The history of millet cultivation is as old as the history of wheat, rice and, of course, like the world, without exaggeration.
Millet is one of the main types of cereals on the planet for 5 thousand years, and traces of its presence have not yet been found, so far, only in Australia.
Millet, from which, milking, and getting millet grains in nature is found everywhere, has a huge species diversity.
This type of cereal did not compete with wheat or rice because of its characteristic taste, but played an important role in the survival of mankind: millet tolerates drought well, and therefore played an important role in the history of agriculture and, accordingly, in the culinary of many countries.
In addition, millet has a huge set of valuable elements that help to quickly get enough and restore strength. Bread was often baked from millet in the old days, and the Old Russian princes, concluding agreements among themselves, had to seal their agreement by eating porridge from one boiler in the presence of their squads.
Many people are mistaken in thinking that people began to cook soups only with the advent of ceramic and other utensils, and in order to learn how to cook them, people needed to switch to a settled way of life. And here's why: it is known that the Scythians and Sarmatians were nomads, but in the places of ancient sites during excavations, indentations were discovered in the soil, laid out with stone, and at the bottom of them - grains! If you heat a stone and fill it with water, then it will boil. Then in this "stone pan" you can cook soup or porridge until the stone gives off heat. Perhaps the cultivation of grain became the reason for the sedentary lifestyle of the Scythian tribes, and this prompted them to invent the first stone "pots".
It is also possible that the experience of the nomads was taken over by the Cossacks, traveling to the same places where Scythian mounds and their ancient sites were discovered by modern archaeologists. Krupa rescued the Cossacks in their military campaigns, and therefore became an important component of Cossack cuisine. Porridge and soups were prepared from it in the field, and, returning home, they used the same millet, but in more refined dishes, the recipes of which the Cossacks often recognized in their distant wanderings.
Soup with millet - the main technological principles
Without mentioning that the Cossacks are a special ethnic group, formed more than five hundred years ago on the outskirts of Russia from a military estate, fugitive serfs (free Cossacks), mostly Orthodox, it is impossible to explain the basics of traditional Cossack cuisine, closely intertwined with Russian culinary customs, but at the same time formed from some peculiar elements of free steppe minimalism, which involved cooking from what is at hand and not excluding the presence of characteristic features of neighboring peoples with culinary traditions, their national customs and tastes.
In Russian traditions, it has long been believed that there should be a spoon in soup or cabbage soup, which determined the consistency of the first courses. Therefore, often the soups of the Cossack cuisine in consistency resemble mashed soups or liquid porridge, smeared.
Culinary specialists continue to use cereals, including millet, to thicken soups and their greater nutritional value. In Cossack cuisine, this technique is also used quite often, and at the same time thickening soups is often done with the help of cereals, when it comes to cooking it in the field, since this method does not require additional dishes for preparing dressings based on flour. All the ingredients of the soup are laid in one thick-walled dish, in a strict order: first - products that require dry heat treatment, then - water, broth, followed by potatoes, cereals and at the final stage - acid dressings, spicy greens, spices.
Of course, another one of the main components of the soup is rightfully considered a broth, which largely determines the taste and aroma. The broths in the Cossack kitchen, as in all other cases, should be cooked slowly. For a brighter and more saturated taste of the broth, the main component (meat or fish) is used in large quantities. When cooking soup broth in the field, it is necessary to take into account one bright feature: having a minimum of cookware, the cook does not have the opportunity to strain the broth and therefore the ingredients must be carefully considered.
The rest of the rules for cooking Cossack soup with millet are very simple:
For fish soup, for example, fish soup, it is desirable to achieve the transparency of the broth, which is why the main attention is paid to its preparation: the degree of transparency, saturation, aroma, which is created by adding herbs, roots, and combining different types of fish. However, variants of thick soup based on fish broth are also not excluded, but in this case, such a factor as transparency does not matter.
For a field soup with millet, a thick consistency is often inherent, and therefore more emphasis is placed on the flavor combination of the ingredients, rather than the transparency of the broth.
Groats can serve as an excellent complement not only for meat or fish soups: it is used for milk or milk-vegetable, as well as milk and fruit soups.
The traditions of Cossack cuisine have been carefully preserved for many generations. Field soup with millet in our time is more an element of festive festivities with the color of Cossack life, with a characteristic smell of a fire. But this does not mean at all that the descendants of the Cossacks, settling in gasified stanitsas or in high-rise buildings of megalopolises with all conveniences, do not cook dishes according to the recipes of their glorious grandfathers and great-grandfathers. At home, the smell of a fire, if desired, can be created using the addition of smoked products.
At home, the Cossacks always cooked the same dishes as on a camping trip, but with great care, adding a greater number of “non-camping” ingredients to them, thereby emphasizing the enjoyment of homeliness and the joy of meeting your loved ones at the table.
Even a novice culinary specialist can prepare a kulesh or millet with Cossack method in his kitchen, on a camping trip, on a picnic or in a summer cottage under construction. That's why he is a Cossack soup, so that you can cook it anywhere and from anything. Give it a try.
