PAPILLOTES(French papillote - paper wrapper). Used in restaurant kitchens, paper tubes with various cutouts and scallops are used to hide the ends of animal or poultry bones protruding from the meat. Papillots also play the role of a handle, by which you can hold a portion without getting your hands dirty with fat, and make it easier to cut the portion into smaller pieces.
Papillottes first appeared in the 19th century in French restaurant cuisine, from where they quickly spread to many cuisines around the world, incl. and into Russian restaurant cuisine. Curls were especially widely used in Soviet restaurants and in communist Kremlin cuisine.

To decorate fried game, cutlets and chops with bones, and hams on the bone, paper papillots and rosettes are used.
For curling papers, fold a sheet of paper three times in length, then bend the edge of the paper 1-1.25 cm wide and use a sharp knife or scissors to cut strips evenly across the entire width of the paper. The paper is cut into 4 strips, rolled onto a round stick, giving the appearance of a flower, and its ends are folded.
To make a rosette, paper measuring 12:12 cm is folded into 4 layers (in half and in half again), cut obliquely and corrugated using a thin cloth. Then the sharp tip of the rosette is cut off, the rosette is unrolled and put on the curler and on the bone (see below).

"...I have never written about how to cook fish in papillotes. A papillote, dear thickhead, in cooking is a twisted cut piece of paper that is usually put on the bones of cutlets or fried poultry. Well, except that Giedrius managed to cook catfish in a papillote his lady, which was twisted into her hair."
(excerpt from Lithuanian literature of the twentieth century).

Scheme for making the simplest papillot:

1. The paper should not be very thin - printer paper is best.
2. Take a thick white paper and cut a strip about 8 cm long and 4 cm wide from it.
3. Fold the strip along its middle lengthwise.
4. Cut the folded paper along the fold with scissors into even cuts - you will get something like a fringe.
5. Wrap the cut paper in a spiral around a round stick, the diameter of which coincides with the diameter of the bone.
6. Glue the end of the paper strip with food glue made from brewed starch or flour, or gelatin, or attach it with tape.
NOTE. Although recently, for simplicity, papillots are often glued with tape, but it must be admitted that tape does not fit well with edible products, therefore food glue made from flour or starch, or gelatin is always more preferable.
7. Trim the bottom of the cuff with scissors.
Use ready-made papillots to decorate the bird.
Photo step-by-step production simplest papillote:

This was in 1913. An eleven-year-old girl, a boarder at the Moscow Rzhev Gymnasium, pestered her uncle with a request to show him what was written on the medallion that he always carried with him on his chest. The uncle took off the medallion and handed it to the girl. The girl opened the lid, but nothing was written there. In addition to 5 note lines and four notes: G-sharp - B - F-sharp - E. The girl paused for a moment, and then cheerfully shouted: “Uncle.” I know what is written here. The notes on the medallion mean: “I love you.” And here the question arises. Can you imagine how this girl was taught if she, seeing four notes, sang them to herself, and after singing, she recognized the beginning of Lensky’s arioso from Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin.” It turned out that this medallion, such an original declaration of love, was once received by the girl’s uncle as a gift from his bride before their wedding. But think about it, the girl is only 11 years old! How did they manage to teach her like that? And not in a special music school or in a music college, but in a normal Russian gymnasium, and even in the elementary grades. Question: how was this girl taught? – I have already asked, now I will ask another question, the answer to which goes beyond discussions about the level of education only, but concerns issues of the gene pool. How should a boy be taught so that he will someday approach such a girl and talk to her, interest her as a worthy interlocutor, as a person, and eventually win her heart? Having taught the girl at this level, she was, as it were, inoculated against lack of spirituality, against that stream of primitive monotony, which I conventionally call “disco.” No matter what boy approaches this girl. But even if he approaches, he is unlikely to find mutual understanding... Thus, we are talking about the level of contact, the level of spiritual and cultural correspondence. Consequently, when teaching a girl art, music, poetry, already in the junior grades of a Russian gymnasium, nurturing (or, better said, forming) a spiritual need, we thought about the gene pool, about intellectual society future. But did there exist a boy in Russian society - a worthy partner for our little schoolgirl? Of course yes! You didn't think about it. why did all the officers of the tsarist army learn to play the piano? Is this really necessary for combat training? For combat, perhaps not, but for the gene pool - of course, yes!!! Think about it, what kind of image is this – an officer playing the piano? Yes, this is a symbol of male harmony - a combination of officers and music. On the one hand, the officer is a defender, a warrior, and on the other, a subtle interpreter of the music of Tchaikovsky and Chopin... The high quality of humanitarian education in Russia, from the 20s of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20s of the 20th century, gave rise to an incredible need for culture and prepared a cultural explosion, the like of which, I think, the history of mankind has never known before... M. Kazinik “Secrets of geniuses”

