What to cook in the country if you are tired of barbecue

No time to read?
Get a summary

Alexey Onegin, chef and creator of the arborio.ru culinary website, names the main factor in country cuisine – the process is no less important than the result. He explains that country food is everything connected with fire and smoke.

“The barbecue and the cauldron come first, but there are more interesting options. For example, a wok is a round-bottomed Chinese frying pan that is a close relative of the cauldron,” he says.

The chef says that the main feature of the wok is to cook at the maximum heat, which is much higher than the power of modern burners. Cooks call this method stir-frying because the wok stirs the food constantly to keep it from sticking to the bottom. Due to fast frying, vegetables remain shiny and crispy, meats and seafood remain juicy and tasty, and all together retain maximum vitamins.

“And unless you have a special burner that Chinese cooks use, street cooking is your only chance to try stir-frying as it was originally conceived,” he says.

According to Onegin, another type of frying pan suitable for country cuisine is paella, a large Spanish frying pan for cooking the rice dish of the same name. He said that Spanish cooks use a large skillet to ensure that all the ingredients are perfectly prepared and so that the layer of rice is not too thick to get the famous “soccarat” crust.

“For a large company in the home kitchen, paella is more of a compromise than a repetition of an authentic recipe, but you can cook a real paella on the street for at least 10, at least 20 people,” said the chef.

to cook Seafood Rice the chef will need large shrimp, mussels, diced tomatoes, short grain rice, onions, garlic, green beans, saffron, olives and butter, salt.

Rinse the rice and put it in a colander. Thaw seafood, but do not drain any remaining liquid. Clean the shrimp, remove the guts using a longitudinal incision, and do not discard the heads and shells. Blanch the beans in salted boiling water and drain in a colander to cool. Boil the mussels in a pot with a lid until they open, leaving all the liquid in the bottom. Fry the prawns in hot olive oil for 1-2 minutes on both sides and transfer them to a paper towel. Fry the shrimp heads and shells in a small amount of butter, add water, add the seafood liquid, salt and simmer for half an hour, stirring. Drain the resulting juice by gently pressing the heads and shells of the shrimp. You should get two glasses of broth in total, add water if there is less. Add saffron to the hot broth. Pour olive oil into the pan so that it covers the bottom. Add the finely chopped onion and garlic and sauté until the vegetables are translucent. Add the beans, tomatoes, fry for a minute, then pour the rice evenly into the pan to distribute it evenly. Salt, pour the rice with broth and cook over high heat for about 10 minutes. Then reduce the heat and cook for another 10 minutes so that the broth partially boils.

Important: The chef warns that it may take longer to cook if you use short grain rice instead of Spanish bomba rice.

A few minutes before cooking, put the pre-cooked seafood on the rice so that they have time to warm up, but not become “rubber”. Remove the pan from the heat and leave the paella for another 5 minutes to let the rice absorb the remaining liquid.

If the “games with different pans” did not impress you, Onegin offers an alternative option – get acquainted with the barbecue.

“The meaning of this culinary act is that the products, as a rule, are something meaty and monumental, such as whole chickens, veal and the like, and are cooked for several hours at low temperature. “The meat remains juicy and tender enough to be eaten with a spoon, and the outside is saturated with the aroma of charcoal.”

The chef adds that you can try the barbecue method on a clamshell grill if the previous methods require special utensils.

“Set the meat aside but away from the coals and maintain the desired temperature, gradually adding new coals as the old coals cool,” he advised.

st. Maxim Polyakov, chef of Memo restaurant in St. Petersburg, considers the traditional Turkish dish kyufte an excellent option for a country meal. The chef recommends moving away from the classic recipe and cooking kyufte on an open fire with the addition of mozzarella and mashed potatoes with tarragon and fruit cream sauce as a side dish.

“The meat can be absolutely anything – lamb, venison or duck, the main thing is juiciness and richness of taste. I prefer to cook with marbled beef,” she says.

The chef recommends flavoring the meat with bright spices like sumac and coriander. Next, you need to put about 100 g of minced meat on cling film, cover it with another layer of film and roll it into a circle of 10-12 cm. Fold the minced meat “pancake” in half and pin it around, ”continues the chef. In order to grill or grill Kyufte more easily and not deform, Polyakov recommends freezing it a little in the freezer.

