Julienne with mushrooms and cream a thousand years ago had a completely prosaic name, devoid of French pomp and thirst for fame. Mushrooms in sour cream baked in a Russian oven were the most common food in Russian cuisine.
Briand-Savaren, with excessive confidence inherent in all French chefs, argued that only a person with an extraordinary culinary talent could prepare cream sauce. The phrase is not transmitted verbatim, but the meaning is not distorted at all.
Well, it remains to congratulate all Russian housewives, their mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and so on - cream sauce for mushrooms and not only in Russia every woman knew how to cook even when the ancestors did not even suspect the existence of France. Based on the statements of the famous Frenchman, the Russian people are the most talented in the world, because the technology of creamy sauce was mastered in ancient Russian cuisine, almost a thousand years ago. Perhaps even earlier, there was simply no written evidence of this until the beginning of the ninth century, and the more developed European countries knew only that “wild and terrible tribes” lived in the forests in the north.
The fact that the mushrooms in sour cream are called julienne, and sour cream mixed with flour and sauce, the ancient Russians learned after several centuries. This happened when the petty French bourgeois, emigrants, fleeing the revolution and the onset of the economic crisis, went to Russia, in search of a better life: from a civilized and enlightened Europe - to “boggy” Russia, to teach “wild barbarians”. As a result, the French saw how serf women add flour to cabbage soup and stews for a thicker and more nutritious meal, took the idea into their arsenal, calling it the main sauce. They announced this discovery to their own.
Our ancestors did not blunder either. Noting that the Tsar of the Russian and all the nobility liked everything foreign, mostly French, they called the usual dish julienne with mushrooms and cream. In the first Russian taverns, julien "diverged with a bang." All the ingredients of the “new dish” remained the same, Russian, and the foreign name revived trade in institutions, including the period of Soviet catering. In addition to the talent to prepare sauces, our people have always been distinguished by a special ingenuity.
Mushrooms and cream julienne - basic technological principles
Three main ingredients are at the heart of julienne: mushrooms, cheese and creamy sauce. The dish can be varied with the most simple and affordable ingredients, at your discretion.
It can be a thick soup in Russian or a hot appetizer, like the French. Depending on the choice of species, the consistency of the dish changes. In the first case, you need a broth, as the basis of the soup. The ratio of liquid to solid mass in soups should be approximately the same. For a hot snack, you need to prepare a thick sauce as a binding component for all the ingredients of the dish. Its consistency should resemble thick sour cream.
The main creamy sauce consists of fat, milk or dairy products, flour. In various variations, in the list of ingredients for the sauce, wine, juice and citrus fruit zest, ground nuts, spicy greens, spices are added. If the sauce is prepared for mushrooms, then according to the rules of harmony of taste, the necessary ingredients are selected. Dairy products in combination with any mushrooms are the best choice. Milk makes the aroma of mushrooms brighter and richer, and mushrooms in Russian cuisine have traditionally been used as a flavoring additive, leading the smell in a dish. Mushrooms drowned out, for example, the unpleasant smell of fish broth. Lemons, which are now used for this purpose, appeared in folk Russian cuisine much later.
For a long time, exotic spices in Russia were considered too expensive a pleasure, therefore, the original Russian cuisine is distinguished by a restrained attitude towards them. Note that even in the middle of the last century, our grandmothers prepared any food, dispensing mainly with black and allspice, bay leaf and salt. Sometimes they used cloves, nutmeg, coriander and red pepper. The remaining spices are roots and herbs of local origin: onions, garlic, parsley, celery, dill. This set is more than enough for cooking mushrooms in a creamy sauce. If there are too many spices, the aroma of mushrooms will be lost - remember this.
In addition to a dish of mushrooms, meat and fish can serve, and if it comes to puree soup, then you can add vegetables, cereals, beans.
Now consider how cheese can be added to the composition of mushrooms and cream. Any cheese is a dairy product prepared using lactic acid fermentation followed by fermentation. That is, milk, as the basis of cheese, and fungal bacteria do not dissonant with cream and mushrooms. The only thing you should pay attention to when choosing cheese is its ability to melt. Therefore, give preference to soft and fatty cheeses.