Of course, these two types of vegetables are successfully used in cooking, but they can be used not only as products for salads and other dishes, but also made from them. beautiful cuts, serving as an excellent decoration for the holiday table.

The art of beautifully cutting cucumbers and tomatoes is the topic of this article. So, let's look at several recipes for decorating dishes made from tomatoes and cucumbers, but first about some useful tips when cutting vegetables.

1. To prepare an “edible decoration”, always carefully select cucumbers and tomatoes, it is best that they are firm, and the cucumber should have small grains.

2. Peeling should be done immediately before slicing.

3. If you perform complex manipulations with vegetables, cutting out interesting shapes, spray them with water from time to time, preferably using a fine spray bottle. This is done in order to prevent the vegetables from drying out and wilting.

4. Ready-made vegetable decorations can be stored for about a week if you place them in cold water with ice.

5. When you arrange the vegetables on a platter, use a paper napkin to remove excess moisture on cucumbers and tomatoes.

6. Before serving the dish, it is allowed to use sauces and ketchup to complement the decorations. The main thing here is to stick to the taste of the main dish. Well, now let’s move on directly to the recipes for preparing sliced ​​vegetables.

How to cut cucumbers and tomatoes. Photo recipes

The following shapes can be made from cucumbers: leaves, bells, circles, crow's feet, lilies, all kinds of beautiful ornaments. It’s extremely easy to do using an ordinary kitchen knife. small sizes. Not only suitable for slicing fresh cucumbers, but also marinated and lightly salted. Choose medium-sized vegetables with good density (especially pickles). You can complement the green decoration with sprigs of greenery and lettuce leaves, but make sure that the lettuce and greenery do not completely cover the cucumbers.

How to decorate a rose from tomatoes

Take a ripe tomato, wash it and dry it. Then cut in half, and also cut each half into thin slices, dividing the slices into small, medium and large. Now roll the small slices to form a bud. Then wrap the bud in a circle with medium tomato slices. And finish the flower in the same way using large pieces of tomato. To give your rose a more authentic look, bend back a few petals from rolled tomato slices. The rose is ready.

Cucumbers and tomatoes. How to make an ornament

1. Take a few cucumbers and a couple of tomatoes. We cut each cucumber lengthwise and divide it into 2 halves.

3. Simply divide the tomatoes into 2 halves.

4. We cut the cucumbers as follows: cut each half of the cucumber crosswise in a thin layer from the skin side, but not all the way through.

5. With a little effort, press the knife onto the cucumber to give it a shape. 6. Place the cucumber halves in a circle on the dish, and put ½ tomato between them.

How to cut a cucumber beautifully. Decoration "Fan"

1. Cut part of the vegetable from the very tip diagonally, and then cut 5 thin slices at the same angle.

2. Now you need to put the resulting circles together and cut through all the layers from the center to the edge.

3. Turn one end of the slices 180 degrees. And then straighten any of the ends, like a fan.

On festive table- this is, of course, great. But sometimes, not every guest from the available assortment can choose exactly the one that he would like to eat now. Someone doesn't like vegetable oil, and someone is fasting or on a diet, and for this reason does not use sour cream and homemade mayonnaise.

In this case, it will be very useful. Any of the guests can take exactly those vegetables that he would like to have on his plate.

You can place spices, seasonings, bottles of sauces next to the cutting of vegetables, and then guests can prepare the salad on their own plate and season it to their liking.

We won’t talk about carving and cutting with curly knives for now, because this is in some way an art that needs to be learned. Absolutely any housewife can prepare ordinary vegetable slicing. Sweet pepper different colors can be cut into strips, fresh cucumbers - into thin plastics, tomatoes - into circles or quarters, if the tomatoes are not very large.

