What can you cook with cream?
Cream is a valuable food product that has found wide application in cooking. Thanks to their use, you can cook a wide variety of sauces, savory dishes and delicious desserts. The main thing is to choose and use cream correctly.
How to choose?
On store shelves you can see this product with a different percentage of fat content. This is 10 percent, and 20, and even 60. So-called low-fat cream (from 10 to 14%), a product with a low fat content (from 15 to 19%), cream with a classic fat content (20-35%) are sold. You can also purchase a fatty product, on the packaging of which there are numbers from 35 to 50%. Cream with a high percentage of fat content may have an appropriate designation (up to 60%).
Also this product can be pasteurized or sterilized. Sterilized cream is obtained by boiling. They can be stored for four months. They are airtight and taste like baked milk. Unlike a sterilized product, a pasteurized product remains usable for three days. It tastes like boiled milk. Also today on sale you can find cream with various flavors (chocolate, vanilla, etc.).
The packaging should indicate which cream is under the lid - sterilized or pasteurized. If there is no such indication, it means that vegetable fats have been added to the product. In fact, this is a completely different drink.
On the shelves you can often find dry cream.They also include substances of plant origin. They taste like real ones, but actually have nothing to do with a product derived from milk. They are inexpensive, do not deteriorate for a long time. Therefore, they are readily used in food production. Canned cream is another form of "fake cream powder". They also contain vegetable and synthetic ingredients. All this ensures a long shelf life of the product.
Only home-made cream allows you to instantly assess the quality - here you can immediately see whether the product is good or not. Store portions can be checked only after returning home, after opening the package. A good product does not contain suspicious lumps and detachments. The taste of normal cream should be sweetish, and the color should be white or cream.
It must be borne in mind that although the pasteurized product sours quickly, if this happens, it can still be used. From it you can make, for example, dough. As for sterilized cream, when spoiled, they acquire a pronounced bitter aftertaste. This indicates that the process of decay has begun in the product.
No use can be found for him. Such packaging should be discarded immediately.
Recipes for savory dishes and sauces
A good sauce is half the success in preparing lunch or dinner. Cream sauce can be a great addition to many dishes. To prepare it, you need to take:
- eight tablespoons of low-fat cream;
- one tablespoon of flour (wheat);
- one tablespoon of butter;
- salt;
- black pepper (ground).
In a dry frying pan, you need to fry the flour, add oil to it and mix so that there are no lumps (it is convenient to use a whisk).Gradually pour in the cream, remembering to stir. Add pepper and salt as desired. Boil the resulting mixture for two minutes to thicken the sauce. Optionally, you can add various spices.
Pasta-based dishes go well with a sauce using cream and cheese. For this you need to stock up:
- one hundred grams of cheese (hard);
- one hundred grams of thirty percent cream;
- a clove of garlic;
- salt;
- pepper.
Cheese should be passed through a grater with small holes, garlic - through a garlic press. Mix what you get. Add the right amount of pepper and salt, add cream. Put the resulting mixture in a water bath (you need to ensure that the cheese is melted). The process should be controlled, stir from time to time.
It is necessary to wait until the sauce becomes uniform in composition and reaches the required density.
Whipped cream sauce is a good addition to savory dishes. Have to take:
- a glass of cream (whipped);
- a tablespoon of ketchup;
- a teaspoon of lemon juice;
- salt.
All this must be mixed until a homogeneous structure is obtained and added to the finished dish.
From sour cream of 10-20 percent fat, you can make a filling for casseroles (for example, for potatoes). Sliced potatoes need to be fried a little. It is also worth doing with onions (rings), add salt and pepper. Put all this on a baking sheet, greased with oil, so that potatoes are in the bottom layer, and onions are above. Pour the sour cream over the dish and bake in the oven.
Cream is used for cream soups. The following ingredients are required:
- cauliflower;
- onion;
- half a liter of milk;
- one hundred grams of twenty percent cream;
- one hundred grams of butter;
- salt and pepper;
- parsley and garlic;
- Red caviar.
Cabbage should be divided into inflorescences and put to boil. Put oil in another pan and set the burner on a small fire. It is necessary to melt the butter, not allowing it to burn.
Cut the onion into half rings, finely chop the garlic and send to the oil. After the onion is fried, add the broth, milk, cauliflower and parsley to the pan. Add salt and pepper according to taste preferences. When the cabbage is fully cooked, add the cream. Remove the pan from the burner, grind the contents with a blender. Serve soup with caviar.
With the use of thick heavy cream, chicken fillets can be prepared. Have to take:
- chicken fillet;
- one bell pepper;
- a glass of cream with a high percentage of fat content;
- head of onion;
- dill and parsley;
- twenty grams of butter;
- salt.
Melt the butter in a frying pan, place the diced onion in it, fry until golden. Then introduce the fillet, divided into small strips. Keep on fire for a few minutes.
Add crushed bell pepper to the total mass. Then salt and cook for another three minutes. After that, add cream, wait for it to thicken. When this happens, add chopped parsley and dill. Serve to the table.
Dessert Options
With the use of cream, you can cook a huge number of excellent dessert dishes. For example, a cake with a melon. Such a dessert is prepared without baking, since the melon loses its unique flavor during the baking process. Agar-agar is used here as a stabilizing agent.
