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 low calorie content and high potassium and fiber content, which stimulate intestinal motility.
The use of eggplant helps reduce blood cholesterol, normalize water-salt and lipid metabolism in the body and improve the functioning of the heart muscle.
Eggplant caviar - general principles and methods of preparation
The proportions of vegetables for the preparation of eggplant caviar are taken arbitrary, to taste. When choosing them, it should be remembered that with onions, peppers and carrots, caviar can be made sweeter; tomatoes give it acid. When preparing caviar from eggplant, their weight should be no less than the weight of all other products. That is, for 1 kg of eggplant for caviar, you should take no more than 1 kg of other vegetables.
Eggplant caviar - product preparation
The caviar, which we are talking about today, is prepared mainly from:
- eggplant;
- carrots;
- onions;
- tomatoes;
- garlic;
- sweet pepper;
- sunflower oil;
- salt.
Greens and other spices are added to taste.
Before using all vegetables for cooking caviar, wash and grind as prescribed by the recipe. Typically, for eggplant caviar, vegetables are cut into cubes. Of course, you can use progress such as a meat grinder or a blender to cook it, but experts say that then the taste of caviar is not at all like that.
When preparing products, it is important to choose good eggplant - they must be ripe, dark, and have a shiny skin.
Eggplant caviar - best recipes
Recipe 1: Eggplant Caviar for Preservation
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 conservation is a real gift, and can be appropriate on any table, arousing 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 salt and spices.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the eggplants into cubes and, sprinkling them abundantly with salt, leave to stand for at least half an hour so that bitterness comes out with juice.
2. Rinse the eggplant under running water.
3. Then cut the onions, peppers, tomatoes into cubes, grate the carrots.
4. Warming the vegetable oil in a pan, fry the onions until transparent; then add carrots with pepper, tomatoes and eggplant and stew all the vegetables for about half an hour with constant stirring. At the end of the stew, season the caviar with salt and black pepper.
We lay out the finished eggplant caviar in cans, sterilize for about half an hour and roll it up.
Recipe 2: Eggplant Caviar from Baked Eggplant
This caviar is excellent in taste and very healthy. Its recipe is not complicated, and you can use this dish both hot and cold.
Ingredients:
1.2 kg of eggplant;
3 large tomatoes;
3 large bell peppers;
2 cloves of garlic;
2 tsp vinegar
salt to taste;
unrefined sunflower oil.
Cooking method:
1. Bake the washed eggplant in the oven on a baking sheet (before this, pierce with a knife in several places so that they do not burst). To avoid burning vegetables during baking, they should be turned over periodically. To make sure that the eggplants are ready, they need to be pierced with a knife, which enters the finished eggplant freely. We bake the bell peppers with the eggplants, however, they should be removed from the oven earlier, after about 15 minutes. We put the finished eggplants to cool in a bowl, and pepper in a plastic bag, so that it is easier to remove the skin from them.
2. Peel the tomatoes from the skin (you can just cut it with a sharp knife), carefully remove the skin from the eggplant and cut them into cubes.
3. Having peeled bell peppers and seeds, we also cut them into cubes.
4. After mixing all the prepared ingredients in a bowl, salt them, add vinegar with chopped garlic and sunflower oil (about 6 tbsp. L.). If the tomatoes are acidic, then you need to take less vinegar, and 0.5 tsp is enough. Also in this case, you can add as much sugar.
5. After preparing the caviar, put it in the refrigerator for two to three hours to insist.
Recipe 3: Eggplant Caviar with Mushrooms
This dish will be appreciated even by the most fastidious gourmets, as the combination of eggplant with mushrooms gives a very special taste. Caviar is good in both cold and hot.
Ingredients:
3 large eggplant;
5 medium tomatoes;
2 carrots;
10 large champignons;
1 large bell pepper;
10 cloves of garlic;
to taste greens, spices and salt;
sunflower oil.
Cooking method:
1. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, cut the pepper into 4 parts, then, laying the eggplant and pepper on a baking sheet, greased with sunflower oil, put 5 garlic cloves on top.
2. Bake prepared vegetables in the oven for about 25 minutes.
3. At this time, dice the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater and fry them in sunflower oil.
4. In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil and, alternately placing the tomatoes in it, hold them for about 2 minutes so that you can easily remove the skin from them later.
5. After peeling the tomatoes, chop them into small cubes and add to the fried onions and carrots.
6. Cut the mushrooms into cubes and separately fry them in sunflower oil.
7. We take out the oven baked eggplant, garlic and peppers and let them cool.
8. In the pan we spread the onions, carrots, tomatoes and mushrooms that we fried, put it on low heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid burning vegetables.
9. Peel the peppers and eggplant from the skin and cut the pulp 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 simmering for about 20 minutes, not forgetting to stir.
11. Add spices, herbs and a couple of tablespoons of sugar to the caviar, mix again and simmer for about 2-3 minutes, after which it is ready.
Eggplant caviar - useful tips from experienced chefs
So that the eggplants are not bitter, they must be cut into cubes and salted, left for about half an hour, so that liquid is released, 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 cooked immediately.
All components for eggplant caviar should be local and seasonal (only in this case they will have that rich aroma that will help create a truly tasty dish).
During the preparation of products for the preparation of eggplant caviar, eggplant should not be finely chopped so that their taste is not lost in the finished caviar and does not deprive it of its unique taste.
This caviar can be cooked even with a small amount of oil, as all vegetables give their juice, which is enough to stew. This will be appreciated by those for whom the issue of caloric value of food is important. It is clear that stewed vegetables produce lighter caviar. But from vegetables fried in large quantities of oil, a product with a more saturated taste and smell is obtained.
Experienced chefs say that if you grill eggplant for caviar or smoke it directly on the gas on the burner, eggplant caviar will acquire a completely unique taste and aroma.
