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Eggplants or “little blue” ones have long been loved in Russia, despite the fact that in most of our country this vegetable can only be grown in greenhouse conditions, it is very heat-loving. Preparations made from them are so popular that in August–September most housewives buy countless quantities of eggplants, taking advantage of the low seasonal prices for them, even if they were unable to grow a decent harvest of these valuable vegetables in their gardens. Well, if the year has been fruitful, then all efforts are thrown into finding as many interesting and tempting recipes for dishes and eggplant preparations as possible. After all, they can be pickled, fermented, salted, and stuffed.
Traditionally, the most popular eggplant caviar. It should be noted that this dish, especially in the form of canned food, is originally Russian, and, more precisely, even Soviet, since it was invented by food technologists in the last century.
But every good housewife considers it her duty to at least somehow diversify its composition and preparation, and add her own twist to the taste of eggplant caviar, familiar to everyone from childhood. Eggplant caviar, prepared by passing all or most of the ingredients through a meat grinder, is the most traditional type of this preparation.Of course, in recent years, many kitchen tools have been invented to make life easier for the housewife. But it is the use of a conventional meat grinder that allows you to obtain that ideal, homogeneous structure of eggplant caviar, in which even tiny pieces of natural vegetables may be present.
Why is eggplant caviar valued?
Eggplants have many benefits. Perhaps, the only people who don’t like them are people who are severely allergic to this vegetable - in our time, everything happens. Eggplant dishes are most valued by women who care about their appearance, figure, and weight. After all, the little blue ones are distinguished by their low calorie content and at the same time exquisite taste. In addition, gone are the days when eggplants had to be soaked for a long time before cooking to free them from the bitterness that accumulated in the skin.
Eggplant caviar contains a significant amount of fiber, which has a beneficial effect on the digestion process itself. Eggplants are also rich in potassium, so they are useful for heart problems, gout, and reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Caviar contains a lot of B vitamins, vitamin PP, ascorbic acid, as well as iron, zinc, manganese and copper. Eggplants are able to normalize water-salt metabolism in the body.
100 grams of commercially produced eggplant caviar contains on average:
- Water – 73.6 g
- Carbohydrates – 5.1 g
- Dietary fiber – 3.8 g
- Fat – 13.3 g
- Proteins – 1.7 g
- Calorie content – 148 Kcal.
You just need to take into account that eggplants tend to absorb large quantities of vegetable fats.Therefore, if the calorie content of a dish is of paramount importance to you, then you need to pay attention to the amount of sunflower oil used in recipes. It is better to do without it entirely, or use it to a minimum.
The simplest and fastest recipes
The most classic and at the same time easiest to prepare eggplant caviar recipe can be considered the following:
Compound:
- Eggplants – 5 kg;
- Ripe tomatoes – 2 kg;
- Sweet bell pepper – 2 kg;
- Salt, garlic - to taste;
- Sunflower oil - to taste.
After washing the eggplants in cool water, peel them if desired, cut into pieces of any size and shape and boil in salted water until they become soft.
Cut the tomatoes into small pieces. The pepper, previously cleaned of seed chambers and stalks, is also cut into any shape.
First, grind the eggplants separately through a meat grinder, then the mixture of tomatoes and peppers. Then fry the peppers and tomatoes in sunflower oil with the addition of salt and spices to your taste for 3-5 minutes. At the last stage, combine them with grated and boiled eggplants, add finely chopped garlic (through a meat grinder or garlic press) and stir everything thoroughly.
Place the mixture over medium heat, bring to a boil and cook for 40 minutes, stirring regularly. Immediately pour the boiling mixture into prepared jars and sterilize: liter jars - about 30 minutes, half-liter jars - about 20 minutes. After this, the caviar can be rolled up and stored.
What’s good about this recipe, besides its ease of preparation, is that it can be called dietary, since the eggplants are cooked by boiling.
