Zucchini or eggplant caviar is a very cheap food here, which for some reason was very plentiful in the Soviet Union, it was produced by entire factories. Then she somehow lost popularity, they began to produce it less and ended up being made at home, growing vegetables in vegetable gardens.
I do not know the exact history of this dish, I only know that my grandfather cooked it even before I was born.
The essence there is very simple: zucchini or eggplants are taken, peeled and large seeds, cut into pieces and stewed with the addition of a small amount of water over low heat in a saucepan with a lid.
The same is done with onions and grated carrots (put a little, because it can be too sweet). Also put a little tomato in there.
After that, all these stewed vegetables are mixed, and either remain in large pieces, or are ground through a meat grinder.
Salt and vinegar are also added to taste.
Well, then everything depends on the fate of this dish - it is either eaten immediately, using it as an additive to boiled potatoes, rice, meat, or canned.
I know two ways of canning - either a significant amount of vinegar is added there, and this mixture is poured in boiling form into clean, dry jars and closed (followed by a flip so that the lid is also scalded from the inside), or very little vinegar is added, but then it is customary to take these jars without closing the lids (they are simply placed on top, but do not close) and boil in pots with boiling water. After an hour of boiling, the jars become pronouncedly hot, sterilized, and they are closed, they wait a little and turn them over on the closed lid, to make sure that everything is sterilized there.
I use the boil method because too much vinegar makes food sour and tasteless.
And as far as I know, Russian vinegar is different from what is used in America or Canada - Russian vinegar has 9% acidity. In other matters, I'm not sure, because I have never been to America or Canada and did not buy vinegar there
They also sell apple cider vinegar 6%, and some kind of balsamic vinegar 6%, but they are used not for canning, but for preparing vegetable salads.
Therefore, giving recipes at random is a rather ungrateful or even dangerous business; with different concentrations of vinegar, it is quite possible that the product will deteriorate and someone will be poisoned by it.
In other respects, Russian cuisine in general is a rather peculiar thing, after the arrival and departure of McDonald's, for example, burgers appeared in it, which had never been in it before. McDonald's has left Russia, but burgers are now cooked by everyone, although they most likely differ from the original ones.
At one time, Japanese food was still popular here, but it was cooked in Russian, and when the Japanese came and tried it, they said that this food was anything but Japanese. For example, Russian rice is very different from Asian rice, it is cooked with porridge, sticky and soft, while Asian rice is crumbly. Russian rice is usually mixed with boiled meat like beef and onions (this is a fatty and high-calorie food), while Chinese or Japanese rice is most often paired with seafood.
Therefore, it seems to me that food should be prepared that is familiar in the place of residence, experiments with foreign recipes can give some filth instead of food. For example, zucchini caviar has a completely unappetizing color.
Well, it also depends very much on the climate and supplies - in places where the winter is long and cold, it is customary to harvest a lot of canned vegetables and fruits, because it is more difficult to get fresh ones. Therefore, many different inventions began, such as squash and eggplant caviar.
Zucchini caviar from the store looks something like this. But it is sour, noticeably more vinegar is added to it.
Therefore, I often make squash and eggplant caviar on my own than buy it in a store.
