How to survive a foreign tourist in Siberia, when he will be fed local food. Part II. Salads
Hello! Many tourists worry that when they come to another country with a different way of life, they will not find the usual, affordable or delicious food. Others, on the contrary, look with interest at the dishes of unfamiliar cuisine, anticipating delicious experiments.
This is the second article from the series “How to survive a foreign tourist in Siberia, when he will be fed local food” and it is dedicated to popular salads in Russia, which a tourist can most likely meet in simple catering establishments in Siberia.
The first article in this series can be viewed here:
I think that Russian salads are easily perceived by the inhabitants of northern Europe and perplexing gourmets from the south. A typical Russian salad is a set of ingredients chopped into small cubes, seasoned with mayonnaise or sour cream sauce.
I will highlight the five most popular salads for the reader and quickly mention slightly less well-known ones in the pictures. It should be understood that I mention the most common ones, there are many more salads in Russia, even more options for their preparation and recipe, because every hostess is not averse to adding something to the recipe to her taste.
Vinaigrette
Salads are absolutely not specific to traditional Russian cuisine. The rich variety of salads on our table today can be safely considered a truly Soviet innovation. The only salad that can be written down in the “Russian” with a stretch, perhaps, is vinaigrette. But even it is a kind of legacy of the French fashion that reigned in Russia since the reign of the Empress Catherine II.
Vinaigrette appeared in Russia only at the beginning of the 19th century, or rather, at this time there were written evidence of its existence in Russia. The name “vinaigrette” comes from the French vinaigrette, that is, a dressing made of vinegar, olive oil and salt. It is with this dressing that it is customary to serve a salad.
At the same time, the composition of the salad rather hints at German or Scandinavian motifs. The salad consists of boiled vegetables: beets, carrots, potatoes, onions and cabbage. Vegetables and potatoes are cut into cubes, onions are put in a moderate amount. Sometimes add pickled cucumber, chopped hard-boiled egg, Baltic lightly salted fish or sauerkraut and cranberries — these are purely Russian features. In the modern version, as a rule, there are pickled green peas, fresh chopped greens. Vinaigrette is the only salad on the tables of ordinary citizens in the first half of the 20th century.
Olivier
Also, one of the first names when it comes to Russian and Soviet cuisine, comes to mind salad “Olivier”. The name of this salad was given by the chef of the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, Lucien Olivier, around 1860. It was the restaurant’s signature dish. The recipe for the signature dish was kept secret by the chef and many tried to reproduce it, generating more and more new versions of the recipe. Based on our topic, I do not see the point to tell in detail about the salad recipe of 1860, since in fact it has only a distant resemblance to the Soviet Olivier, so popular now in Russia and even considered a mandatory traditional New Year (Christmas) dish on the festive table, while remaining an excellent salad option for every day.
By the way, the grave of Lucien Olivier is located in Moscow in the former German, and now Vvedensky cemetery and is popular with tourists and visitors to the city.
The modern “Olivier” appeared in the 20s of the XX century and had a simplified composition. Grouse, crayfish, sturgeon caviar definitely became inaccessible to the masses in the post-revolutionary period. Originally called “Stolichny”, it was served in restaurants in Moscow and had the same success as its refined ancestor of French origin. One of the main secrets was mayonnaise. The fact is that industrial mayonnaise began to be produced in the USSR only in the second half of the 30s, and mass production began only from the beginning of the 50s. It was mayonnaise, such a mysterious and chic sauce in Soviet terms, that made Olivier the most favorite salad. The aura of elitism was also supported by a shortage of mayonnaise. It was sold only in the capital and Leningrad. Everything hard to reach is much tastier, and it is not surprising that this sauce has become synonymous with dressing in general and has given rise to a lot of interesting and unusual salads with the expectation of dressing with mayonnaise. It was the love of the Soviet people for mayonnaise that opened a whole subspecies of national cuisine and gives the right to consider any salad seasoned with this sauce, adjusted for the specifics of the products, as Soviet. Such is the historical background. By the way, I am quite cool to store (industrial) mayonnaise, in my childhood and youth I always preferred to fill such salads with sour cream. And only now I choose homemade mayonnaise — my wife makes it so delicious :)
But back to the Soviet olivier and its composition. Due to the huge popularity in Russia, there are a huge number of options for its preparation, literally every hostess has her own way of cooking. But about the composition of the classics I will try to list: boiled potatoes, carrots, crushed eggs in a steep, green peas, pickles, boiled sausage (in festive versions, replaced with some boiled meat or for example beef tongue, sometimes noble fish). All this is cut into a salad with a small cube and is necessarily seasoned with mayonnaise, preferably homemade.
