When we plan the dishes on New year festive table, the first dish mentioned will be Olivier Salad (or Russian salad). Most people in the countries of former USSR (I know for sure at least Russia, Ukraine and Belarus) can’t imagine New Year without it. Nowadays there are anarchists who denies Olivier Salad and declair Olivier salad free New Year… but you shoud be absolutely sure your guests won’t be dissappointed of your freethinking and you won’t spoil a party for them. As for me I don’t allow myself to risk so much. Oliver salad is the obvious salad in my family even if I would decide not to prepare something else by some reason.
So, if you want to feel the taste of our New Year, prepare this salad. Be careful, it’s very high in calories!
But you should remember that recent recipe has nothing with it’s original recipe, which was signature dish of the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, which was directed by Lucien Olivier from 1860 to 1883.
The earliest known publication of the recipe is given in the magazine “Our food” dated March 31, 1894: fried hazel grouse, potatoes, fresh cucumbers, capers, olives, Provencal sauce with the addition of Soya-Kabul soy sauce. In the book E. Molokhovets “A Gift to Young Housewives or a Means to Reduce Household Costs”, published in 1904, a recipe for Olivier salad is given, which includes: hazel grouse meat, veal tongue, pressed caviar, fresh salad, boiled crayfish, lobster, pickles (pickled vegetables ), soy-kabul, fresh cucumbers, capers and boiled eggs. The salad was dressed with Provencal sauce, made from eggs, olive oil and “French vinegar”.
But now this version is completely forgotten. We mean absolutely different salad when we speak about Olivier.
To prepare this salad you should take 3 medium boiled potatoes, 3-4 boiled carrots, 4-5 boiled eggs, 350 g of ham or boiled sausage, 2-3 pickled cucumbers (we use pickles without vinegar but any are possible). All this ingredients should be cut into not big cubes, then add 450 g of canned green peas, 250 g mayonnaise, salt and ground black pepper by taste.
You may change sausages for boiled or smoked chicken, boiled carrots for fresh grated one, pickled cucumbers for fresh ones. You can also add cut onion there. It will be not standard recipe, but also possible.
One more New Year recipe is Shuba salad (herring in a fur coat) from the post about beets.
. 2nd wave !!!
