Zucchini Caviar: Homemade Ukrainian Vegetable Spread Recipe
Why a cold appetizer that looks like a salad and is made from minced vegetables is called caviar, I don't know. It reminds me of a scene from Gaidai's film “Ivan Vasilievich Changes Profession,” where the clerk Feofan calls eggplant caviar “overseas” caviar. Apparently, in those days vegetable caviar was something fantastic and hardly believable.
Nevertheless, the name “caviar” stuck, and caviar isn't just harvested from fish, I recommend it, but also made from vegetables (zucchini, pumpkin, eggplant, beets) and mushrooms, often with carrots, apples, onions and various herbs added.
Zucchini caviar is probably the best-known vegetable caviar. Back in the day it was perhaps the people's dish number one, along with salted Pacific sardines, spiced sprats and doctor's sausage wrapped in coarse brown paper. And if you add some green onions, fresh Ukrainian bread and a small bottle of vodka…
Zucchini caviar is exceptionally good for you. It's easy to digest, contains lots of useful nutrients, and on top of that it's really tasty. The base of zucchini caviar is zucchini, carrots, onions, spices and a little vegetable oil. The most important stage in making zucchini caviar is the cooking.
In factories, the zucchini is fried or baked. And quite often they use not fresh young zucchini but overripe or frozen ones. I remember that it used to be simple: there was zucchini caviar. It was always the same and always tasty.
Now there are lots of producers and, as a result, lots of different flavors. Often what's inside the jar is a purée that tastes vaguely like a zucchini mix. Often there's a lot of liquid, and the caviar is made not from marrows but from courgettes or pumpkin. With some mysterious additives, and generously seasoned with spices, vinegar and so on. And what about the “remains” of nearly ripe zucchini seeds in the caviar? Yet in summer, during zucchini season, making homemade zucchini caviar for the family is no trouble at all, and it's guaranteed to taste better than store-bought.
Ingredients
2-4 servings
- Zucchini 1 kg
- Tomatoes 2
- Onion 1-2
- Carrot 1
- Garlic 1-2 cloves
- Vegetable oil 50 ml
- Salt, ground black pepper, sugar to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- As I said, the zucchini should be young, with light green skin, undeveloped seeds and no damage. For smooth, tender zucchini caviar, it's still best to peel them. That said, if the zucchini are young, you don't have to. By the way, many people fry the zucchini for caviar, but I don't. Although the dish turns out tasty with fried zucchini too.
- Peel the carrot and grate it finely.
Peel the onion and finely chop it with a knife.
Blanch the tomatoes in boiling water and peel them. Be sure to remove the seeds.
Chop the tomato flesh.
That's all the prep done. - Heat the vegetable oil in a deep sauté pan and fry the onion and carrot until soft. Grate in 1-2 cloves of garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes.
- Next, add the finely chopped tomato flesh. Keep simmering for another 10 minutes. You could add tomato juice instead, if you're sure it's all-natural. But a tomato is a tomato!
- Add the peeled, diced zucchini, or put the zucchini through a meat grinder, your choice. Add a little water, half a cup at most, cover and simmer for about 30 minutes. Be sure to stir the caviar so it doesn't burn. The zucchini will release plenty of moisture, so you don't need much water.
- Next, mash all the vegetables in the pan. Don't aim for the consistency of store-bought zucchini caviar. Homemade caviar has the advantage precisely because of its noticeable little chunks.
- You can use a blender or a food processor. But the dish is still very hot. So I recommend an ordinary tool that everyone surely has: a potato masher. The zucchini caviar will come out even, with small or fairly large chunks. It may not look quite like store-bought, but it'll taste a whole lot better.
- And now a little trick of mine: add 1-2 tsp sugar. It makes the zucchini appetizer taste exceptionally nice.
- After mashing, simmer the dish for another 10 minutes. Ideally there should be practically no free liquid left. To get there, you can simmer the zucchini caviar uncovered for the rest of the time. The excess moisture will evaporate and the zucchini caviar will turn out just right.
- The finished dish can be eaten cold or hot. By the way, I like zucchini caviar hot much better. A wonderful breakfast, especially if you pop out and buy some fresh bread.
- By the way, this caviar keeps well in sterilized, tightly sealed jars. So feel free to put some up for winter.
| Serves: | 2-4 servings |
| Calories: | 97 |
| Prep: | 20 mins |
| Cook: | 1 h |
| Total: | 1 h 20 mins |
| Category: | Snacks and Sauces |
| Cuisine: | European |
| Rating: |
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4.5
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