Once upon a time for Count Orlov, a French chef cooked tender veal with vegetables familiar to a Russian person - potatoes and onions. The composition was seasoned with the most delicious bechamel sauce and served an original dish to the table, calling it “Meat in French”. With mushrooms and tomatoes, this masterpiece began to be cooked already in the homeland of the famous count. But as? The secret is revealed below.
Russian variant
As already noted, the French cook prepared the basis of this recipe for tender veal. But meat in French with mushrooms and tomatoes is made not only from it. For its preparation, you can safely use beef or pork, the main thing is to properly process it.
But it is worth returning to the main thing, namely: to the list of ingredients. So, for this recipe (provided that dinner is planned for two) you will need:
- A pound of selected meat.
- Potatoes about 300 g (about three medium tubers).
- Tomatoes - 2 large copies.
- Two onions.
- 200 g of mayonnaise.
- Favorite mushrooms - 300 g.
- Grated cheese - 200-300 g.
Greens and spices will decorate the meat in French, a step-by-step recipe for which will be given below.
Cooking rules
Step 1. Product Preparation
It should be remembered that the Russian version of the preparation of meat in French involves cutting all the ingredients in layers or circles. It’s worth starting with meat. For this, a piece is cut into several parts, slightly beaten and soaked in spices.
Potatoes should be cut into layers equal to the width of the meat parts. But tomatoes and onions are best chopped into thin rings. Mushrooms are also divided into plates, but you can give them the shape of neat cubes.
Step 2. Formation of layers
It should be remembered that meat in French with mushrooms and tomatoes is a kind of casserole. And therefore, it is necessary to lay out prepared products in advance in layers.
So, the first layer is a potato pillow. The entire volume of the specified vegetable is evenly distributed at the bottom of the oiled form. Then salt and / or pepper. The second layer is meat. Its plates should be laid out so that they do not overlap each other. Layer three - onion rings, which, on the contrary, should overlap each other. The fourth layer is mushrooms. The fifth layer - circles of tomatoes. The last layer is mayonnaise.
Step 3. Baking
A mold with a future Russian-French masterpiece should be sent to a preheated gas or 220 degree electric oven and baked for 45 minutes. Then they take out the form and sprinkle with grated cheese almost the finished dish. Again sent to bake, but for 15-20 minutes.
Step 4. Serving
Ready meat in French with mushrooms and tomatoes should be served exclusively hot. At the same time, it can be decorated with leaves of fresh oregano or parsley.
Tricks
It should be remembered that the right meat in French is always prepared exclusively from veal. But if beef or pork is available, then they should be beaten off and allowed to sweat in spices for about an hour.
In addition, do not forget that potatoes may not be baked completely. Therefore, before preparing such a dish, you should boil the tubers lightly or use bechamel sauce instead of mayonnaise. And last: it’s best to use champignons when cooking such meat. But if the choice fell on forest mushrooms, then they must first be boiled. And only after that they are included in the composition of the dish.