In this video post, I’m gonna play “Julia Child” and walk you through the recipe for one of my favorite Russian hors d’oeurves<\/i> — \u0431\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0436\u0430<\/u>\u043d\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0438\u043a\u0440\u0430<\/u><\/b>, or “eggplant caviar,” which is essentially a chunky version of Middle Eastern babaganoush<\/i>. In fact, the word \u0431\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0436\u0430<\/u>\u043d<\/b> (“eggplant; aubergine”) is itself from the Middle East, and was borrowed into Russian by way of Turkish. As you can guess from their name, Russian “vegetable caviars” are very popular as a frugal alternative to the Real Thing, whether they’re made from eggplant, \u0442\u044b<\/u>\u043a\u0432\u0430<\/b> (“squash”), \u0433\u0440\u0438<\/u>\u0431\u044b<\/b> (“mushrooms”), or whatever. (There are many variants.)<\/p>\n
In fact, if you remember my post from a couple months ago about the Soviet comedy \u00ab\u0418\u0432\u0430\u043d \u0412\u0430\u0441\u0438\u043b\u044c\u0435\u0432\u0438\u0447 \u043c\u0435\u043d\u044f\u0435\u0442 \u043f\u0440\u043e\u0444\u0435\u0441\u0441\u0438\u044e\u00bb<\/b><\/a>, there’s actually a pretty funny joke during the big banquet scene about the cost of \u0431\u0430\u043a\u043b\u0430\u0436\u0430<\/u>\u043d\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0438\u043a\u0440\u0430<\/u><\/b> versus beluga caviar!<\/p>\n So, on with the recipe:<\/p>\n