salad “ Herring under a fur coat”
I think this salad has the strangest name for a foreign tourist. What the hell does that have to do with clothes? But I definitely recommend you to try this festive salad, one of the most popular in Russia.
Judging by the composition, the roots of the salad again lie somewhere in German and Scandinavian cuisines. In the USSR, it gained popularity somewhere in the 70 years of the last century. On a plate, layers of lightly salted herring cut into cubes in mayonnaise sauce, boiled beets cut into small cubes, finely chopped onions, previously slightly marinated for drawing bitterness, diced boiled potatoes, boiled carrots rubbed through a large grater, finely chopped hard-boiled eggs are laid out on top of each other. Top with a layer of mayonnaise sauce.
When tasting with a salad spoon, all the layers of the set salad are hooked at once for a feeling of fullness of taste.
Sometimes foreigners are told a funny legend about this Soviet salad: It
is said that a certain Moscow innkeeper, shortly after the October Socialist Revolution of 1917, invented a salad, each layer of which was identified with a certain social class. He made herring the” banner “ of the proletariat (this fish was inexpensive and available to many), compared the peasants to carrots and potatoes, and compared the bourgeoisie to mayonnaise. The political dish, of course, ended with a revolutionary red layer.
It sounds beautiful and, perhaps, even plausible, but it has nothing to do with reality — it’s just an interesting story, not so long ago invented by journalists. The real history of the salad is prosaic: it was born as a result of numerous experiments of Soviet housewives and catering workers, therefore, neither the author of the dish nor the date of the first preparation is known. In fact, this is a fantasy version of a fish vinaigrette — something similar has long been eaten both in Russia and abroad.
Mimosa salad
Another salad in the German style, one of the five most famous Soviet salads. This is probably a cross between a salad “herring under a fur coat” and “olivier”. Here, the ingredients are also laid in layers, there is fish in the composition, but as a rule, canned saury, sardine, mackerel are used. Boiled potatoes, carrots, hard-boiled eggs. Melted cheese, onion, mayonnaise dressing. The name of the salad arose from the similarity of the upper layer with the inflorescences of acacia silver-in the common people of mimosa. This usage is fundamentally wrong, botanists call mimosa a completely different plant, but it just so happened.
The appearance and mass distribution of lettuce was preceded by two revolutionary events in the Soviet food industry. First — since 1936, the USSR began to produce table mayonnaise “Provencal” at oil and fat factories. Second-there were canned fish. With the latter, the Soviet citizens did not have relations immediately, but still jars with pink salmon, saury, sardine over time, more and more often could be seen on the shelves of Soviet kitchens.
Summer salad
Summer salad completes the top five most popular Soviet salads. This is a seasonal simple salad of sliced fresh cucumbers and tomatoes, with the addition of fresh herbs. dressed with olive or aromatic sunflower oil. Sometimes, mayonnaise-based or sour cream-based dressings are used instead of butter.
Since there are a lot of options and varieties of salads in Russia, and the purpose of the article is to provide information about what a foreign tourist in Russia is more likely to encounter in an ordinary tavern, I will mention just a few more basic options.
Salad of fresh cabbage and cucumbers
Chopped white cabbage leaves, fresh cucumber cut into strips. Dressings according to the mood, mayonnaise, olive or spicy ginger-sesame in the Asian style.
Sauerkraut salad
Spicy crispy sauerkraut, cucumber straws, fresh carrots grated on a fine grater. Sometimes canned peas or corn, grated apple. And some cranberries.
