August fruits

All these vegetables are now available to us at any time of the year, but the best time to eat and cook them is still the second half of summer and the beginning of autumn. In August and September, they accumulate a maximum of useful substances, reaching the brightest, richest taste. Fresh, fried, baked or lightly pickled, autumn vegetables serve as excellent elements of the “taste constructor”: dozens of original combinations can be created from them.

One of the most popular autumn vegetable dishes in our country is, of course, eggplant caviar. To prepare it, all the ingredients (usually, in addition to the eggplants themselves, tomatoes, onions, garlic, sweet and hot peppers go into this dish), as a rule, they are crushed, and then stewed or fried together. The advantage of this method is that during the cooking process, the vegetables have time to soak in the flavors of each other. However, by slightly modifying the recipe (but not the composition of the ingredients!), We can get several dissimilar excellent dishes.

In the Crimea and in the south of Russia, two types of eggplant caviar are distinguished: “raw” and “fried”. The difference is that if all the ingredients are subjected to the second heat treatment, then only sweet and hot peppers, as well as the eggplant itself, are subjected to the first heat treatment. The most interesting taste in both cases can be achieved if, instead of traditional stewing or frying, these vegetables are baked in the oven or on the grill. Before baking, the eggplant should be cut in half lengthwise, cut into the flesh with rhombuses, trying not to cut through the skin, and insert thin slices of garlic into the cuts. Peel the peppers, chop coarsely (simply cut thin hot peppers into two parts) and bake until the top skin swells and turns black. When the vegetables are baked, the eggplant pulp should be removed from the skin (the easiest way to do this is with an ordinary spoon), and the pepper should be peeled – for this it is better to put it hot in a plastic or paper bag, tie it tightly and cool it in this form, after which the thin top skin will come off easily. Please note that when handling hot peppers, care must be taken: it is better to clean them with gloves. After that, using a blender, beat the prepared vegetables into a not too homogeneous puree – now they can serve as the basis for both “raw” and “fried” caviar (if desired, this workpiece can be decomposed into sterilized jars, sealed and stored in the refrigerator in for several months). If you prefer the first option, mix peeled and finely chopped tomatoes, sweet red onion, chopped garlic, herbs and a few tablespoons of vegetable oil into the pepper and eggplant puree (for a more authentic, “rustic” taste, it is good to use sunflower oil). If you prefer the traditional, thermally processed version, fry the same vegetables in vegetable oil beforehand.

A slightly more labor-intensive dish with almost the same ingredients can be found in southern French cuisine – where it is called ratatouille. To prepare it, you need to bake sliced ​​unpeeled eggplant and zucchini in the oven, as well as tomatoes and peppers (they will have to be peeled after baking), and then mix it all with onions and garlic, fried in a large amount of olive oil. The taste of vegetables is so intense and rich that the amount of seasoning can be reduced to a minimum – coarse sea salt, crushed black pepper in a mortar and crushed fresh basil leaves will suffice.

And if the same vegetables (except zucchini) are stewed over low heat in a thick-walled cast-iron pan or cauldron, you get a Georgian dish known as ajapsandali. Vegetables should not be laid all at once, but alternately, with an interval of 10–15 minutes: first onions and garlic, then peppers, then eggplants, then peeled tomatoes and greens – cilantro, dill, parsley). And finally, add a teaspoon of utskhosuneli (in Russia this spice is called “fenugreek”) and a pinch of golden Imereti saffron. In any culinary tradition, you can find dozens of options for vegetable dishes, however, how exactly to cook eggplant or pepper, tomatoes or zucchini is not so important – it is almost impossible to spoil the taste of these regal vegetables, soaked through with solar heat and light.

Roasted vegetable salad with feta cheese

On 4 persons.

• 2 large sweet peppers (yellow and red)
• 2 medium eggplants
• 8 small plum tomatoes
• 150 g feta cheese
• 2 tbsp. l. finely chopped green onion
• 1 st. l. finely chopped green basil leaves
• 4 tbsp. l. extra virgin olive oil, plus a little extra for frying eggplant
• 2 Art. l. balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp sweet paprika, salt.

Cut the peppers lengthwise into eight pieces. Preheat the oven to 180°C, place the peppers on a parchment-lined baking sheet, bake for 40 minutes, then peel. Cut the tomatoes into halves, drizzle lightly with olive oil and bake in the oven for an hour: the slice should brown and the juice should evaporate. Eggplant, without peeling, cut into slices 1 cm thick, salt and leave for 15 minutes, then squeeze out excess moisture and fry in a small amount of oil. In a bowl, mix olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs and salt, pour eggplants with this mixture and let them marinate for 15-20 minutes, then add the rest of the vegetables and mix gently. Garnish with coarsely crumbled feta cheese and sprinkle with paprika.