Who remembers how the trendy soup was served in restaurants of the unforgettable “soviet” past, after cold appetizers, in tiny cocotte mills, with a ruddy cheese crust? The excitement around this dish was fueled either by melodic, or murmuring like a brook, the French word "julienne". So, this dish has nothing to do with French cuisine.
No wonder they say that demand creates supply. A funny thing happened in the history of cooking. After the victory of the Republicans in France, ruinous rentiers poured into Russia in search of work and a better life, and this French exodus from Europe happened during the reign of Peter the Great. The French are perfectly housed in the rich houses of the Russian nobility, as teachers of the French language, trendsetters and chefs. Fortress cooks, who were immediately reduced to the level of auxiliary kitchen workers, no one taught the French language and manners. Mr. French, the chef, indignantly shouted: “Julien, Julien ...”, because in Russian cuisine it was often not generally accepted to cut the ingredients, and even more so - very thinly. Not understanding what the word means, cooks and apprentices called the dish soup julienne. They say that it was a question of mushrooms baked in sour cream.
In France, julienne soup with mushrooms and cheese is still, even by professionals, serving, emphasizing that this is an old Russian recipe, and in the restaurant menu the word "old" is written in transliteration, that is - without translation. Only the French transferred the dish to the category of hot snacks.
Most likely, the cook and her children were able to keep their jobs, learning how to cut into strips and remembering the names of some French cheeses, because the julienne recipe was repeatedly stated in the old cookbooks of Russian cuisine. This marketing ploy was duplicated by food service workers in a chain of restaurants fighting for the title of institutions with a high service culture. Again, the French word worked, the meaning of which did not bother to look in the dictionary either by technologists or visitors. Julienne soup turned out to be too tasty to pay attention to the technical details of its preparation.
Now you will not surprise anyone with julienne, any housewife can cook it, but expanding the culinary horizons will not harm anyone.
Julienne with mushrooms and cheese - the main technological points
Since julienne is a dish with an unusual history and chef's trick, you will have to consider the features of its preparation in this perspective, leaving readers the right to independently decide which ingredients and processing methods to choose for preparing this soup.
The very first Russian julienne with French soups did not bear the slightest resemblance. The prototype of this dish was an original Russian dish - mushrooms baked in sour cream. The Frenchman, who watched how the serf cooks cooked it, certainly appreciated the dish, and his emotional exclamation of “julienne” only meant that the mushrooms should be cut into very thin strips. The serfs, of course, did not speak French, so they decided that Monsieur called the dish. That's all the wisdom associated with the origin of the French name of the dish in Russian cuisine.
Note that the original Russian cabbage soup, stew and other first courses were prepared from whole or very large pieces of vegetables, root vegetables and all other ingredients. By the way, any dish consisted of one or two components, with the exception of rich cabbage soup. All this was loaded without much cutting, not to mention a thin straw, which, of course, shocked the arrived French chefs. They always did not understand the Russian scope.
At that time, Russian cuisine mainly used spices and spicy roots of local origin, and there were few of them, and France had already colonized southern countries, fragrant with the aroma of exotic spices, which the French naturally and immediately applied in all recipes of their dishes to secure the title of connoisseurs of haute cuisine.
In order to completely understand and distinguish between Russian and French technologies, it must be added that French soups are prepared on the basis of transparent broths. Of course, the French have such a dish as mashed soup, but it is unlikely that a French chef would think of thickening soup with flour, as in Russian cuisine. It is said that the French, in between meals, talk most of the time about how to eat properly in order to maintain a slim figure, and flour does not contribute to this. But this is in France, located closer to the south, and in Russia, flour dressing is calories that give energy that warms in cold weather. In any case, before humanity stepped into the era of technological progress, the Russian man had to adapt to the more severe conditions of his vast expanses, and it was difficult to give up habits - all the more, they took centuries to develop.
By the way, the creamy sauce, which the French are preparing for a hot appetizer of julienne with mushrooms and cheese, contains flour as the main thickener, and not mayonnaise, as many housewives think. That is, conversations by conversations, and the Russian recipe for flour dressing left for France, and began to be called branded bechamel. Oh, these Frenchmen! Mayonnaise is, of course, very tasty, but it is categorically not suitable for hot processing, moreover, there are much more calories in it than in a creamy sauce made from flour, butter and milk. You do not always have to follow French fashion.
Another example: after the French taught all housewives of Russia to cook in French, they took away to France the favorite ingredient of Russian cuisine - turnip, and still successfully add it to their French soups while we are leaning on potatoes, with its many carbohydrates. They even learned to cook Russian cabbage soup, to understand the varieties of fish and types of mushrooms, although, from the gifts of the forest, nevertheless, they prefer champignons and truffles.
