Why is this building on Petrovsky Boulevard in Moscow so important to us? Here, in the 1800s, when it was the famous restaurant “Hermitage,” a Russian chef of Belgian and French descent, Lucien Olivier concocted his famous salad. Butchered and bastardized, the salad has become a centerpiece of every Soviet holiday table and is now served by buckets during New Year Celebrations.
Many legends surround this dish also known as Russian salad.
They say, originally, the chef planned it not as a salad but as something he called “Game Mayonnaise.” Boiled fillets of grouse and partridge were decorated on a plate with cubes of aspic from broth. Sprinkled around with a special Provençal sauce, slices of tongue and crawfish tails were nestled. In the center of the dish there was a mound of potatoes, pickles, and slices of hard boiled eggs. That center mound, according to the chef’s idea, was for decoration only.
To Olivier’s dismay, Russian brutes immediately mixed all the ingredients like kasha, destroying the design and the idea behind the dish before scooping it off their plates. Disgusted, the next day, Olivier intentionally mixed all the ingredients and liberally doused it with mayonnaise to show those Russians. To his dismay, the success of the trivialized version was incredible.
As long as I remember myself, my mother made this salad every New Year’s Eve. Even during the wild 90’s, when there was nothing in the stores besides cans of seaweed. She made it for my birthdays, and for my brother’s birthdays, and for my dad’s, and for her own. Five times a year. We only had it on special occasions. Two most important ingredients — peas and mayonnaise — were hard to get.
Here’s your gentleman’s set to ring in the New Year Soviet style: champagne, “The Irony of Fate,” and salad Olivier.
While the movie and the drink remain unchanged, each family puts their own twist on the salad depending on what is available at the time. Of course, their version is the only right one and the best one. As Olya Ryzhova of “The Office Romance” said to Yuri Samokhvalov: “I make this salad better than your wife. You should add a fresh apple to it.”
Over the years, I’ve developed my own version of this salad. I tweaked the list of the ingredients adding things from my new life that were unheard of in the depth of Soviet winter: scallions, parsley, dill, fresh peas, fresh cucumbers. Those were my childhood cravings which now I can have any day. This recipe is incorrect but it is the best one.
What is wrong with my salad:
1. I use green peas which is a no-no — peas must be canned, yellow, and mushy.
2. I go heavy on fresh herbs — parsley, dill, and scallions — whole bunches of each. Back in the day, in the depth of Moscow winters, even in the daylight with a light, one could not find anything green anywhere.
3. There is no bologna in my salad — too mushy, no ham — too salty, no beef — too chewy, no chicken — too bland, nothing smoked — too overpowering, no crab, or shrimp, or crawfish — seafood gets lost in all that potato-mayonnaise extravaganza. Only plain boiled beef tongue with its soft texture and gentle but definite flavor does it for me.
4. For the dressing, instead of plain mayo, I prefer kewpie mayonnaise mixed 1:1 with crème frâiche, a little lemon juice, Dijon mustard, and a small garlic clove.
5. And of course, like Olya Ryzhova from “The Office Romance” I add an apple which is controversial.
Anyway…
Come December 31, I put a DVD with “ The Irony of Fate” on my kitchen TV and set up for a day of chopping. And thinking back. Every year, I repeat this ritual although I know the movie by heart. Even my American husband understands what’s going on in the movie without translation.
In my American family, besides me no one is really excited about this salad because mayonnaise is not a big deal and we can get peas any day. As a matter of fact, they don’t really care for it at all because mayonnaise. That’s why I make this salad only once a year. It’s for me — to go back in time.
The movie is playing and I am chopping along, going down the memory lane while tastes, smells, and sounds are bringing back faces and events from the past. I do not miss the place but I miss the time and I miss people from that time. Some of them are gone for good and the country I came from does not exist anymore. Even if I can reach out and talk to some of these people, they’ve changed. So have I. So has the recipe.
SALAD INGREDIENTS
5 Yukon gold potatoes
3 large carrots, peeled
5 eggs
2 half sour dill pickles
3 small kirby cucumbers
1 Granny Smith apple
beef tongue
1 small onion
1 cup of fresh frozen green peas
1 bunch scallions
1 bunch dill, stems removed
1 bunch parsley, stems removed
DRESSING
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp dijon mustard
juice of 1/2 lemon
1 large garlic clove, peeled and mashed
Salt & black pepper to taste
THE PROCESS
1. A day before, cook the beef tongue. Cover it with water, add a few peppercorns, bay leaf, onion, a stalk of celery, salt. Boil for 2-3 hours until the fork goes in smooth and let it cool off in the broth. Peel it and cut as you would cut your meat for the salad. I like my pieces uniform — a size slightly bigger than a large pea.
2. Place unpeeled scrubbed potatoes, peeled carrots, and eggs in a large pot, cover with water, bring to a boil, and lower the heat. Eggs should be ready and taken out in about 10 minutes. Carrots should be ready a few minutes after that. Take them out as soon as they can be easily pierced with the knife. Potatoes might take another 10-15 minutes, depending on the size.
3. Cook peas according to the package instructions. I usually cover them with water and microwave them for 3-5 minutes.
4. Peel potatoes, eggs, apple, and cucumbers. Chop them in small unisize pieces.
5. Peel onion, chop it very fine and rinse thoroughly under the cold running water, drain.
6. Chop all the herbs herbs fine but do not incinerate them into a mush — you’d want to have some crunch to feel their flavor as you bite into them.
7. In a separate bowl, mix all the components of the salad dressing.
8. Mix salad ingredients and add the dressing.
This is an enormous amount of salad for a large gathering. If your party is small, take as much salad as you think you’d need today and add as much dressing as you like. Save the rest in the refrigerator — vegetables and dressing in separate containers. They would be fine in the refrigerator for at least a week but I doubt it would last that long.
And it is the best thing in the world, early on January 1, while everyone is still asleep, to get down to the refrigerator in pajamas, pull some salad out, and have it standing by the window looking into the cold outside from the warm kitchen.
