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It takes about 3 hours to cook squash caviar: 1 hour to prepare food and 1,5-2 hours to boil caviar.
A simple recipe for squash caviar for the winter
Products
Zucchini – 2,5 kilograms
Sunflower oil – 3 tablespoons
Tomatoes (can be replaced with tomato paste) – 3 large pieces
Apples – 3 large
Onions – 3 heads
Carrots – 2 large
Garlic – 3-5 teeth to taste
Salt – 1 tablespoon
Vinegar – 2 tablespoons
Ground allspice – 1 heaped teaspoon
Simple, store-bought zucchini caviar recipe
1. Wash the zucchini, peel and remove the seeds.
2. Peel and cut onions and garlic into several pieces.
3. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes and peel them.
4. Peel and chop the carrots.
5. Grind the food with a meat grinder (if there is no meat grinder, grate it).
6. Pour the vegetable mixture into a saucepan, cover and put on a low heat.
7. Boil squash caviar for 1 hour after boiling, stirring regularly.
8. Grind the caviar with a hand blender.
9. Add salt and pepper, stir in caviar.
10. Pour vegetable oil into the caviar.
11. Boil the caviar for 1 hour until the consistency of squash caviar. ?
12. Pour in the vinegar, mix the caviar thoroughly and cook for another 2 minutes.
13. Pour caviar into sterilized jars.
From this amount of products, you will get 2 liters with a little squash caviar.
Tighten the lids, cool and store in a cool, dark place. Your squash caviar is ready!
How to cook squash caviar in a slow cooker
Peel the onions and carrots, finely chop the onion, grate the carrots on a coarse grater. Put the onions and carrots in a multicooker container, pour in the oil, cook for 20 minutes on the “baking” mode. Peel the courgettes and cut into cubes, add to the onions and carrots, cook for another 20 minutes on the baking mode. Add salt and finely chopped tomatoes to the caviar, mix, cook for another 1 hour on the “stewing” mode. Then grind the caviar with a blender and pour into sterilized jars.
Do not use flour when cooking squash caviar in a slow cooker
Scottish squash caviar recipe
Products
Zucchini – 1,5 kilograms
White or red onion – 1 large head
Tomatoes – half a kilo (4 medium)
Sweet pepper – 1 piece
Apples – 2 small
Sugar – 2 rounded tablespoons
Ginger root – 20 grams fresh or a tablespoon of dried
Raisins – 200 grams
Cloves – 10 buds, half a teaspoon of peppercorns, sea salt and coriander to taste
Grape vinegar – 100 milliliters
Vegetable oil – 3 tablespoons
How to cook classic squash caviar
1. Peel and finely chop the onions.
2. Heat a frying pan, pour 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, fry the onion for 10 minutes over medium heat until golden brown.
3. Wash and peel the zucchini, remove the seeds.
4. Grate the flesh of the zucchini on a coarse grater.
5. Cut the tomatoes into the skin, put them in a bowl of boiling water for a couple of minutes, then remove the skin and cut into cubes.
6. Finely chopped ginger root, cloves, pepper and coriander, wrap with gauze several times and tie.
Rinse and dry the raisins.
Peel the apples, cut out the seed capsule and stalk, cut into cubes. Wash the bell peppers, remove the seeds, remove the stalk and chop finely.
Put zucchini, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, raisins and apples in a saucepan, add sugar, salt and grape vinegar, add spices. Stir the food well and put on a low heat. Boil squash caviar without a lid for half an hour, grind with a blender and boil for another 1 hour until the consistency of liquid sour cream is obtained. Do not cover the saucepan with squash caviar.
Then remove the bag of spices from the caviar and cool the caviar slightly.
Pour squash caviar into sterilized jars, close the jars and put in a cool place. The squash caviar will be completely ready in a month.
Such squash caviar is famous for its mildly sweet taste.
Methods for processing food before cooking squash caviar
Vegetables should be processed before boiling caviar, and there are options here. Whether or not to peel the zucchini depends on the taste and quality of the zucchini. If the zucchini is your own and there is confidence in their environmental friendliness – you can just rinse well, cut the flowers and stalks – and start checking the quality of the seeds. To check for seeds, the zucchini must be cut lengthwise into 2 equal parts. You will see if there are seeds and if there are tough seeds among them. Seeds that have become stiff should definitely be removed, because they will not boil in the caviar. Soft seeds will add a little graininess to the caviar, but will not spoil the taste – they can be used for cooking. If you are lucky to get young zucchini without seeds at all – great. Such caviar will turn out to be plastic, of medium grain size and dense – just like the “store” one.
Tomatoes can also be processed in different ways before boiling. First, whether to peel or not is a matter of taste. It is believed that the peel is not a gentle product for the stomach, however, in practice, after boiling the caviar for 1-2 hours, the difference is completely leveled.
Approaches to cooking squash caviar
According to the first method, all products are cut, put in pots and boiled together. Caviar obtained by exclusively boiling is the easiest and fastest way of cooking. In addition, this is the most useful squash caviar, gentle for sick stomachs and ready to be eaten by children.
According to the second method, before cooking, zucchini and onions are cut into cubes and fried in vegetable oil until golden brown. The effect of frying – caviar acquires a reddish color and a denser structure, usually more fatty, the taste becomes richer and juicier than with standard cooking. The disadvantage of this method is that it is very long, and for cooking, for example, 10 liters of squash caviar for frying 10 kilograms of squash, you will need to spend an additional 1,5-2 hours.
According to the third method, zucchini, apples and tomatoes are whole baked in the oven before boiling. This process can make it easier to remove the seeds, but in general it is needed to give the roe a baked aroma and flavor. Such caviar is considered to be the most delicious, because before cooking, the products are cooked at a temperature above the boiling point, as if “melting” in the oven into a mass suitable for boiling caviar.
To save time when boiling a large amount of caviar, you should start processing products with zucchini – peel them, cut them and put them in pots. Add a tablespoon of salt to each pan so that the zucchini settles a little and gives juice. Wait 10 minutes, then start boiling the caviar, and then process and add the carrots, as they take the longest to cook. In practice, the carrots are ready to be added even when the zucchini does not have time to boil. Then add the tomatoes and the rest of the food.
You can also drain some of the juice before boiling the caviar, this will speed up its preparation, but you should take into account the chain: a lot of juice -> naturally long boiling time for caviar -> plasticity and fine grain -> the highest quality.
Delicious facts
– Taste the caviar during cooking for readiness and the salt should be chilled. For this, it is convenient to use teaspoons – they should not be collected, but simply dipped into a saucepan with caviar – and put on a plate. This will cool the caviar in just 1-2 minutes.
– The shelf life of homemade squash caviar is 1 year.
– When boiling zucchini caviar, you can add 100 milliliters of mayonnaise – at the stage of combining zucchini with vegetables and flour. Then the squash caviar will acquire a special pungency.
– In the recipe, tomatoes can be replaced with the same amount of tomato paste, then less vinegar can be added (since tomato paste contains vinegar).
– To taste, it is worth adding carrots, garlic and dill when cooking squash caviar; from seasonings – basil, cinnamon, coriander.
– You can serve ready-made squash caviar:
1) on sandwiches, with butter, pâté, fresh cucumbers or cheese – great with soups!
2) in side dishes (pasta, potatoes, rice) as a sauce.
3) for meat as a sauce.
4) as an independent snack.