Like fruit slices, vegetable slices sell out quickly if you arrange them in an original and tasteful way. Arrange the vegetables in piles, giving them a beautiful shape. Place a heap of lettuce and other herbs on the dish next to it - dill, parsley, green onions. In a small plate you can put canned, green peas or corn, or maybe both.

Flaky rice is good for preparing a salad. It can also be placed in a small bowl or a special plate. And, if there is meat or fish on the table, sliced ​​vegetables will be a great addition to them.

How to beautifully cut tomatoes and cucumbers? This question becomes especially relevant when housewives begin to prepare to receive long-awaited guests. It is worth noting that the vegetables presented are excellent helpers for good digestion of food. In addition, they help speed up metabolism and remove toxins from the body. In this regard, nutritionists around the world recommend consuming these products exclusively in their raw form. That is why most housewives are often interested in the question of how to beautifully cut tomatoes and cucumbers and properly present them to the holiday table.

In this article we decided to present several simple and original options. unusual design vegetables So, with us you can make butterflies, petals, flowers, etc. from fresh tomatoes, and beautiful boats with filling inside from cucumbers.

Choosing the right vegetables

Before beautifully cutting tomatoes and cucumbers, you should purchase ripe and as fresh as possible vegetables. They should be washed well and then processed immediately. It is worth noting that it is advisable to take such products without various dents, stains, dots, wormholes, etc. Moreover, for decorative table decoration it is best to buy elastic vegetables, since softer ones will not be able to long time keep the shape given to them.

Making butterflies from tomatoes

How to beautifully cut tomatoes and cucumbers in the form of a beautiful spring butterfly? The last ingredient will not suit us for this. But an original insect can come out of a tomato, which is good for decorating a salad border. Thus, you should take several not very large tomatoes, and then cut each of them into 8 equal parts. After this, you need to pull off the skin halfway from the vegetable pieces by prying it off with a knife. As a result of this, you should get tomato slices with a peculiar curl. By placing two identical pieces on a dish (with the skin facing each other), you will get the silhouette of a beautiful butterfly.

Unusual tomato petals

There is nothing difficult about cutting cucumbers and tomatoes for a vegetable arrangement. For example, you can make beautiful petals from fresh tomatoes in a matter of minutes. To do this, you need to cut the vegetable in half lengthwise, and then place the cut side on the board and make a diagonal cut, retreating 1.5 centimeters from the edges. Next, you need to remove the resulting wedge and perform the same manipulations with it. Thus, when making such cuts, you should get several slices, which should be laid on top of each other and moved slightly along the axis.

Cutting sunflowers from fresh tomatoes

Make one like this sunny flower possible in a few minutes. To do this, take a large tomato and then lightly cut its skin as if you wanted to divide it into eight equal slices. Next, using a knife to pry the hard peel in the center of the vegetable, you need to carefully separate it from the pulpy part almost to the base, but without tearing it off. As a result of these actions, you should be left with a whole tomato, and along the edges - curls of the skin, which will play the role of sunflower petals. For beautiful design The pulpy part of the tomato can be sprinkled with poppy seeds or covered with olive rings.

Now you know how to cut tomatoes beautifully. You can see a photo of such a decoration for a vegetable arrangement in this article. It is worth especially noting that the presented methods for decorating tomatoes are far from exceptional. After all, other, no less original decorative elements can be made from such vegetables.

Making snack boats from cucumbers

Even ordinary people can beautifully cut cucumbers and tomatoes. dining table transform into a luxuriously covered one. In this section we decided to present to your attention step by step method how to make a tartlet for an appetizer from fresh vegetables.

To prepare this decoration, you need to purchase young and maximally elastic cucumbers. They should be washed well and all navels should be removed. After this, each cucumber must be chopped into short pieces (6 centimeters long), which must be divided in half lengthwise. The resulting slices should be cut parallel to the central plane, not reaching the end of 2 centimeters. Next, you need to make a small hole in the vegetable, removing some of the pulp with seeds.

To give our boat a complete look, the cut cucumber plate should be lifted, bent in the opposite direction, and then secured with a toothpick, thereby making a kind of sail with a mast.

You can fill the cavity of the vegetable with any filling. Black or red caviar, a mixture of grated crab sticks, cheese, garlic and mayonnaise, as well as slices of lightly salted salmon or trout, sour cream with herbs and seasonings, etc.