1. Recipe for fish soup with millet, an old Cossack
Ingredients:
Fish, salted (any) 400 g (net)
Onion 200 g
Millet 100 g
Vegetable oil 50 g
Greenery
Cooking method:
Onions are crushed and fried in vegetable oil. Separately, millet is boiled in 180 ml of water for 10 minutes. Salt fish is also boiled separately, sorted into small pieces and millet seasoned with fried onions is added to it. At the end, greens are added.
2. Recipe for field soup with millet - kulesh of the Lower Don Cossacks
Product Composition:
Minced pork 0.5 kg
Fat or pork fat 70-100 g
Onion 250 g
Garlic 50 g
Millet 200 g
Salt
Greens, carrots, spicy roots and potatoes (for the second, home option)
Cooking method:
The fat is chopped finely and fried until “crackers”. Chopped meat is added and fried until half cooked, followed by chopped onions and garlic. As soon as the onion becomes transparent, pour in the water and, letting it boil, throw the washed millet. Millet can be boiled until half-cooked, and then infuse the soup until the cereal swells.
For the second, home-made version of cooking the soup, you need to repeat all the steps, but fry the carrots and spicy roots with the onion, and before you throw the millet, cook the pieces of potato. At the end of cooking, the soup is seasoned with any chopped herbs and spices of your choice.
3. Soup with millet and crayfish on sour cream, festive
Composition:
Sour cream nonfat 450 g
Red wine 150 ml
Water 1.5 L
Crayfish, boiled 30 pcs.
Millet 250 g
Dill (chopped greens)
Caraway seeds
Order of preparation:
Boiled crayfish are cleaned by extracting meat from the shells, washed by millet, the seeds of the mine must be ground into powder, and chopped dill. Add sour cream to water, stir and boil. Pour the wine and let it boil, put the groats and crayfish meat. Cook for 10-15 minutes, and add ground cumin and greens, serving.
4. Soup with millet and fried lamb in the oven (oven)
Composition:
Potato 300 g
Millet 150 g
Lamb, non-greasy 850-900 g
Onion 200 g
Parsnip 50 g
Fat
Carrot 100 g
Apple cider vinegar (or juice)
Greenery
Cooking:
Low-fat mutton is cut into slices, coated with garlic and roasted in the oven. Onions and roots are chopped and sautéed in oil or fat. Fried meat, passivation, small pieces of potatoes and washed millet are placed in pots (large roasting pan). The contents are poured with water and apple cider vinegar (20 ml per 0.4 l of water). Cook in the oven. Before serving, add the greens.
5. Field soup with millet and vegetables
Ingredients:
Smoked pork ribs 1.2 kg
Potato 300 g
Peppers, capsicum (hot) 5 g
Carrot100g
Garlic 30 g
Sweet pepper 250 g
Onion 200 g
Tomatoes 350 g
Sour cream (for serving)
Millet 150 g
Greenery
Spice
Butter
Cooking:
Washed and peeled vegetables cut into large cubes. Pass onions, carrots and sweet peppers in butter, adding them alternately to the stewpan. At the end, put chopped tomatoes in a stewpan (if desired, they can be blanched and peeled beforehand). Put the ribs in the pan, taking them apart into portions, on top - passivated vegetables, millet on them. Pour the whole mass with water and cook until millet is ready. Sprinkle with herbs and spices. Serve with sour cream.
6. Pumpkin millet soup
Ingredients:
Cream, non-greasy 350-400 ml
Watermelon Juice 250 ml
Millet 200 g
Honey (or sugar) 150 g
Pumpkin (large) 2.5-3 kg
Cooking:
Take the largest pumpkin, wash it and set it on a baking sheet, cutting the bottom, for stability, and the top of the fruit, with the tail, making an impromptu lid. Remove the seeds and fibers from the inside with a spoon. Wash the millet. Squeeze the juice from a small watermelon and make syrup by boiling the watermelon juice with sugar (honey) until the sample is on a string.
Combine the finished, cooled syrup with cream to taste. Put millet in a pumpkin and, having closed it with a “lid”, bake in the oven until tender, but so that the pumpkin on the outside does not become too soft. After 15 minutes, pour in the cream with a sweet dressing and, bringing to a boil, turn off the oven. Leave briefly in the oven.
7. Soup with millet and raisins on baked milk
Ingredients:
Whole milk (fatty) 1.0 L
Millet 250 g
Sugar and salt to taste
Cooking method:
Pour the milk into a metal (stainless steel) or ceramic pan and, after boiling, put in a preheated oven without a lid. Stew milk until a brown spicy crust forms. Slightly pushing the frying froth, pour the washed millet, add salt and sugar if desired. Close the oven, turn it off after 5 minutes, leaving the pan. When the milk soup becomes warm - serve.
Millet Soup - Tips and Tricks
Small cereals (millet) add flavor to the broth and soup.
For chicken broth soup, try using fewer spices: they drown out the aroma and taste of the broth.
Millet, like other cereals, is used in thickening soups, so there is no need to use flour to prepare vegetable dressing.
If the soup contains acidic components (sorrel, tomatoes, sauerkraut, nettle, spinach), then you need to add them to the pan after boiling potatoes or other components containing starch, so that the potatoes can absorb liquid and boil enough. The presence of acid makes the potato stiff and difficult to cook.
