6
Prepared by: Katerina
05/18/2020 Cooking time: 2 hours 0 minutes
| Save | I cooked) | Estimate |
I’m sharing a recipe for Odessa-style eggplant caviar. It makes a delicious cold appetizer that can be served with potatoes or fresh bread.
Description of preparation:
Below I will tell you in more detail how to prepare eggplant caviar in Odessa.
Instead of parsley and dill, you can use fresh cilantro if you like. If desired, you can add a spoonful of natural apple cider vinegar to the caviar. Caviar is prepared using baked eggplant and sweet pepper. It is eaten instantly, so I recommend preparing more right away! Purpose: For lunch / For dinner Main ingredient: Vegetables / Eggplant Dish: Appetizers Geography of cuisine: Ukrainian / European Diet: Lenten dishes / Vegan dishes
Features of preparing raw eggplant caviar
Raw eggplant caviar is better known as “Odessa” or “Jewish”. There are many options for preparing it, but the main idea of the dish remains the same - almost all the ingredients are used raw. Only the main component of the dish is subjected to heat treatment. Raw vegetable caviar is easy to prepare and is a versatile snack.
If the housewife wants to use a meat grinder or blender, it is recommended to abandon this idea. The taste of raw caviar will be richer and more interesting if you chop all the components with a knife to the size of a small cube.
You can bake eggplant, and in some versions, peppers, either on the grill or in a dry frying pan or in the oven. Some housewives cook vegetables in a slow cooker, or stew them in a small amount of water.
How to cook “Odessa-style eggplant caviar”
Prepare all ingredients. Preheat the oven to 250 degrees.
Wash the bell pepper and eggplant. Place them on a wire rack and bake in the oven for 40-50 minutes.
Cool the prepared vegetables completely.
Peel the pepper and eggplant, then cut into small cubes.
Finely chop the onion and parsley, pass the garlic through a press.
Make cross cuts on the tomatoes, add hot water and leave for a couple of minutes. Peel, remove seeds and finely chop with a knife.
Add all vegetables to a bowl. Salt, pepper and season with oil. Stir and put the caviar in the refrigerator for an hour to let it brew.
Odessa style eggplant caviar is ready. Bon appetit!
Eggplant caviar in Odessa style
Today, thanks to the film “Liquidation,” even babies know that eggplants in Odessa are called “little blue.” And no matter how simple a dish eggplant caviar is, it is about the Odessa “blue caviar” that verses are composed. Perhaps it’s time for me to talk about real Odessa caviar! Summer, Odessa, a dim kitchen in an Odessa communal apartment, six primus stoves, and a grandmother in an apron at the rickety kitchen table sorting out purchases brought from Privoz... My happy Odessa childhood - that’s what blue caviar is for me!
First of all, we need eggplants. Summer, dark purple, tight and heavy.
We will not chase large and thick eggplants; we will choose not very large, smooth and shiny ones, with a green “cap” confirming their freshness.
We also need tomatoes - red, ripe, with sugar pulp. The most delicious tomatoes in my life were Odessa steppe tomatoes: small, bright red fruits with a green crown. No, no, let’s just take good tomatoes, after all, where is Odessa and where am I today...
Fresh garlic, red sweet onions - let's stock up on these absolutely necessary ingredients.
What else? Vegetable oil! No, not the sexless and tasteless stuff that fills the shelves today. And even the noble cold-pressed olive oil that is not fashionable today. We need sunflower oil from roasted seeds. Natural, Ukrainian or Kuban, aromatic and incredibly tasty.
Also have a decent sized piece of foil on hand. A knife – preferably wooden or plastic, fortunately there is plenty of this stuff in stores today.
And finally, and most importantly, we need live fire. Gas stove or barbecue, even just a fire.
No ovens, no dividers - just an open flame.
Can you imagine an Odessa woman with her temperament and generous body blazing with the heat of the southern sun, languidly baking eggplants in the oven? I beg you - real Odessa residents do not prepare blue caviar like this.
Delicious zucchini baked with tomatoes and cheese
Start by folding a piece of foil in half to make a square approximately 30cm by 30cm. Make a hole of the required size in the center of the square and place this “apron” under the most powerful burner of your gas stove. Fold the edges of the foil upward slightly. A little later you will understand why I recommend doing this.
Turn on the gas at full power. Wash the eggplant, dry it and place it directly on an open fire.
Now let the fire thoroughly roast the side of the eggplant. Don’t worry, oddly enough, there will be no smoke or burning in the kitchen, the skin of the eggplant is thin and the flesh is juicy, so the skin will burn without smoke.