The word "julienne" just means a way of slicing the ingredients. According to the concept of French culinary specialists, it is necessary to cut into thin strips or thin circles, if we are talking, for example, about tomatoes. But slicing into thin strips is rather a tradition of French cuisine. In Mediterranean cuisine they prefer to make larger slices of ingredients, believing that this way products lose less juice and vitamins. In Asian cuisine, it is customary to cut the components into very small cubes. It is important to choose a rational method among the national characteristics of any kitchen, taking into account further heat treatment.
Ingredients having different shapes and cut sizes can also have different cooking times. The julienne technology involves thin slices followed by quick frying over high heat in order to preserve the juice inside the fried pieces. After preliminary frying, stewing or passivation, the dish is brought to readiness in the mode of cooking, stewing or baking. French methods in Russian cuisine began to be applied from the middle of the eighteenth century, and then, not everywhere. Whole and coarsely chopped ingredients in the technology of Russian cuisine were traditionally subjected to a simpler, one-time heat treatment: languishing, cooking or baking. So mushrooms in sour cream were traditionally cooked in pots, in a Russian oven. Mushrooms, spicy roots were laid in pots, poured with sour cream, milk and cream, mixed with flour, and in this form the dish was sent to languish in the oven. The technology of large slicing and baking in the oven, although not as attractive as the technology of "julienne" with double heat treatment of the dish, but allows you to save more vitamins.
Modern conditions allow you to choose any of the methods of cooking julienne with mushrooms and cream. By creating various combinations of products, you can get a dish with new shades of taste every time, make your own recipes.
1. Julienne soup with mushrooms and cream
Would need:
Leek 100 g
Butter, ghee 120 g
Parsley 50 g (leaves)
Cream (15-20%) 300 ml
Meat broth (or water) 900 ml
Pepper
Nutmeg
Lemon juice and zest to taste
Mushrooms (porcini, chanterelles, champignons) 0.5 kg (net)
Flour 90 g
Soft cheese 240 g
Order of preparation:
Cut fresh peeled mushrooms into thin slices and fry in oil, over high heat, until golden brown. Transfer them to a pot of broth and cook slowly. For frying, you can use vegetable oil, but the creamy taste is more in harmony with the mushrooms, giving them a nutty flavor.
Separately, fry the chopped onion, slightly browning it, add flour, mix. Pour the cream into the saucepan, preheating them so that they do not curdle from the temperature difference. Bring the creamy dressing to a thickening and boiling, with continuous stirring. In the formation of dense clots, beat with a blender, add hot broth (50 ° C), grated cheese and add to the soup, stirring. Let it boil again, season with spices, lemon juice, add chopped herbs. Serve in broth cups with croutons or crackers.
2. Fish soup-julienne with mushrooms and cream
Products:
Red fish fillet 900 g
A solution of vinegar or citric acid (10%) - for fish
Fish stock 1.4 l
White wine, dry 180 ml
Nutmeg
Pepper
Dill, fresh
Dried mushrooms, white 100 g
Slices of lemons - by the number of servings
A mixture of black and allspice
Drinking Cream (10%) 750 ml
Carrot 200 g
Fat 180 g
Onions 300 g
Flour 150 g
Salt
Hard cheese 300 g
Cooking:
For this dish, it is better to cut the fish into large cubes, after holding the fillet in an acidic solution: you can use a 10 percent solution of table vinegar or citric acid so that the flesh becomes denser and does not fall apart when frying.
Chop the carrots and onions. Fry vegetables and fish separately over high heat. Transfer to a pot of broth. Grind the mushrooms into powder and add to the fish broth. Boil for 10 minutes. In a saucepan, also separately, fry the flour until a slight nutty smell appears. Pour in the cream, quickly mixing the mass with a whisk. Simmer over low heat until creamy. Add wine, spices and pour the sauce into the broth. The consistency of the soup should be like a thin sour cream.