The French love cheese. Between the main course and dessert, they are sure to enjoy a small piece, while Russian culinary specialists add it to all dishes in large portions, generously in Russian, and cheese is always present in the julienne with mushrooms, out of respect for French teachers, and also because it turned out to be very tasty.
Finally, we note the last difference between French and Russian cuisine - the technology of cooking soups. The traditional French way of cooking is the complex stepwise heat treatment of products. So vegetables for soups in French cuisine after cutting are pre-cooked, stewed or fried (much less often). The technology for cooking soups in Russian cuisine is simpler than in French. Until the second half of the eighteenth century, when French influence in Russian cuisine reached its climax, all the ingredients of any Russian dish, as a rule, were either stewed, cooked, or baked. With the advent of new stoves in Russia, with a metal-coated hearth, Russian cuisine was enriched with new technological methods, without losing its national characteristics.
If you have already decided which direction to make soup, then go to the recipes. These are modern variations on the theme of the popular soup.
1. Julienne with mushrooms and cheese in Russian
Ingredients:
Ghee 100 g
Onions 350 g
Sour cream (15-20%) 450 g
Chicken fillet 1.2 kg
Broth 900 ml
Parsley 60 g
Ceps (or champignons) 250 g
Spice
Flour 120 g
Hard cheese 300 g
Cooking:
Cut the meat into bars, onions and mushrooms into thin strips: first divide the caps and legs of the mushrooms. All slicing should be julienne! Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the chicken fillet until half cooked. Add mushrooms and onions. Dilute sour cream and flour in 0.5 l of broth: you can use a blender. Pour the prepared mixture into a saucepan, to mushrooms and meat. The broth should be thick enough, similar to liquid mashed potatoes. Bring to the desired taste, adding salt, a mixture of peppers, lemon zest.
Pour the soup into ceramic broth cups, serving pots or other suitable utensils, dividing it into 4-5 servings, and place on a tray. Sprinkle the surface of each serving with grated cheese, place in a preheated oven and bake until golden brown. Garnish each serving before serving with parsley.
2. Spicy julienne with mushrooms and cheese
You will need:
Tomatoes 600 g
Chives (chisel, spicy) 180 g
Eggs 6 pcs.
Broth (or water) 1.2 L
Hot peppers (Ratunda) 360 g (net)
Honey mushrooms, pickled 450 g
Onions 240 g
Basil 90 g
Cream Cheese 420 g
Salt
Parsley 100 g
Smoked ham 550 g
Carrot 200 g
Spice
Cooking Technology:
Blanch the tomatoes and peel them. It is advisable to choose fruits of a meaty variety, dense, with a small amount of grains. Cut into thin slices, dividing each of them in half. Remove seeds from pepper, cut into strips. With the same strips, cut onions, mushrooms, carrots, ham. Put a sheet of foil on a baking sheet, grease it with any fat, and spread a thin layer of carrots, tomatoes, peppers, onions. Sprinkle vegetables with sugar, place a baking sheet on the top shelf of the oven, heated to 250 ° C, for 5-8 minutes, until the sugar dissolves and the vegetables are covered with a light caramel crust.
Fry the ham with chives in a pan. Prepared vegetables, mushrooms and ham equally distribute in portioned baking dishes in the oven. Fill up to half the volume with broth, meat, vegetable or mushroom - optional. You can pour hot boiled water. Put in the oven for 15 minutes, tomite at 100 ° C, so that the aroma of vegetables combined with the broth. Combine part of the broth with cheese, chopped herbs, grind with a submersible blender until a homogeneous consistency. Introduce the thick mixture into the soup in equal parts, stirring vigorously with a whisk. Return the baking sheet with portions back to the oven, increase the temperature to 200 ° C so that a crust forms on the surface. Boil poached eggs. Take out the julienne pots, in each serving, put on top an egg, cut in half, and sprigs of parsley and basil. Serve with croutons.
3. Julienne with mushrooms and cheese on chicken broth with dumplings
Products:
Minced chicken 300 g
Onion 100 g
Pepper 10 g
Broth 600 ml
Egg 1 pc.
Parsley
Salt
Lemon 1 pc.
Mushrooms 250 g
Butter or margarine for frying mushrooms
Cooking:
Combine the minced meat with chopped onion, salt and pepper, beat to viscosity. Put in the refrigerator, at least for an hour. Then, with the help of teaspoons, form knels, weighing 25-30 g. Boil them in broth, salt to taste. Get the knels with a slotted spoon and temporarily put them on a plate. Fry the mushrooms, sliced in thin strips, in French.
Strain the broth and pour the portion, 200-300 ml, into a separate bowl. Pour one part back into the pan. Into the cooled part, enter the raw egg, beat until smooth. Pour the broth with egg into the boiled portion, stirring vigorously. In a thickened liquid, put dumplings, mushrooms, chopped parsley. Remove the zest from the lemon and add a refreshing aroma to the soup. Optionally, add some juice. Boil the soup to a boil.
