The history of wheat 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 no trace of its presence has been found so far, only in Australia.
Millet, from which, bringing down, and wheat grains are obtained in nature is found everywhere, it has a huge species diversity.
This type of cereal did not become a competitor to wheat or rice because of its characteristic taste, but played an important role in the survival of humanity: 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 you quickly get enough and recuperate. From millet in the old days, bread was often baked, and the Old Russian princes, concluding agreements between themselves, had to seal their contract, having eaten porridge from one pot 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 dishes, and in order to learn how to cook them, people had to switch to a settled way of life. And this is why: it is known that the Scythians and Sarmatians were nomads, but in the places of ancient sites during excavations excavations were found in the ground, lined with stone, and at the bottom of them - grains! If you heat a stone and pour water over it, it will boil. Then in this “stone pan” you can cook soup or porridge, while the stone will give off heat. Perhaps the cultivation of grain and was the reason for the sedentary lifestyle of the Scythian tribes, and this led them to the invention of the first stone "pans".
It is also possible that the Cossacks took over the experience of the nomads, traveling to the same places where modern archeologists discovered Scythian burial mounds and their ancient sites. Krupa was rescued by the Cossacks in their military campaigns, therefore it became an important component of the dishes of the Cossack cuisine. From it, porridges and soups were made in the field, and when they returned home, they used the same millet, but in more sophisticated dishes, the recipes of which the Cossacks often found out in their distant wanderings.
Soup with millet - the main technological principles
Without mentioning that the Cossacks is a special ethnic group that was formed more than five hundred years ago in the marginal lands of Russia from the military estate, runaway serfs (free Cossacks), mostly Orthodox, it is impossible to explain the basics of the traditional Cossack cuisine, closely intertwined with Russian culinary traditions, but at the same time formed from some peculiar elements of the free steppe minimalism, involving the preparation of food from what is on hand and not excluding the presence characteristic features of neighboring nations 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 soup, which determined the consistency of first courses. Therefore, often the soups of the Cossack cuisine are similar in consistency to puree soups or liquid mash porridge.
Cereals, including millet, cooks continue to use for thickening soups, their greater nutritional value. In the Cossack kitchen, this technique is also used quite often, and at the same time soup thickening is often done with cereals, if we are talking about cooking it in the field, as this method does not require additional dishes for cooking flour-based dressing. All the ingredients of the soup are laid in one, thick-walled dishes, in strict sequence: first - products that require dry heat treatment, then - water, broth, followed by potatoes, cereals and at the final stage - sour dressings, spicy greens, spices.
Of course, one of the main components of the soup is considered to be broth, which largely determines the taste and aroma. Broths in the Cossack kitchen, as in all other cases, should cook slowly. For a brighter and more saturated taste of broth, the main component (meat or fish) in large quantities is used. When cooking soup broth in field conditions, it is necessary to take into account one bright feature: having at least a cookware, the chef does not have the opportunity to strain the broth, and therefore the ingredients should be laid out with special care. Otherwise, the rules for cooking Cossack soup with millet are very simple:
For fish soup, for example, soup, it is desirable to achieve transparency of the broth, because of which the focus is on its preparation: the degree of transparency, saturation, flavor, which is created by adding herbs, roots, combining different types of fish. However, options for thick cream soup based on fish broth are also not excluded, but in this case such a factor as transparency does not matter.
For field soup with millet, a thick consistency is often inherent, and therefore more emphasis is placed on the flavor combination of ingredients, rather than the transparency of the broth.
Groats can serve as an excellent addition not only for meat or fish soups: they are used for dairy or milk-vegetable, as well as milk-fruit soups.
The traditions of the Cossack cuisine are carefully preserved for many generations. Field soup with millet in our time - to a greater extent an element of celebratory festivities with the color of Cossack life, with the characteristic smell of a fire. But this does not mean at all that the descendants of the Cossacks, settling in gasified villages or in high-rise buildings of megalopolises with all the comforts, do not cook dishes according to the recipes of their glorious grandfathers and great-grandfathers. At home, the smell of a campfire, if desired, can be created using the addition of smoked products.
At home, the Cossacks always prepared the same dishes as in the campaign, but with great diligence, adding to them a greater number of “non-marching” ingredients, thus emphasizing the enjoyment of home comfort and the joy of meeting at the table with their loved ones.
Kulesh or soup with millet in the Cossack way can be prepared even by an aspiring cook at his kitchen, on a hike, on a picnic or at a summer cottage under construction. On that he - Cossack soup, so that you can cook it anywhere and from anywhere. Try it.