Transfer the prepared julienne to portioned plates or other suitable baking dish. Grate the cheese and sprinkle each portion on top of it. Place the molds on a pallet filled with water to half the molds. Carefully place the pan or deep pan in the preheated oven (180-200 ° C), on the top shelf. Bake cheese until crusty. Garnish each serving with sprigs of dill and a slice of lemon.
3. Julienne with mushrooms and cream in potato outlets
Products:
Potato 900 g (net)
Cream 180 ml
Egg 1 pc.
Salt
Flour
Boiled mushrooms (or champignons) 420 g
Cooked smoked ham 600 g
Sour cream 180 g
Cheese 240 g
Spice
Onions 300 g
Fat for frying
White crackers
Cooking:
Boil peeled and washed potatoes, prepare mashed potatoes, adding cream and egg and flour. Lubricate silicone baskets or disposable foil molds with butter, sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Divide the mashed potatoes into 150 g portions, form cakes and line them with the prepared forms. So that the potato dough does not stick to your hands during operation, wet your hands in water or oil. Set the completed forms aside.
Cut the ham, onion, mushrooms into strips and fry, as indicated in the previous recipes, separately. Combine the prepared ingredients, season with spices, mix and fill the forms to the brim. Combine sour cream with finely grated cheese. Cover the mixture with mushrooms and ham.
Place the forms with julienne on a pallet, on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake at 170-180 ° C. Sprinkle the finished dish with fresh herbs.
4. Julienne with mushrooms and cream in the microwave
Hot snacks can easily be cooked in the microwave in 15 minutes.
Classic ingredients:
Chicken Breast 400 g
Onion 250 g
Champignons 0.5 kg
Cream 33% 150 ml
Salt
Nutmeg
Pepper
Cheese 200 g
Oil 100 g
Cooking method:
Prepare and fry all the ingredients in oil, as described in the recipes above. Fill out the forms. Whip the cream and place them equally in each mold. Sprinkle with grated cheese and microwave. Bake until golden brown.
5. Julienne with mushrooms and cream - a summer option
Products:
Eggplant 250 g
Tomatoes 300 g
Onion 200 g
Chanterelles 400 g
Garlic 10 g
Vegetable oil 120 ml
Cream 20% 200 ml
Spice
Cheese 250 g
2 eggs
Operating procedure:
Cut tomatoes and mushrooms into thin slices. Chop the onion and chop the peeled eggplant into thin strips. Fry vegetables and mushrooms in a pan, mix, seasoning with chopped garlic and spices. Put in a baking dish.
Beat the eggs in a foam, adding cream to them. This is not a sauce, but an omelet in essence, but who said that julienne should only be with bechamel sauce? The word "julienne", after all, means a way of slicing. Pour the vegetables and place the pan in a preheated oven.
When the creamy-egg mass thickens, remove the pan for a minute, sprinkle the dish with grated cheese and brown, again returning to the oven.
6. Julienne with mushrooms and cream - a hot snack on toasts
Products:
Ham, boiled 300 g
Champignons 500 g
Leek 200 g
Cream sauce:
Flour 60 g
Oil 120 g
Milk 150 ml
Spice
Wine 100 ml
Toasts - 6 slices of white bread
Cheese 400 g
Cooking method:
Fry sliced into thin strips. Make a classic creamy sauce. Combine it with the rest of the dish. Put the appetizer on slices of white bread. Cover with cheese. Cover the baking sheet with baking paper and lay the snack. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes.
Mushrooms and cream julienne - useful tips
- To prepare mushroom dishes, choose one type of mushroom. If different mushrooms are used in the dish, then they must be brought to readiness separately and combined in the dish at the last cooking stage.
- To fry the mushrooms become golden brown, warm the oil well; if there are a lot of mushrooms, then fry them in small pieces, putting each serving in a sieve. Mushrooms consist of more than 80% water, therefore, if they are put in a pan with a slide, they will be stewed in their own juice, and not fried.
