Homemade squash caviar
A friend of my grandmother, Guseva Varvara Vasilievna, taught me how to cook homemade squash caviar. It is done quite quickly and easily, and the vegetables that make it up (zucchini, onions, garlic, tomatoes) are not only tasty, but also healthy. When hot, zucchini caviar is a good option for the second (especially if served with boiled potatoes), and when cooled, it is also suitable as a vegetable snack. PS If desired, you can replace half of the entire norm of zucchini in this recipe with the same amount of eggplant. Then the taste of homemade caviar will turn out sharper and richer.
Ingredients
Servings 6- zucchini or Gribovsky zucchini - 2 medium (about 18-20 cm long, with a total weight of about 1000 gr.)
- onions - 2-3 medium heads (with a total weight of about 200 gr.)
- tomatoes - 3 medium (total weight about 350 gr.)
- garlic - 2 large cloves
- granulated sugar - 1.5 teaspoons without a slide
- salt - a pinch or to taste
- refined sunflower oil - a little for frying
- parsley and dill - a couple of sprigs
Cooking
Step 1
Wash the tomatoes, peel the onion, rinse with cold running water. Wash the zucchini (and eggplant, if you use them), then peel (with a sharp knife or vegetable peeler). It is advisable to rinse the zucchini again with cold water so that they are not slippery when cutting.
Step 2
Pour a little (about 2-3 tablespoons) odorless refined sunflower oil into an aluminum pan Ø about 23 cm and 8 cm high (or any other metal pan with a thick bottom of the same volume) and put on a small fire. While it is heating, use a teaspoon or a knife to remove the seeds from the zucchini (if they are large and dense), cut the flesh into small cubes. Put the chopped zucchini in a preheated pan and simmer under a lid over low heat until they soften (they will be easily pierced with a sharp knife) and juice comes out of them. Don't forget to stir them from time to time. Here are a couple of tips: 1. If the zucchini is old and dry, then it can stick to the pan. To avoid this, you can add a little (1-2 tablespoons) of cold water. 2. If you use eggplant in the recipe, then first cut and put the zucchini in the pan, because. they secrete more juice, and only then - eggplant (the seeds do not need to be removed from them).
Step 3
While zucchini (and eggplant) are stewing, pour 2 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil, put it on a small fire. Cut the onion into small cubes, put in a preheated pan and fry, stirring it from time to time. It should become slightly translucent and soft (easily pierced with a sharp knife).
Step 4
While the onion is frying, cut the tomatoes into small cubes (if you peeled them, be careful, because they will be very slippery), add them to the onion and simmer, stirring occasionally, also over low heat until the tomatoes are completely softened and separated from them juice.
Step 5
When the zucchini (and eggplant) are soft, mash them in a frying pan with a special masher with holes for making mashed potatoes into a more or less homogeneous mass (I like to grind zucchini in this way, because only the above cooking technology provides the desired consistency of the dish) .
Step 6
Add fried onions and tomatoes to the mashed zucchini (and eggplant), salt to taste, sweeten and leave to simmer under the lid over low heat, stirring from time to time. Be careful, the mixture may splatter!
Step 7
At this time, wash the garlic (from which you first need to remove the skin) and finely chop, add to the vegetables, mix, leave to simmer under the lid for another 5-7 minutes, so that the garlic becomes soft.
Step 8
Wash the greens, finely chop, put to the caviar, mix and turn off the fire under the pan. Covering the pan with a lid again, let the caviar cool to a warm state and only then serve it to the table. Enjoy your meal!
Step 9
You can store the remains of homemade squash caviar in the refrigerator in a sealed container for about a day, but freshly prepared is the tastiest of all.