Pour into tureens or other refractory dishes. Sprinkle with hard, finely grated cheese and melt it in a microwave or well-heated oven.
4. Meat julienne with mushrooms and assorted cheese
Ingredients:
Bow
Cheese 240 g
Ham, boiled 360 g
Champignons, large 600 g
Chicken Breast 480 g
Creamy sauce:
Milk 0.5 L
Oil 150 g
Salt
Wheat flour
Nutmeg
Pepper
Toasts - by the number of servings (6-7 pcs.)
Cooking Technology:
Cut the legs of the mushrooms, wash and dry them with a napkin. Chop thinly. Cut ham, breast and onions into strips. Fry the ingredients individually in a pan, strongly heating any vegetable oil in it. Combine the components of the dish by transferring them to a sieve mounted on a pallet to remove excess oil.
Melt the butter in a saucepan, and fry it until a nutty smell and a slightly brownish tint appear. Add flour to fat, mix until smooth. Boil milk separately and pour into the toasted flour, quickly stirring the sauce with a whisk to avoid the formation of lumps. The sauce should have a consistency of thick sour cream. Put in it all the fried ingredients, season with spices.
Spread the hot appetizer on toasted toasts, sprinkle with any hard cheese and melt it in the microwave.
5. Julienne with mushrooms and pike cheese
Ingredients:
Chilled fish fillet 750 g
Mushrooms, white 600 g
Cheese, soft 240 g
Sauce:
White wine 120 ml
Thyme (sprigs) 15 g
Onions 200 g
Butter 150 g
Cream (33%) 250 ml
Rolls, round 6 pcs.
Cooking:
For fish julienne, the ingredients must be cut into large cubes: the fish has a very delicate and loose texture, and can fall apart during processing. In order for the ingredients to be evenly fried, you need to maintain the same size and shape of the cut. In addition, the same forms give an aesthetic appearance to the dish, a sense of harmony of taste.
All stages of the preliminary heat treatment of the ingredients are absolutely repeated, as in the previous recipe: the components are fried separately, with the exception of porcini mushrooms - they must be boiled over medium heat for 10-15 minutes before frying, dipped in cold water.
To make the sauce, melt the butter, pour the wine and cream into it. Put thyme sprigs, fried mushrooms, fish and onions. Stew in a saucepan all together until thickened.
Cut off the top of the buns by making a “lid”. Remove the crumb to make an empty crust form. Fill the rolls with fish julienne. Put the rolls on a baking sheet, sprinkle the top with grated cheese. Bake until golden brown at 180 ° C. When serving, decorate the dish with "caps" cut from buns, sprigs of fresh thyme.
6. Julienne with mushrooms and cheese in the style of Mediterranean cuisine
Isn't it true that a French hot appetizer is very similar to Italian pizza, if you add tomatoes to the ingredients? Only instead of coconuts, rolls and pizza dough do we use, for example, halves of zucchini as a form. Let's see how an Italian in love with Russia would cook a julienne.
Ingredients:
Tomatoes
Zucchini
Onion, sweet
Mushrooms
Pepper, salad
Cream cheese
Carrot
Oregano
Basil
Flour
Pepper
Coriander
Sugar
Clove
Salt
Cream 300 ml
Operating procedure:
The technique of cutting and pre-frying vegetables remains unchanged - we follow the French technology of "julienne".
As a filling form, we use zucchini halves, taking the pulp out of the middle with a spoon. To make the zucchini easier to process, first hold the halves of vegetables in the oven, so that the steamed core is easier to remove from the skin. The ratio of ingredients should be the same, and their number depends on the size of zucchini. To get the sauce of the desired consistency, add 250 ml of cream to a tablespoon of flour with top.
Fry julienne vegetables in olive oil over high heat, separately. Remove excess fat. Stir the ingredients.
Prepare the sauce by frying flour in butter. Add hot cream (20%), spices. Combine all the ingredients by putting them in the sauce. Stuff zucchini shapes. Cover the baking sheet with foil, grease.Place stuffed vegetables on a baking sheet, cover the minced meat with cream cheese and bake until a golden brown cheese crust is formed. While serving, sprinkle each serving with traditional Italian herbs.
Julienne with mushrooms and cheese - useful tips
- Champignons contain a lot of liquid. Fry the mushrooms in small portions in boiling oil, at maximum temperature, so that a crust forms on the surface of the mushrooms faster, which will retain moisture inside and preserve the juiciness of the fried product. If you put a large number of mushrooms in the pan, they will be stewed, not fried.
- Pour water at room temperature on a baking sheet in which julienne is baked in forms, so that the bottom of the form does not burn when baking cheese in the oven.
- To add sour taste to julienne add sour cream, lemon juice or dry wine.