But if you want to make eggplant caviar, the absorption of which will not affect your figure at all and will bring nothing except benefit, then follow the following recipe:
Take 1-2 kg of eggplant, wash well and bake with the skin in the oven on a grill or tray. After the vegetables have cooled, peel them, cut into oblong pieces and grind through a meat grinder. To the mass of grated eggplants, add a few tablespoons of freshly squeezed lemon or orange juice, finely chopped herbs, according to your tastes, and salt. Mix everything well. If desired, you can add a few chopped onions with garlic cloves using a meat grinder. This eggplant caviar It can only be stored in the refrigerator, but it is very tasty and healthy.
Multi-component recipes for eggplant caviar
If you are a gourmet gourmet and richness of taste and smell are more important to you, when making eggplant caviar for the winter through a meat grinder, you need to give preference to recipes where all vegetable components are fried separately in vegetable oil before mixing. It will be impossible to resist the taste and aroma of such a dish. Try, for example, this recipe for eggplant caviar.
Required ingredients:
- Eggplants - 4.5 kg;
- sweet pepper – 2 kg;
- onions – 800 grams;
- carrots – 1 kg;
- tomatoes – 2 kg;
- parsley – 50 grams;
- salt, chilli and vegetable oil - to taste.
First you need to do the preparatory work: wash and peel the eggplants, remove the tails and all seeds from the peppers, peel the onions and carrots, wash the tomatoes and cut them into several parts, wash the parsley.
Peppers and eggplants should be cut into long pieces lengthwise, add salt and leave for several hours.
Then oil is poured into the frying pan, heated until a barely noticeable smoke appears, and chopped and slightly squeezed eggplants are placed there. After frying, they are passed through a meat grinder and placed in a large cauldron with a thick bottom. In the same frying pan, the peppers are fried separately, then they are also passed through a meat grinder and added to the eggplants. The onions are first passed through a meat grinder and only then fried and also added to the vegetables.
The tomatoes are fried last, a little water is added to the pan and they are simmered for 10-15 minutes until thickened.
After all the ingredients are mixed in the cauldron, place it on medium heat to simmer. Stir the mixture constantly so that it does not burn. Try it and 10 minutes before it’s ready, add the parsley minced through a meat grinder. The caviar should be stewed for about an hour. The boiling vegetable mass must be quickly divided into pre-sterilized jars, closed with sterilized lids, turned over and wrapped. In this case, additional sterilization of canned food is not necessary.
To vary the taste, when making eggplant caviar through a meat grinder, you can add various ingredients to this recipe: pumpkin, parsnip roots, celery, apples and even walnuts. The number of additional elements introduced should be equal in weight to from 1/10 to 1/5 of the number of eggplants used.
If you want to get the exquisite taste of eggplant caviar combined with health benefits, try not frying all the vegetables in the above recipe, but baking them in the oven before grinding them through a meat grinder.
Recipe with vinegar
Many housewives traditionally make winter preparations using vinegar - after all, it allows, without using sterilization, to increase the shelf life of eggplant caviar. In addition, the taste of finished eggplant caviar becomes piquant and unusual. Using the recipe below, prepare a new dish that will delight you on a frosty winter day.
In order to bring your plans to life you will need:
- 2 kg eggplant;
- 1 kg of ripe tomatoes;
- 1 kg of sweet pepper;
- 0.8 kg carrots;
- 0.5 kg onions;
- 1 head of garlic;
- 80 grams of clarified butter;
- 1 tbsp. spoon of salt;
- 2 tbsp. spoons of sugar;
- ground pepper - to taste;
- 100 ml table (apple) vinegar 9%.
Peel the peppers from the seed chamber and tails, remove the skins from eggplants and tomatoes and cut all vegetables into large pieces. Then grind using a meat grinder.
Carrots and onions with garlic can also be ground through a meat grinder. Mix all the ingredients of the recipe in a saucepan with a thick bottom and simmer over low heat. After boiling, add salt, ground pepper, sugar and any additional herbs and spices to your taste. Simmer for about 50 minutes.Then add vinegar to the pan and heat for another ten minutes. Still boiling caviar should be placed in pre-sterilized jars and screwed. Turn the jars over, wrap them and leave to cool for 24 hours.
The average cooking time for eggplant caviar according to any recipe is about three hours. Thus, you will spend relatively little time, but in return you will get the opportunity in winter to periodically enjoy a delicious and healthy snack that reminds you of the hot summer.
