When, at the beginning of summer, zucchini just begins to appear in the garden beds, it seems that there is nothing tastier than vegetable slices fried in flour or batter, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. But gradually there are more and more of them, and it gets hotter and hotter outside. Summer is already in full swing, sometimes there is nowhere to go from zucchini, but there is also no desire to spend many hours at a hot stove at such a time. And in this situation, it couldn’t come at a better time, a recipe for cooking zucchini in the oven, which for its simplicity was even popularly called lazy zucchini caviar.
Indeed, squash caviar in the oven will require minimal presence on your part in the kitchen. But the resulting dish will captivate you with its tenderness, aroma of baked vegetables and impeccable taste.
Lazy squash caviar
This recipe makes caviar so simple that it can be prepared almost every day if you eat enough vegetables. To do this, just bake everything in the oven. True, this can be done in different ways. Listed below are the ingredients needed to make caviar from three medium-sized zucchini.
- 2 medium sized carrots;
- 2 medium bell peppers;
- 1 decent size onion;
- 2 large tomatoes;
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil No.
- Salt;
- Ground black pepper.
To prepare squash caviar according to this recipe, use a baking sleeve.
It is a package made of a special heat-resistant film that can withstand high temperatures up to +220°C and even higher. It has holes on both sides, which is why it is called a sleeve, and it is tied at both ends with a special ribbon made of the same material.
Dishes that are prepared using such a sleeve acquire both the taste of baked and steamed products. During cooking, vegetables are soaked in the juices and seasonings released and acquire a bright and rich taste.
Squash caviar in the sleeve is prepared as follows. All vegetables are thoroughly washed, dried and, if necessary, peeled, seeds or tails removed. Then they need to be cut into pieces of arbitrary shape and size. It is enough to cut the tomatoes into four parts; other vegetables are cut as convenient for you.
After cutting, the vegetables are carefully placed in a sleeve already tied on one side. Then the amount of sunflower oil, salt and spices prescribed by the recipe is poured there.
The sleeve is also tied on the other side and the vegetables in it are mixed a little from the outside. Then it is placed on a baking sheet in the oven, which is preheated to a temperature of +180°C for one hour. In the oven, the sleeve should be placed so that it does not touch the top and side walls, since when heated it swells and, if it comes into contact with hot metal, can be damaged.
Within an hour, the oven cooks the vegetables itself, and there is no need for your presence.
After the set period has expired, remove the sleeve from the oven and cool it slightly so that you can safely cut the film from above without getting burned.
The vegetables will float in a large amount of aromatic juice, which must be drained before transferring the entire contents into the pan.
You wait for the vegetables to cool to room temperature and puree them using an immersion blender or meat grinder. Taste the prepared zucchini caviar and, if necessary, add salt or pepper, as well as crushed garlic if you prefer spicier dishes. This dish has, perhaps, only one drawback - such caviar is not suitable for winter preparations - it must be consumed immediately, stored in the refrigerator for a maximum of several days.
Squash caviar for the winter
But what to do if you want, without suffering especially in the heat, to make zucchini preparations for long-term storage. In this case, squash caviar can also be cooked in the oven, but for the winter it is made according to a slightly different recipe.
First, the following ingredients are washed and cleared of excess components:
- Zucchini – 1000 g;
- Onions – 400 g;
- Tomatoes – 1000 g;
- Carrots -500 g;
- Sweet pepper – 300 g;
- Garlic – 5 cloves.
Added to them:
- Dill, parsley;
- Vegetable oil – 4 tablespoons;
- Salt and pepper.
To prepare squash caviar, all pre-peeled vegetables are cut into oblong pieces.Then take a deep baking tray, grease it with half the amount of oil specified in the recipe and place the chopped vegetables on the bottom, observing the following sequence: first lay the onions, then the carrots, then the zucchini, and on top of the peppers and tomatoes. The remaining amount of oil is poured over the vegetables on top, and the whole thing is sent to an unheated oven. The heating temperature is set to +190+200°C.
The first half hour after you start preparing caviar from baked vegetables, you can do other things. Then remove the baking sheet and carefully mix the vegetables. Leave to bake for another 40-45 minutes.
After turning off the oven and cooling, the vegetables are transferred to a saucepan with a slotted spoon and finely chopped herbs and garlic, as well as salt and spices, are added to them. It is at this stage that you need to take a blender and turn the entire contents of the pan into a homogeneous puree.
Everything is thoroughly mixed and the pan with baked vegetables is placed on the fire. In order for the caviar to be stored well in winter, the contents of the pan must be boiled after boiling for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, but being careful, since the vegetable mass may “spit” hot splashes when boiling.
Then the finished zucchini caviar, while still hot, is laid out in freshly sterilized hot jars and sealed with lids sterilized in boiling water. In this case, the dish prepared according to this recipe will not even require the addition of vinegar for successful storage throughout the winter period.After rolling, the jars must be turned upside down and wrapped in something warm until they cool completely during the day. This is necessary for additional sealing of canned food.
You can store such caviar even in normal room conditions, but preferably not in the light. Because it is in the dark that all the flavor properties of the prepared dish are ideally preserved.
