Thursday, June 18, 2009

Russian "Winter" Salad

Winter Salad
Made this for book club tonight, since we were discussing The Master and Margarita. A Russian said it tasted really authentic.

For once, I'm going to be really specific about the directions, so watch out.

Winter Salad

4 potatoes for boiling (Yukon Gold works)
3 hard-boiled eggs
2 medium-large carrots
2 spring onions
a handful of fresh parsley
4 small gherkins
peas, canned in sugar, salt, and water
a few slices of ham
a few dollops of mayo and/or sour cream
most of a medium Granny smith green apple
  • Scrub but do not peel the potatoes. Do not cut them up.
  • Peel carrots but do not cut up.
  • Boil potatoes and carrots in the same pot.
  • When potatoes let a fork pierce them without much resistance, remove from pot, drain, and set aside to cool.
  • Meanwhile, dice the gherkins into tiny pieces, like relish size.
  • And chop the green onions into small chunks.
  • And boil the ham if you need it. The ham shouldn't be like lunchmeat, it should be more substantial than that. Cut it into thinnish rectangles.
  • Dice the eggs.
  • Chop the parsley.
  • When the potatoes and carrots are cool, peel the potatoes and cut them into bite-sized pieces.
  • Chop up the carrots bigger than the gherkins.
Okay, now here's a tip: you eventually will be mixing all this together. But the more you mix it, the mushier everything gets. So I worked in layers, adding potato, egg, gherkin, carrot, onion, parsley, ham, peas (drained), and mayo.

THEN, dice up a slice of the apple. Dice really finely, as finely as you can. Add that to your layer and then mix gently. I used a spatula, wriggled it under everything, and turned everything over five times.

Repeat until everything is in there. Refrigerate for many hours to get all the flavors to mix. Serve cold as a side.

--BONUS RECIPE--

I didn't make this, but Erik brought it, and it was great. It may have made me like beets.

Borscht

First, sauté:
  • onions
  • garlic
  • potatoes
  • red cabbage
  • celery
Then add that to:
  • beef broth
  • canned diced tomatoes
  • canned beets
Stew for a long time.