Turn the eggplant from side to side until the juice inside it boils and begins to break out, and steam flows from the depths of the eggplant pulp.
This is where you’ll appreciate my tip with the foil - at least you won’t have to tear the stove off later!
And here he is, a handsome man exuding the aroma of smoke, ready! This happens quite quickly, within 10 - 20 minutes.
Quickly transfer the eggplant to the board and pour water into the bowl - or turn on the tap if you don't have a meter.
Remove the burnt skin by dipping your hands in water. Hot? Be patient! Help yourself with a small knife or spoon.
Real Odessa caviar requires sacrifice!
But your reward will be amazingly colored pulp! Not gray, not brown - but just like this, white and golden. And keep in mind, it won’t darken later if you continue to act correctly.
If there is a little black skin left, it is not a problem. It is edible, will give a brighter smoky taste, and you can then remove it from the caviar.
Now chop the clean pulp on the board with a knife.
Pasta lasagne
Are you ready? Transfer the caviar to a plate, add salt and generously splash in the oil. Don't count calories, this is not the case. You can’t spoil porridge and Odessa blue caviar with butter!
Already in this form she is divine! But this is still a semi-finished product.
Now the caviar needs to be seasoned with tomatoes.
Everything is extremely simple. Take a grater with large holes. As they say in Odessa – “buryachnaya”.
Wash the tomato and cut it in half. Place the cut tomato on the grater blade.
Lightly press the tomato with your hand so that it fits snugly against the grater, and rub the pulp until only the skin remains in your hands.
And work carefully, carefully, don’t rush. There is absolutely no need to rub your fingers; press the tomato onto the grater with your open palm!
If the tomato is too watery, and you are also an esthete, you can squeeze out some of the juice with the seeds before grating the tomato. It's clear that I don't do this. Am I from Odessa or where?!
Chop the garlic as you like.
Grandmother ground garlic with salt. And I have a lot of different devices for garlic.
Here is a Swedish grater, a gift from a friend.
Here is a box of cloves for grinding garlic - a gift from a friend.
But my favorite “garlic grass”, she is about 30 years old, and is not demolished.
As for the onion, it is not required here. You can get by with just garlic. However, I love onions. I chop it finely, throw it in cold water for a second and then wring it out in a towel.
Add onion and garlic to the caviar - stir, taste and, if necessary, season to your taste: add salt. Sometimes, if the tomatoes are lackluster in flavor, it may be worth adding a drop of vinegar to the caviar.
And here it stands in front of you, real Odessa-style blue caviar!
(15) I COOK TWICE A DAY AND ASK FOR MORE Brilliantly simple recipe BREAKFAST SNACK - YouTube
You can take a sample, you deserve it!
Take a piece of gray fresh bread, fill it with caviar, take a bite...
You will feel the unique, enchanting taste of smoke on your tongue and the whole palette of spicy-salty-sour-sweet...
And if you add another piece of lightly salted feta cheese to this caviar and this bread, you will experience a real gastronomic delight!
Eggplant caviar with tomatoes
We will need:
- 1 kilo eggplant
- 1 kilogram of onions
- kilogram of bell pepper
- 1 kilo tomatoes
- 6 cloves garlic
- seasonings (salt, pepper) - to your taste
- vegetable oil - about 0.5 cups
Let's start preparing eggplant caviar with tomatoes:
- First of all, let's wash all the vegetables. Then we peel our eggplants and cut them into cubes.
- The eggplants should then be stewed in a large frying pan in a medium amount of vegetable oil. Let the fire be low, simmer the eggplants longer.
- At the same time, in another large frying pan, begin frying the onions until they turn golden.
- Scald the bell pepper in boiling water, remove the film from it.
- Also scald and peel the tomatoes. Now cut the peppers and tomatoes into cubes or cubes and add to the onions.
- Simmer the mixture of onions, peppers and tomatoes over low heat until tender, add salt and pepper five minutes before readiness.
- Add the finished contents of the second frying pan to the eggplants, and add the peeled and chopped garlic there. All this wealth should be simmered for another 15 minutes.
Next, you can cool the caviar and put it in glass jars and put it in the refrigerator. It will not be stored for long, and there is no need to, because eggplant caviar according to this recipe is the most delicious. That's what my family told me.
If you want to make preparations for the winter, then you should transfer the caviar mass into jars sterilized with steam and boiling water, cover them with the same lids, and then seal them hermetically.
For those who like interesting combinations, I have a recipe for eggplant caviar with mushrooms.
