"Caviar overseas, eggplant!" - So proudly presented this amazingly tasty dish by the character of the Soviet comedy L. Gaidai "Ivan Vasilyevich Changes Profession". Of course, such a product cannot be compared with red or black caviar either by price or by beneficial properties, but still it is a great snack, not only seasonal, because the blue caviar can be prepared in the form of a twist for the winter without any special problems. And this will do!
Kitchen tools
Prepare the necessary equipment:
- Clean cans with lids.
- A seamer or a key for seaming (if you use cans with screw caps, you will not need a key).
- Sharp knife.
- Griddle.
- Large pot or cauldron.
- Paddle (plastic or wooden) for kneading.
- Spoon for putting caviar in jars.
We advise you to read about the methods of harvesting eggplant (drying, freezing).
Ingredients
For the preparation of "overseas" snacks, we need only domestic products:
- eggplants - 5 pieces;
- sweet Bulgarian pepper (color does not matter) - 5 pieces;
- ripe tomatoes - 2-3 pieces;
- onions - 2-3 heads;
- carrots - 2-3 pieces;
- chili pepper - 1 piece;
- vegetable oil (sunflower or olive) - 1.5 cups;
- salt - to taste;
- sugar - 1 tablespoon;
- Table vinegar - 50 ml.
Cooking process
First, prepare the banks. They need to be sterilized. There are several ways to do this, each hostess has her own preferences. You can put the jars in a pot of water and boil for 5-10 minutes, you can hold it over the steam (for this you will need a special device, although some do it with an ordinary kettle), you can pour boiling water, but in this case you need to make several consecutive fillings gradually increasing the temperature of the water, otherwise the glass may crack.
Learn more about can sterilization methods.
Sterile cans are placed on a clean towel with the neck down - now they are fully ready for use in preservation.
Now we undertake products:
- Dice eggplants and pour salted water (4 tablespoons of salt per 2 liters of water). Leave for 40 minutes.
- Peel tomatoes from the skin. To do this, we make a cross-shaped incision on each tomato on both sides and pour boiling water for a few minutes.
- After such an improvised bath, the peel is very easily removed, like a glove.
- Cut the peeled tomatoes into small cubes - the dimensions should be the same as those of previously prepared eggplants.
- We clean and cut onions in the same way.
- Bulgarian pepper cut into cubes, pre-cleaned of seeds.
- Chilli is released from the seed (they contain the greatest amount of capsaicin, the substance that makes the pepper sharp).
- Grate peeled carrots on a medium grater.
- We throw the eggplants in a colander, rinse with water to wash off the excess salt, then let the water drain completely.
Start cooking caviar:
- In a deep frying pan, pour vegetable oil and heat it well.
- Pour the eggplants in a frying pan and stew (the slices should darken).
- We shift the eggplant in a large pot.
- We carry out a similar procedure with onions: fry it in the same pan until golden brown.
- Add the onions to the eggplant.
- Fry carrots in the same pan. Do not forget to add vegetable oil. To prevent carrots from burning, the fire should be removed a little.
- We shift carrots to the pan.
- Similarly, fry the pepper and shift it to the rest of the vegetables.
- Stew tomatoes in the pan (no need to add oil) until they get a bright orange color.
- Pour the tomato paste into the pan.
- At the very least, add chopped chilli, salt and sugar to the pan, then mix the vegetables well.
- Simmer the eggs on low heat for about 40 minutes.
- Before the end of the quenching add vinegar, stew for a couple of minutes.
Important! Sugar is needed necessarily, it neutralizes the acid of tomatoes and provides a balanced taste of the dish.
That's all. It remains for us only to expand the culinary masterpiece over the cans and close the lids (the lids must first be boiled so that they are sterile and used immediately, still hot).
Hot cans are set down on a clean towel, on top of them it is better to cover them with a blanket or rug and leave to cool completely.