1. Recipe for fish soup with millet, old Cossack
Ingredients:
Fish, salted (any) 400 g (net)
Onions 200g
Millet 100 g
Vegetable oil 50 g
Greenery
Preparation: Onions are crushed and fried in vegetable oil. Separately, millet is boiled in 180 ml of water for 10 minutes. Salted fish is also boiled separately, disassembled into small pieces and millet filled with fried onions is added to it. Greens are added at the end.
2. Recipe for field soup with millet - Kulesh of Cossacks of the Lower Don
Composition of products:
Chopped pork (non-fat) 0.5 kg
Lard or pork fat 70-100 g
Onion 250g
Garlic 50g
Millet 200 g
Salt
Greens, carrots, spicy roots and potatoes (for the second, home version)
Preparation:
Fat is chopped finely and fried to “crackers”. Chopped meat is added and fried until half cooked, followed by chopped onion and garlic. As soon as the onion becomes transparent, pour in the water and, after letting it boil, throw the washed millet. Millet can be boiled until half ready, and then the soup can be infused until the cereal swells.
For the second, homemade cooking option, you need to repeat all the steps, but fry carrots and spicy roots together with onions, and before throwing the millet, cook the potato pieces. At the end of cooking, the soup is seasoned with any chopped herbs and spices of choice.
3. Soup with millet and crayfish on sour cream, festive
Composition:
Sour cream non-fat 450 g
Red wine 150 ml
Water 1.5 l
Crayfish, boiled 30 pcs.
Millet 250 g
Dill (chopped greens)
Cumin (seeds)
Preparation:
Boiled crayfish are cleaned, removing the meat from the shells, the millet is washed, the seeds of the mine must be ground into powder, and the dill cut. Sour cream is added to the water, stir and boil. Pour in the wine and, having given it to boil, put cereal and crayfish meat. Boil for 10-15 minutes, and add ground cumin and greens, feeding on the table.
4. Soup with millet and roast lamb in the oven (oven)
Composition:
Potatoes 300 g
Millet 150 g
Lamb, low-fat 850-900 g
Onions 200g
Pasternak 50g
Fat
Carrots 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 crushed and passer in oil or fat. Fried meat, passaged meat, small pieces of potatoes and washed millet are placed in pots (large chafing dish). The contents are filled 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
Potatoes 300 g
Pepper, chilli (spicy) 5 g
Carrot100g
Garlic 30g
Sweet pepper 250 g
Onions 200g
Tomatoes 350 g
Sour cream (for filing)
Millet 150 g
Greenery
Spice
Butter
Cooking:
Washed and peeled vegetables cut into large cubes. Paste onions, carrots and sweet peppers in butter, adding them alternately in a saucepan. At the end, put chopped tomatoes in a saucepan (if you wish, you can blanch them beforehand and peel them). Put ribs in a saucepan, disassemble them into portions, above - passaged vegetables, and millet on them. Fill the whole mass with water and cook until millet is ready. Sprinkle with herbs, spices. Serve with sour cream.
6. Soup with millet in pumpkin
Ingredients:
Cream, low-fat 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 place on the baking sheet, cutting the bottom, for stability, and the top of the fruit, with a tail, making an improvised lid. Spoon reach from the inside the seeds and fiber. Wash millet. Squeeze the juice out of a small watermelon and cook the syrup by boiling the watermelon juice with sugar (honey) to a string test.
Combine the prepared, cooled syrup with cream to taste. Put the millet in the pumpkin and, after closing it with a “lid”, bake in the oven until cooked, but so that the pumpkin outside does not become too soft. After 15 minutes, pour in the cream with a sweet dressing and, turning to a boil, turn off the oven. Leave for a while in the oven.
7. Soup with millet and raisins on baked milk
Ingredients:
Whole milk (fat) 1.0 l
Millet 250 g
Sugar and salt to taste
Preparation:
Pour the milk into a metal (stainless steel) or ceramic pan and, after boiling, place it in a preheated oven without a lid. Tomit milk until brown spicy crust. Slightly pushing roasted mousse, add washed millet, add salt and sugar as desired. Close the oven, turn it off after 5 minutes, leaving the pan. When milk soup becomes warm - serve.
Millet Soup - Tricks and Tips
- Small grains (millet) add flavor to the broth and soup.
- For chicken broth, try using less spices: they muffle the aroma and taste of the broth.
- Millet, like other cereals, is used in soups for thickening, so there is no need to use flour in the preparation of vegetable dressing.
- If there are sour ingredients in the soup (sorrel, tomatoes, sauerkraut, nettle, spinach), then add them to the pan after the potatoes or other components containing starch are cooked, so that the potatoes have time to absorb the liquid and enough to boil dry . The presence of acid makes the potato hard and difficult to cook.