While the meatballs are cooling in the freezer, prepare the mashed potatoes. Boil new potatoes, add hot milk or cream and a little butter. Add chopped tarragon at the last moment, otherwise you can replace it with mint or currant leaves. Enter the greens into the potatoes and wipe until smooth.

“Well, where without the sauce? I prefer berry sauces, mix cranberries and currants, put on the stove, add cream and bring to a boil, then pierce with a blender and filter, ”says the chef.

Alexander Truschelev, president of the Coffeemania Academy, shared the idea of ​​a burning hut dinner. For cooking you will need a cauldron, lamb and vegetables. He explained that the ratio of lamb and vegetables should be 1 kg of lamb – 1 kg of vegetables conditionally one to one.

“I recommend you buy leg of lamb. But be sure to remove the fat so that there is no lamb smell. Only tasty and juicy meat will come out, and no one will guess from the smell that it is lamb,” he said.

Of vegetables, the chef definitely recommends taking carrots, potatoes, white cabbage and garlic, if desired, you can add tomatoes, bell peppers and zucchini. “And make sure there is a lot of greenery. I take lots of cilantro, add parsley and wild garlic, it’s just ripe,” she advises.

Cut the lamb meat into large cubes. Large potatoes are cut into 4 parts, small – in half. Cut the cabbage into slices: if you have a small head of cabbage, first cut it in half, then into 6-8 parts. Peel the garlic and release the cloves one by one. Peel the carrots, first cut them along and then cut each half into slices up to 5 mm thick. Onion cut into large half rings. Finely chop the remaining vegetables. If you use wild garlic, you can easily tear it off after removing the legs.

Put the lamb on the bottom of the cauldron, salt, pepper and pour immediately a small amount of vegetable oil so that it completely covers the meat. Arrange the potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic, wild garlic and bell peppers on top. Put the cabbage slices on top, they should become a “lid” for everything else. Put the greens on the cabbage. Then fill everything with water so that it covers the cabbage by 1-2 cm, cover the cauldron with a lid, put on fire for an hour and a half. The chef recommends serving boiled lamb with lavash.

Sergey Navasartov, chef of the Noah’s Ark restaurant, believes that the dishes prepared in the cauldron can be an alternative to the traditional country barbecue.

“For example, don’t boil it. In a cauldron put layers of meat – lamb or beef, onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes and a large amount of greens. Fill everything with any light beer and set it on fire. It’s definitely light, because dark beer will be bitter,” he suggested.

Navasartov’s second recipe is lamb with herbs in a cauldron. For cooking, you will need lamb, potatoes, onions, green cherry plums, tarragon, mint and coriander. Lightly fry the lamb with onions in a cauldron. Add greens, cherry plum and white wine. Cover the cauldron with a lid and cook over medium heat.

“If you don’t have a cauldron, but have a flatter bowl, you can stuff vegetables into it—for example, with rice, minced meat, and herbs. I suggest adding some tomato juice and water. Cover the dish with foil and send it to the grill, ”the chef suggested.

Yevgeny Vasilenko, brand chef of the Belgian bakery chain “Daily Bread”, sees the cottage as an inexhaustible source of ideas for various dishes.

“I really like plov, shurpa and lagman and recommend it for a country dinner. For barbecue, I advise you to pay attention not only to traditional types of meat or fish, but also to lesser-known shrimp or crayfish. They quickly form a crust, do not “seal” the juices inside, and as a result, seafood has a very juicy and rich taste, ”says.

The chef shared a summer salad recipe that will complement the summer menu and is perfect for warm weather. For cooking you will need iceberg and lettuce leaves, roast beef, new potatoes, green beans, zucchini and cherry tomatoes.

Cut the lettuce leaves into large pieces and place them at the bottom of the plate. “Seal” the beef on the grill and have it ready. Cut new potatoes in half and grill them. Pour boiling water over the beans. Arrange on lettuce leaves, add green beans, chopped zucchini and cherry tomatoes. Finally add the sliced ​​roast beef.

“I also recommend adding pickled daikon or radish slices from the garden, but you can try the sauce to your liking,” the chef summed up.

No time to read?
Get a summary
Previous Article

AVTOVAZ returns to rally raids with the Niva Legend SUV

Next Article

Horror Dead Space creator’s Callisto protocol is no longer connected to the PUBG universe