When zucchini starts to appear on the beds with the beginning of summer, it seems that there is nothing tastier than vegetable circles fried in flour or in batter, seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. But gradually they are becoming more and more, and the street is getting hotter and hotter. Summer is already in full swing, sometimes there is no place to go from zucchini, but there is no desire to spend many hours near the hot plate at such a time. And in this situation it was as impossible as it would be necessary to have a recipe for cooking zucchini in the oven, which for its simplicity was named even among the people with lazy squash caviar.
Indeed, squash caviar in the oven will require you to have a minimal presence in the kitchen. But the dish that you get as a result will conquer you with its tenderness, aroma of baked vegetables and impeccable taste.
Lazy squash caviar
With this recipe, caviar is made so simply that it can be cooked almost every day if there is a sufficient amount of vegetables. To do this, just bake everything in the oven. True, this can be done in different ways. Listed below are the ingredients needed to make caviar from three medium-sized zucchini.
- 2 medium carrots;
- 2 medium bell peppers;
- 1 bulb decent size;
- 2 large tomatoes;
- 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil№
- Salt;
- Ground black pepper.
For cooking squash caviar for this recipe using a sleeve for baking.
It is a package of special heat-resistant film that can withstand high temperatures up to + 220 ° C and even higher. He has holes on both sides, which is why he is called a sleeve, and he is fastened at both ends with a special ribbon of the same material.
Dishes prepared with the help of this sleeve acquire at the same time the taste of baked and steamed products. During cooking, vegetables are soaked with secreted juices and seasonings and acquire a bright and rich taste.
Squash caviar in the sleeve is prepared as follows. All vegetables are thoroughly washed, dried and cleaned, if necessary, from the skin, seeds or tails. Then they must be cut into pieces of arbitrary shape and size. It is enough to cut the tomatoes into four parts, other vegetables are cut the way you are comfortable.
After slicing the vegetables are neatly placed in a sleeve, already knotted on one side. Then the prescribed amount of sunflower oil, salt and spices is poured there.
Comment! Interestingly, the vegetables in the sleeve can be placed even without adding oil, it almost does not affect the taste, but the dish will become dietary and low-calorie.The sleeve is also tied on the other side and the vegetables in it are slightly mixed on the outside. Then it is placed on a baking sheet in the oven, which is heated to a temperature of + 180 ° C for one hour. In the oven, the sleeve should be placed so that it does not touch the upper and side walls, as it expands when heated and may come into contact with hot metal.
Tip! In the upper part of the package you can make a toothpick a few holes for steam to escape.
For an hour, the oven itself prepares the vegetables, and there is no need in your presence.
After the expiry of the prescribed period, remove the sleeve from the oven and cool it slightly so that you can safely cut the film on top without getting burned.
Vegetables will float in large quantities of flavored juice, which must be drained before you transfer all the contents to the pan.
Wait until the vegetables have cooled to room temperature, and mash them with an immersion blender or meat grinder. Try the taste of caviar zucchini on the taste and, if necessary, you can add salt or pepper, as well as chopped garlic, if you prefer sharper dishes. This dish has, perhaps, only one drawback - such caviar is not suitable for winter preparations - it should be consumed immediately, maximum stored for several days in the refrigerator.
Squash for winter
And what to do if you want, without suffering especially in the heat, to make blanks out of zucchini for long-term storage. In this case, zucchini caviar can also be cooked in the oven, but for the winter it is made according to a slightly different recipe.
First, the following ingredients are washed and cleaned from excess components:
- Squash - 1000 g;
- Onion - 400 g;
- Tomatoes - 1000 g;
- Carrots -500 g;
- Sweet pepper - 300 g;
- Garlic - 5 cloves.
To these are added:
- Dill, parsley;
- Vegetable oil - 4 tablespoons;
- Salt and pepper.
For cooking squash caviar, all peeled pre-cut vegetables are cut into oblong pieces. Then take a deep baking sheet, grease it with half of the prescribed amount of oil and put chopped vegetables on the bottom, observing the following sequence: put onion first, then carrot, then zucchini, and pepper on top with tomatoes. Vegetables are poured on top of the remaining amount of oil, and all of this is sent to an unheated oven. The heating temperature is set to + 190 + 200 ° С.
The first half hour after the start of cooking caviar from baked vegetables, you can do other things. Then remove the pan and gently mix the vegetables. Put baked for another 40-45 minutes.
After the oven is turned off and cooled down, the vegetables are transferred by a skimmer to the pan and finely chopped greens and garlic are added to them, as well as salt and spices. It is at this stage that you need to take a blender and turn the entire contents of the pan into a uniform mashed potatoes.
Attention! Vegetable juice remaining after baking should be immediately separated and used to prepare other dishes.Everything is thoroughly mixed and the saucepan with baked vegetables is put on the fire. In order for the caviar to be well kept in winter, the contents of the pan must be boiled after boiling for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly, but be careful, because the vegetable mass may boil with hot sprays during boiling.
Then, the ready-made caviar from zucchini, while still hot, is laid out over the newly-sterilized hot cans and rolled up with sterilized lids in boiling water. In this case, the dish prepared according to this recipe will not even require the addition of vinegar for successful storage during the entire winter period. After rolling up, the jars must be turned upside down and wrapped in something warm until completely cool during the day. This is necessary for additional sealing of canned food.
It is possible to store such caviar even in normal room conditions, but preferably not in the light. Since it is in the dark that all the taste properties of the prepared dish are perfectly preserved.
