Laura the Gastronaut > Julia Child > Vegetables > Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce

Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce & Deglazing Sauce with Cream

August 6, 2020 | Updated August 31, 2023 | Laura

✽ Recipe from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I | Julia Child ✽

Julia Child Recipes 132-134 | 394 recipes to go!

✽ Poulet Sauté à la Créme [Deglazing Sauce with Cream], p. 256
✽ Concombres à la Mornay [Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce], p. 501
✽ Sauce Mornay [Cheese Sauce], p. 61

__________________________________

✽ Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ You can buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I which contains these recipes here. (affiliate link)

The purpose of this Julia Child section of my blog is to document my journey of learning how to cook. To show my successes, my failures, and what I learned along the way.

Since I didn't create these recipes (if only!), I do not post exact amounts of ingredients or word-for-word instructions. If any of these recipes spark your interest, I highly recommend you buy Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking (affiliate link). It's a great investment and learning tool and contains hundreds of classic recipes.

I hope that you enjoy reading my thoughts, learn something new, and leave inspired to try a new recipe. Bon appétit!

__________________________________

✽ Butter Count: +15 TB

✽ Cost: $12.56 [~$2.09 per serving]

- Deglazing Sauce with Cream= $5.77 [4-6 servings]
- Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce= $6.79 [6 servings]

Check out the total Julia Child butter count & cost here!

→ Looking for a different Julia Child recipe? Here's a list of all of the completed and pending Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipes!

A great recipe made even better.

Okay, here’s another one of those recipes where we take something that was absolutely amazing, a flawless recipe, and make it even better. How will we do that? Well add cream, of course! This is the EXACT same recipe as the previous sautéed chicken so check out that blog post if you are interested in a good classic chicken recipe.

The only difference here is in the sauce. We will trade out a cup of brown chicken stock for a cup of whipping cream. We will still scrape up all that flavor at the bottom of the pan and pour the sauce ALL over the chicken pieces, but this time it is creamy!

As for the cucumbers, I’ll just say that you are missing out if you have not tried Julia’s baked cucumbers yet. I will not say they are the best recipe in the book, but they are the most surprising. If you like zucchini then you will like baked cucumbers. They are simple, tasty, and fresh. This time around I covered them with cheese sauce and boy are they RICH. I mean wow. I almost like them more without the cheese sauce, but I guess that would just depend how I’m feeling that day.

I’ll give the deglazing sauce with cream a 7. It was really good. The chicken is cooked to perfection and the creaminess of the sauce makes the chicken finger lickin’ good- no doubt! Whether it’s better than the master recipe is up to you to decide and just depends on your personal taste. Whichever sauce you choose is bound to be packed with flavor.

The cucumbers get a 6. Like I mentioned, they are very rich and cannot imagine somebody being able to eat a large serving of them. However, they are still really good, and I would never pass up eating baked cucumbers whether they are covered in cheese sauce or not.

The cheese sauce gets a 10 because it’s a classic sauce. The recipe in this book is foolproof, makes a great sauce, and is rich just like it should be (just don’t let your milk boil over- not that I would know anything about that….).

Looking for more Julia Child vegetable recipes to read about?

→ Check out all of the vegetable recipes that I've completed so far!

✽ Step 1: Saute Chicken

The deglazing sauce is very similar to the master recipe. The chicken is sauteed in the exact same manner as the sauteed chicken recipe.

✽ Step 2: Make Sauce

After the chicken is removed from the pan, shallots are added. Dry white wine is poured in to make a reduction. Make sure to scrape up all that goodness stuck to the bottom of the pan. Then instead of adding stock, cream is added instead and boiled until thickened.

✽ Step 3: Add Butter & Serve

Lastly, butter and herbs are stirred in, and all that deliciousness is poured on top of the chicken.

How to Make Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce

✽ Step 1: Make Baked Cucumbers

First, you have to make the baked cucumbers just as the master recipe.

✽ Step 2: Make Cheese Sauce

As for the cheese sauce, it begins by making a white sauce or béchamel. A little bit of butter is melted over low heat, blended with some flour, and cooked for a couple minutes. This is a called a roux.

Once the roux stops bubbling, remove from heat and vigorously beat in boiling milk and salt. Place the saucepan back on the burner over moderately high heat and boil for a minute while stirring. The white sauce is now completed.

Remove from heat and stir in Swiss cheese until it has melted. Lastly season with salt, pepper, and nutmeg. You can also add in cayenne and butter if you desire.

✽ Step 3: Fold in Cheese Sauce & Broil

The cucumbers are the same except they get folded in with cheese sauce, topped with Swiss cheese, dotted with butter, and broiled for a couple minutes to delicately brown the top.

*This blog, Laura the Gastronaut, and this post were/are not endorsed or supported by Julia Child or The Julia Child Foundation.

Category: Julia Child, Vegetables, Poultry, Sauces Cuisine: French
Keywords: julia child cucumbers recipe, cheesy cucumbers recipe, cream sauce for chicken

✽ Did you make this recipe too?
→ Let me know by leaving a comment below and sharing on Instagram. Tag @laurathegastronaut and hashtag it #laurathegastronaut.

More Vegetable Recipes:

✽ Baked Cucumbers (the most surprise recipe yet- so delicious)
✽ Braised Lettuce (this lettuce is slowly braised in stock)
✽ Creamed Carrots (these carrots taste more like dessert than a vegetable side)
→ Check out all of the completed Julia Child vegetable recipes!

✽ You can find this recipe and all the other Julia Child recipes I make in Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I (affiliate link). Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I was written by Julia Child who co-authored with Simone Beck & Louisette Bertholle and was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1961.

✽ Check out my Julia Child Recipe Checklist to see a list of all my completed and pending recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking!

Bon appétit!

August 6, 2020 by Laura Ehlers

*This Cucumbers with Cheese Sauce blog post may contain Amazon affiliate links. These link to products that I personally use and recommend. If you purchase anything using my links, it will not cost you anything. It will though give laurathegastronaut.com some financial support which helps me keep this blog running. Thank you for reading my blogs and your continued support.