Eggplant caviar is a delicious and popular canned dish in almost every grocery store. But why not do it yourself at home? Moreover, a freshly prepared dish is always healthier than a canned one.
Dishes from this wonderful vegetable are present in the cuisines of many countries. Interestingly, from the point of view of botany, this is not a vegetable at all, but a berry, and it is rich in vitamins of the entire B group, trace elements and fiber; however, in cooking, a slightly different classification is adopted.
In most cases, canned caviar has a fairly simple composition, including only the main product, tomato and vegetable oil. The recipe below allows you to make the taste richer, more piquant by adding other ingredients, including fresh herbs.
Before you start cooking caviar, you need to choose a method of cooking the eggplant themselves: they can be boiled in a double boiler, then they turn out to be more juicy, or baked in the oven, then the taste will be more pronounced. Decide for yourself.
You will need:
- a couple of pieces of eggplant without dents and damage to the skin;
- one red bell pepper;
- one medium-sized carrot;
- one onion (red onions can be used);
- 2 tbsp tomato paste;
- 4 tablespoons unrefined sunflower oil;
- half a teaspoon of any seasoning mixture, for example, "Provencal herbs", "Caucasian herbs", "Asian cuisine", "Mediterranean cuisine" (to taste);
- on a sprig of dill, cilantro and basil (a little more);
- a couple of cloves of garlic;
- ½ - 1 tsp table vinegar 9%;
- ½ - 1 tsp Sahara;
- salt, black pepper and / or ground allspice;
- hot red pepper or a sauce based on it (not necessary, only for spicy lovers)
Instead of tomato paste, you can use the trade wind, which is mashed tomato pulp. The trade winds are sold in stores in the same packaging as juices.
Use unrefined sunflower oil, it will add its own unique touch to the overall flavor of the dish.
Preparation
Wash the eggplants, drain, remove the stalk, cut in half. Pour a small amount of water into a bowl, add a quarter teaspoon of salt and dip the eggplant there for 15-20 minutes - this will remove the bitterness.
Drain the eggplants and bring them to full readiness for use in the chosen way: boil (15-20 minutes) or bake (40-50 minutes).
Wash the carrots, peel and grate. Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Wash the red pepper, remove the seeds and cut into small cubes in the same way.
Pour the sunflower oil into the pan, put the vegetables prepared in the third step and fry until tender. If you are using tomato paste, dilute it a little with water and place it with vegetables 5 minutes before the end of cooking; if a trade wind is used, then it must be put into the pan much earlier, in about fifteen minutes. Mix everything thoroughly from time to time.
When the vegetables are ready, add seasonings, salt, pepper, hot sauce, vinegar, sugar, finely chopped herbs, garlic and heat for a couple more minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
If you baked eggplants in the oven, then remove the skin, if you boiled it, then you can leave the skin.
Place the cooled vegetables and eggplant in a blender bowl. Punch until a homogeneous mass is formed, transfer to prepared dishes and refrigerate for one hour. During this time, the caviar will be infused and cooled.
Serve caviar to the table as an additional vegetable side dish to various dishes, or use it to make sandwiches.
If you cook caviar at one time, add the greens directly to the blender bowl, as in this case it does not need to be cooked.