Eggplant caviar cooking video recipe
What to do to eggplant not bitter
Eggplant, indeed, sometimes bitter. However, the following manipulations with the fruits need to be done not only in order to make them tastier, but also in order not to get poisoned. Eggplants contain toxic glycoalkaloid solanine. This word itself means “nightshade” in translation, and poison is indeed present in all plants of this family, not only in fruits, but also in leaves.
Did you know? Eggplant came to Europe from the East in the XV century, but at first it was considered an ornamental plant. Only from the XVIII century it began to cultivate for food.
It is possible to get rid of solanine (it makes eggplant bitter) with the help of salt. For this there is two main ways. The first is to simply pour the sliced fruits with salt and let them stand for 10-15 minutes, the second is to fill them with salt water at the same time. 
One way or another is chosen depending on how the fruits are used - for example, if we plan to make rolls, after frying them in thin slices, pre-soaking can ruin everything. In the case of caviar, when the fruits are chopped finely, pour them with salt, on the contrary, it is inconvenient, because too much salt will be needed, and the dish as a result simply cannot be eaten.
Important! The amount of solanine in eggplants is directly proportional to the degree of maturity of the fruit.
What else can you add
This recipe is good because it does not have strict requirements in terms of the ratio of vegetables, or in terms of ingredients.
Focus on the following principles:
- the number of eggplants and bell peppers (in pieces) should be about the same, but if the eggplants are small and the pepper is large, shift the proportion towards the "main participant";
- the final result will depend on the number of tomatoes: the smaller the tomatoes, the more eggplant caviar will be, but it will be delicious anyway;
- carrots from the recipe can be excluded, it will turn out well too;
- chili - an ingredient for the amateur; if you do not like spicy, do not put;
- Vinegar is present in this dish only as a preservative, so if you make caviar to eat it immediately, you do not need to add it, the caviar will turn out much tastier.
Learn how to cook at home apple cider vinegar.
Garlic is not present in the recipe, but at the same time it will make the dish much more aromatic and savory. If you put a lot of garlic, it will even add spiciness, so as an alternative, we recommend trying using garlic instead of hot pepper. Garlic should be placed simultaneously with vinegar, so that it does not lose any sharpness or flavor during the heat treatment process. 
It is very good to add a raw apple to the dish, better not sweet, but sour. Alternatively, you can even use a pear. Fruits are simply cut into cubes of the same size as other ingredients, and added to the cauldron without roasting.
Did you know? Strictly scientifically, the fruit of eggplant should be considered a big berry.
At the last stage you can also put finely chopped greens (use dill, parsley, cilantro, tarragon - whatever you like), however there is a nuance: fresh greens in preservation increase the likelihood that fermentation processes will start in the banks, so if you do not have enough experience in preparing homemade twists to risk.
Where is the best place to store blanks
After the banks are completely cooled, they should be put in dark place and store at room temperature. If there is a cellar - great, but if not, also not scary. The main thing is that the temperature regime is stable, cold and heat drops for preservation are harmful.
It is ideal to eat blanks cooked in summer during the season - so that by the time fresh vegetables from last year's preservation appear on the table, there is nothing left. However, if the technology is sustained (it can be clearly seen from the lid that has been pulled in a little inside the can), the twist may well remain 2-3 winters. However, with regard to eggplant caviar is hardly possible, this product in your bins just will not stagnate!
Familiarize yourself with recipes for preparing winter adzhika from hot pepper; tomatoes (lettuce, tomatoes in their own juice, with mustard, tomato juice, "Yum fingers", pickled greens, frozen), pepper, onions.
What have
Best of all - with vodka. Eggplant caviar is just an amazing snack! 
Ready-made caviar can be spread on black bread and can be used as a sandwich, can be used as a garnish or side dish. But beware!
Important! Eggplant caviar is not a dietary dish! It has a lot more calories than squash. First, the eggplant itself is about one and a half times more caloric than the zucchini; secondly, this solanaceous "takes" a lot of vegetable oil when frying.
So eat eggplant caviar for health, saturate the body with vitamins in the winter, but try to find the strength to stop in time. Although ... it will not be easy.
