Eggplant caviar is one of the most delicious and healthy snacks. Food lovers adore her for her unique taste and aroma; Nutritionists respect eggplant caviar for its low calorie content and high content of potassium and fiber, stimulating intestinal motility.
Eating eggplants helps to reduce cholesterol in the blood, normalize water-salt and lipid metabolism in the body and improve the functioning of the heart muscle.
Eggplant caviar - general principles and methods of cooking
The proportions of vegetables for cooking eggplant caviar are arbitrary, to taste. Choosing them, it should be remembered that with the help of onions, peppers and carrots, caviar can be made sweeter; tomatoes also give it acid. When cooking eggplant caviar, their weight should be no less than the weight of all other products. That is, for 1 kg of eggplants for caviar should not take more than 1 kg of other vegetables.
Eggplant caviar - food preparation
The caviar, which we are talking about today, is prepared mainly from:
- eggplants;
- carrots;
- onions;
- tomatoes;
- garlic;
- sweet pepper;
- sunflower oil;
- salt.
Greens and other spices are added to taste.
All vegetables before use for cooking caviar should be washed and chopped as prescribed by the recipe. Usually for eggplant caviar vegetables cut into cubes. Of course, you can use such advances as a meat grinder or blender for its preparation, but experts say that then the taste of caviar is not at all like that.
When preparing products it is important to choose good eggplants - they must be mature, dark, and have a shiny skin.
Eggplant caviar - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Eggplant caviar for canning
What could be better than a jar of fragrant eggplant caviar, open in winter? When the spring greenery and the new autumn harvest are still far away, such preservation is a real gift, and may be appropriate on any table, rousing the appetite with its beautiful appearance and delicious smell. Ingredients:
10 medium sized eggplants;
5 carrots;
5 onions;
5 sweet bell peppers;
1 kg of tomatoes;
vegetable oil;
to taste with salt and spices.
Method of preparation:
1. Cut the eggplants into cubes and, copiously sprinkling them with salt, leave to stand for at least half an hour so that the bitterness comes out with the juice.
2. Rinse the eggplants under running water.
3. Then dice onions, peppers, tomatoes, grate carrots.
4. After heating the vegetable oil in the pan, fry the onion until transparent; then add carrots with peppers, tomatoes and eggplants and simmer all the vegetables for about half an hour with constant stirring. At the end of the quenching seasoning caviar with salt and black pepper.
Put ready-made eggplant caviar in jars, sterilize for about half an hour and roll it up.
Recipe 2: Eggplant caviar from oven-baked eggplants
This caviar is an excellent taste and a very healthy dish. Its recipe is not complicated, and it is possible to use this dish both hot and cold.
Ingredients:
1.2 kg of eggplants;
3 large tomatoes;
3 large bell peppers;
2 cloves of garlic;
2 tsp. vinegar;
to taste salt;
sunflower oil unrefined.
Method of preparation:
1. Baked eggplants baked in the oven on a baking sheet (before this, we pierce with a knife in several places so that they do not burst). To prevent the vegetables from burning during baking, they should be turned over periodically. To make sure that the eggplants are ready, they need to pierce with a knife, which enters the finished eggplant freely. Together with the eggplants, we bake the bell peppers, however, they should be taken out of the oven earlier, after 15 minutes. Put out the finished eggplants to cool in a bowl, and the peppers - in a plastic bag, so that they can be easier to remove the skin.
2. We clean the tomatoes from the skin (you can simply cut them with a sharp knife), carefully remove the skin from the eggplant and cut them into cubes.
3. Having cleaned the peppers from the skin and seeds, we also cut them into cubes. 4. Mix in a bowl all the prepared ingredients, salt them, add vinegar with chopped garlic and sunflower oil (approximately 6 tbsp.). If the tomatoes are sour, then you need to take less vinegar, 0.5 tsp is enough, and in this case you can add as much sugar.
5. Cooking caviar, put it in two or three hours in the fridge, so that it is real.
Recipe 3: Eggplant caviar with mushrooms
Even the most fastidious gourmets will appreciate this dish, since the combination of eggplants with mushrooms gives a very special taste. Caviar is good and cold and hot.
Ingredients:
3 large eggplants;
5 medium tomatoes;
2 carrots;
10 large champignons;
1 large sweet pepper;
10 cloves of garlic;
to taste greens, spices and salt;
sunflower oil.
Method of preparation:
1. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, cut the pepper into 4 parts, then, putting the eggplants with pepper on a baking sheet, smeared with sunflower oil, put on top 5 cloves of garlic.
2. Bake the prepared vegetables in the oven for about 25 minutes.
3. At this time, chop the onions into cubes, rub the carrots on a large grater and fry them in sunflower oil.
4. Bring water to the boil in a saucepan and, alternately placing tomatoes in it, hold them for about 2 minutes so that you can easily peel off them later.
5. Peel the tomatoes, chop them into small cubes and add to the fried onions and carrots.
6. Dice the mushrooms and fry them separately in sunflower oil.
7. Remove baked eggplants, garlic and peppers from the oven and let them cool.
8. Put onions, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms in a saucepan, which we fry, put it on a low fire and simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring from time to time to avoid burning the vegetables.
9. Peel and eggplant peels and cut the flesh into cubes, chop the garlic and add everything to the vegetables that are stewed in a saucepan.
10. After mixing the contents of the pan, salt and continue to simmer for about 20 minutes, do not forget to stir. 11. Add spices, herbs and a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the caviar, stir again and simmer for about 2-3 minutes, after which it is ready.
Eggplant caviar - tips from experienced chefs
So that eggplants do not taste bitter, they need to be cut into cubes and salt, leave for about half an hour, in order for the liquid to stand out, which should be drained. You should know that the source of bitterness is eggplant seeds. Therefore, young eggplants, in which there are no seeds, are not bitter, they can be prepared immediately.
All components for eggplant caviar should be local and seasonal (only in this case, they will have the rich aroma that will help create a truly tasty dish).
While preparing products for cooking eggplant caviar, eggplants should not be chopped finely so that their taste is not lost in the ready-made caviar and does not deprive it of its unique taste.
This caviar can be cooked even with a small amount of oil, since all the vegetables give up their juice, which is enough to extinguish. It will be appreciated by those for whom the question of caloric intake is important. It is clear that stewed vegetables produce more “light” caviar. But from the vegetables, fried in a large amount of oil, a product with a richer taste and smell.
Experienced chefs say that if the eggplants for caviar are grilled or smoked directly on gas on the hob, the eggplant caviar will acquire a completely unique taste and aroma.
