Olivier salad in Russia has long and deservedly been considered the same attribute of the New Year's feast, like champagne. The salad was established in this quality not only by the combination of a wonderful taste with relative ease of preparation, but also by the high calorie content necessary for a winter feast.
The salad, which is currently being prepared for the New Year, can be called Olivier only conditionally. The real Olivier got its name in honor of a French chef who lived and worked in Moscow at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Even V. Gilyarovsky mentions his popularity in his book "Moscow and Muscovites".
According to the writer, the Frenchman kept the salad recipe a secret, however, he is known: boiled veal tongue, 2 hazel grouse, half a pound (about 200 g) fresh salad, a quarter pound (about 100 g) pressed caviar, 25 boiled crayfish necks, 200 g pickles (a mixture of small pickled vegetables), a quarter pound of capers, 2 fresh cucumbers, kabul soybeans, 5 hard-boiled eggs.
Such a recipe cannot be called simple, therefore, already in that era, a simplified version appeared, more accessible for home cooking: cut fried hazel grouse fillets, 3 boiled potatoes, add a teaspoon of capers and 5 olives, pour in Provencal sauce, put in a salad bowl, decorate crayfish tails and lettuce leaves.
But even in such a recipe, far from all the ingredients were available to people of the Soviet era, and the recipe changed again: capers, olives and crayfish necks, exotic for that time, disappeared, expensive and inaccessible hazel grouse was replaced by boiled beef or boiled sausage. A recipe has been formed, which is the most widely used at present.
In modern Russia, Olivier salad is usually prepared as follows: about 300 g of potatoes are boiled without peeling, 350 g of meat (preferably beef) and 4 hard-boiled eggs. If desired, the meat can be replaced with boiled sausage. The meat or sausage is cut into cubes, the potatoes are peeled and cut in the same way, the eggs are finely crumbled, 100 g of finely chopped pickled cucumbers and 1 tablespoon of canned green peas are added. All ingredients are mixed, salted to taste and refrigerated for 2-3 hours. After pulling the salad out of the refrigerator, add 150 g of green onions, mix again and season with sour cream, mayonnaise, or both in equal amounts.
There are other options: sometimes boiled carrots, apples and even pineapple, meat or sausage can be replaced with chicken in the salad. The salad is distinguished by an original taste, in which potatoes are replaced by avocados.
There is even a vegetarian version of the recipe. Potatoes (3 pcs.) And carrots (1 pc.) Are boiled and cut into cubes, add 100 g of canned peas or corn, 2 finely chopped fresh cucumbers, dill, parsley, salt and pepper to taste, season with mayonnaise. If you use lean mayonnaise without eggs, you can eat such a salad even during fasting.