To make a cake, you will need:
- a kilo of melon (half - for mousse, half - in order to decorate the dessert on top);
- four hundred milliliters of yogurt;
- one hundred and fifty grams of powdered sugar;
- fifteen grams of agar-agar;
- one hundred milliliters of hot water;
- half a liter of thirty-five percent cream;
- two hundred grams of sugar cookies;
- two tablespoons of lemon juice.
The melon must be cut into two halves and the seeds removed from it. Pour agar-agar with hot water for half an hour. Meanwhile, cut pieces in the form of hemispheres from one part of the melon with a spoon. Peel the other half of the vegetable, cut into cubes and put in a deep plate. Add yogurt to the melon, turn into a homogeneous mass with a blender. Crush the cookies with the same kitchen tool to make a mountain of crumbs.
Cover the cake mold (detachable) with foil. Pour the cookies on the bottom and tamp. Heat agar-agar slowly so that it boils, and then pour cream (one hundred grams) into it. Wait until this mass boils again and cook for two minutes with stirring. Beat the rest of the cream until foamy, add powdered sugar and beat well again.
Combine the prepared melon-based mixture with sweet cream and raise with a blender at low speed. Add lemon juice. After that, introduce a mass of agar-agar and cream into the resulting composition, process again what happened with a blender running at high speeds (about two minutes). Pour the mixture into the mold with the prepared cookie crumbs and refrigerate for one hour.
Before you start trying the dish, the form must be separated and carefully removed. On top of the cake, you can decorate with melon slices and mint leaves.
You can use cream to make a delicious roll for tea. For this you need to prepare:
- four hundred grams of crushed chocolate chip cookies;
- five tablespoons of cherry sugar syrup;
- two hundred and fifty grams of soft fatty cheese;
- one hundred grams of cream;
- one hundred grams of powdered sugar.
Add syrup to crushed cookies, mix well. If the mixture is not moist enough, you can add a little soft butter. Place the resulting mass in a plastic bag. Roll. Cut off the top of the package. Combine grated cheese, cream and sweet powder. Whisk. What happened, apply on top of the rolled out mass from the bag, and then roll into a roll. Place in freezer. After a few minutes, dessert can be eaten.
To prepare a romantic dessert - strawberries with cream, you need to have both on hand. Cream must be chilled in the refrigerator. This will take several hours. Then they need to be placed in a deep dish with a low temperature. To do this, you need to hold the bowl under a stream of ice water or just on ice.
Whip the cream with a blender until thick and fluffy (the volume should double). Then add powdered sugar and vanilla. Whisk again. Spread a little powdered sugar on the strawberries and then spread the cream over them.
On the basis of cream, you can make homemade ice cream. For it, you should use only a high-quality natural product with a thirty percent fat content. You need to have on hand:
- nine hundred grams of cream;
- two hundred grams of powdered sugar;
- six egg yolks;
- fifty grams of vanilla.
To begin with, vanillin is mixed with sweet powder and yolks. To make the mass homogeneous, you can use a whisk. The cream should be heated so that it begins to boil, and then add it to the existing sweet egg mass. Stir until smooth.After that, put the resulting mixture on the stove, turn on the minimum heat and cook until a thick substance is obtained. After that, ice cream can be divided into molds and sent to the freezer.
The recipe can be varied by adding syrup, jam, nuts or chocolate to the base composition. If you want to color ice cream, you should use food coloring.
You can make a delicious cream pudding based on cream and tangerine. For this you will need:
- cream of high fat content (at least thirty percent);
- two hundred milliliters of yogurt (natural);
- about three hundred milliliters of tangerine juice (freshly squeezed);
- one hundred and fifty grams of sugar and vanilla sugar (ten grams);
- fifteen grams of gelatin;
- half a glass of tangerine pulp;
- four tablespoons of water.
Ten grams of gelatin should be soaked in three tablespoons of water. Separately, to create jelly, you need to soak five grams of gelatin in one tablespoon of water.
Combine one hundred grams of sugar, yogurt and cream, add two hundred milliliters of juice and vanilla sugar. Heat all this on the stove, but do not let it boil. Remove from heat and add gelatin. Mix well, strain. Distribute in containers for cream. Remove for an hour in the refrigerator.
To make jelly, the remaining tangerine juice must be mixed with sugar, heated on the stove. Remove from heat and add gelatin. Stir until smooth. Distribute the pulp of the mandarin on portions of the pudding, pour the jelly-like mass on top and put it in the refrigerator so that the dessert freezes.
Tips
Cream contains a large amount of vitamins and minerals. However, it should be borne in mind that some of them are contraindicated. This may be due to the fact that the person is intolerant to milk protein.Also, due to the high fat content, experts do not advise giving this product to children under two years of age. Their body does not yet produce as many enzymes as needed in order to easily digest such heavy foods.
Also, you should not drink cream for those who have high blood cholesterol, impaired metabolism, have heart and vascular diseases, as well as serious liver problems.
If there are no contraindications to the use of such a product in food, it is better to make homemade cream if possible, the quality of which will not be in doubt. To do this, you will need not store-bought, but ordinary village milk directly “from under the cow”. It is advisable to make cream in the summer when the cattle feed on green grass. Then the milk will definitely not be bitter.
Steamed or at least just fresh milk of morning milk should be poured into containers with a large diameter and left in a cold place (preferably in the cellar). After a day, cream will come out on the surface of the bowls. The fatter the milk, the thicker the creamy layer will be. It remains only to remove it with a spoon. The resulting mass can be eaten or used as a component of various dishes.
How to make cream of any fat content from milk and butter at home, see the following video.