no more complicated than all the others, but such eggplant caviar for the winter requires mandatory sterilization.
Ingredients :
Yield: three jars of product (0.5 l each).
Preparation:
Cut the peppers and eggplants in half lengthwise and place on a baking sheet (it is advisable to lightly sprinkle the vegetables with oil on all sides). Bake the ingredients for 25-30 minutes at a temperature of about 250C - they will become soft and crispy.
Grate the carrots, cut the onion into cubes - fry both ingredients in vegetable oil in one frying pan (together).
Scald the tomatoes with boiling water, then carefully remove the skin. Finely chop the pulp and add to the onion-carrot dressing. Simmer everything for about five minutes.
Chop the mushrooms and fry in a separate frying pan until soft and golden brown.
Remove the skins from the baked eggplants and peppers and finely chop them.
Mix all the ingredients in one pan and put on the stove to simmer for half an hour. During the cooking process, salt the caviar to taste, add dried herbs and pepper. A minute before cooking, squeeze out the garlic.
Place the hot mixture into jars. Pour essence into each filled container. It is better to sterilize canned food in a saucepan with water - do not forget to put a towel on the bottom so that the can does not crack from contact with metal.
After 15 minutes, the jar can be removed from the boiling water and rolled up.
This dish has a noticeable “Caucasian” taste. Armenian-style caviar is good served as a thick sauce for meat cooked on the grill - they go well together.
Ingredients :
Yield: 2 liters of caviar.
Preparation:
Pour oil into a large saucepan, add onion (cut into small squares) and sauté until soft (do not fry!). Alternatively, you can chop the onion using a special vegetable grater.
Place the tomatoes cut into slices into the oil-onion mixture and simmer for about five minutes. Don't forget to stir!
Cut the washed eggplants into cubes, add salt and let stand for a while. Drain the resulting juice and add the main ingredient to the tomatoes and onions.
There, in the pan, put chopped herbs, squeezed garlic and chili peppers, well seeded and cut into tiny strips. Add salt - keep in mind that the workpiece will boil down, therefore, the volume will decrease. Simmer the vegetable mixture over moderate heat for half an hour. The eggplants should practically “dissolve”.
Pour vinegar into the finished dish.
Gently mash the boiling mixture using a potato masher to create a homogeneous “puree.”
Place the caviar in sterile jars and roll up immediately. Wrap it up for a day until it cools completely.
The sauce with the interesting name Ajvar belongs to Yugoslav cuisine, where it is considered a national dish. Its thick consistency and heterogeneous structure allow it to be used as a light side dish, spread on sandwiches or served with meat.
Cooking time: 1 hour.
Ingredients :
You will get approximately 2 liters of aromatic caviar.
Preparation:
Wash the eggplants and sweet peppers. Bake the whole vegetables in the oven at 180 degrees (cooking time - approximately 30 minutes).
Peel a few onions and cut them into slices.
Screw the lids on the jars, turn them upside down and wrap them until they cool completely. Store Ajvar sauce in a cool place. In this case, canned vegetables do not require additional sterilization.
The main thing for long-term storage of canned vegetables is sterility of the dishes. Simply rinsing the jars with boiling water is not enough. I proceed as follows. Wash storage containers (and lids) well with soap and running water.
I pour water into the pan and place a special circle on top for sterilization. When it boils, I place the jars on the circle (on the rim) one by one, holding each one over the steam for twenty minutes. I take it off on a clean towel (bottom up). The jars must cool and dry. Now I put the lids in the pan and boil for another 10-15 minutes. Such careful processing will help the workpieces not to sour during storage.
The caviar is prepared for future use, but the “little blue” ones are still running out? Why not pamper your family with delicious main courses, namely -? In our culinary master class, you will find 9 recipes with original fillings.