Crab Salad
In fact, no crab, at least in the budget versions of this salad at housewives and in inexpensive establishments, as they say, was not affected :)
The basis of the salad is ground crab sticks, canned corn, cream or melted cheese on a fine grater, finely chopped fresh cucumber, eggs, fresh herbs. Mayonnaise dressing.
Korean Carrot Salad
But this is a relatively new Russian salad. Don’t look at the “Korean” carrots in the ingredients — I’ve been to Korean restaurants in Asia, but none of them had any idea what it was at all :) Although I read somewhere that this dish was brought to the life of the Soviet people by “koryo-saram” — the descendants of Koreans who moved to the Far East of the Russian Empire in the middle of the 19th century. Korean carrots in the Russian sense are carrots cut into long thin shavings and marinated in a spicy Asian style. It appeared everywhere in our country at the beginning of this century.
The salad is a mix of this pickled “Korean” carrot, finely chopped fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, greens. You can also add a meat component, as we like in Siberia, for example, chicken fillet or ham. It is dressed with olive or sesame oil. It can be supplemented with cubes of crackers fried in garlic and in this form is filled with a moderate amount of mayonnaise.
Beetroot salad
In the classic version, a very simple salad. Mono salad, the base, as the name implies-beets, grated on a coarse grater. Spices. Dressing on mayonnaise with a lot of grated garlic. Yes, this salad is not for kissing, but the combination of sweet beets, mayonnaise, spices and garlic is very bright. Sometimes grated cheese is added to the recipe.
Salad with liver, aka “Passenger”, in the common people and home cuisine is sometimes called “ Gluttony”
It appeared in the USSR in the 60s of the last century and was a mandatory dish in the menu of restaurant cars of long-distance passenger trains. Not forgotten to this day. Now the composition of the salad is usually as follows: boiled beef liver with spices, sometimes stewed in sour cream in the manner of Beef Stroganoff, onions, carrots, more often “Korean” (pickled), grated salted ogrurtsy, mayonnaise sauce. It can be supplemented with crackers from black bread, fried in garlic oil, to reduce the cost and volume.
Salad “Winter”, aka “Capital”
The closest relative of the salad “Olivier”. In fact, the composition is the same as in the famous relative, minus the meat components, but plus radishes and sometimes corn. By the way, many people, pronouncing the saying “you can’t spoil porridge with meat”, add boiled sausage, as close as possible to the recipe of “Olivier”.
Salad Forest Glade or salad with mushrooms.
There are a lot of options for mushroom salad. Usually these are pickled mushrooms, cream cheese, boiled or smoked chicken, onions or red onions, boiled eggs, boiled potatoes. Maybe pickled carrots and even pickled pineapple.
Bean salad
In the composition of beans, fried carrots with onions, spices. Sometimes chicken fillet, mushrooms, “Korean” carrots are added. It is filled with a rich mayonnaise-garlic dressing.
Jewish salad or egg and cheese salad
Frankly speaking, I am not sure of the need to mention it in the list of the most popular salads. Now it is quite rare to find it in Soviet catering establishments. Although in old canteens with a strong Soviet heritage, it can still be found — during the Soviet era, it was popular. Historically, the salad has its roots somewhere in Odessa, which was part of the Russian Empire and is a relative of the famous Odessa dish “forshmak” — that is, in fact, it is not even a salad, but an appetizer. No wonder it is customary to serve it with fresh bread on the side. The ingredients are quite simple: hard-boiled eggs, melted cheese, garlic, mayonnaise.
It’s time to draw a line. However, I think it is worth mentioning the most popular oriental salads, which are often found not only in Eastern cuisine establishments, but also in russian trattorias :
Salad with crispy eggplant
This is a popular bright salad originally from Georgia, which is based on fried eggplant, as well as fresh tomatoes, feta cheese or cream cheese, pepper, herbs, among which coriander stands out. It is filled with an oil dressing with the addition of sunflower seeds and sometimes walnuts.
Salad Tashkent
A popular Uzbek salad with boiled beef, eggs, fresh radish, white onion and spices. It is filled with a little sunflower oil and mayonnaise.
Achik-Uchuk Salad
The main salad of Uzbek cuisine, served mainly with fatty meat dishes. Despite the very simple composition and a small number of ingredients, it is very tasty. Tomatoes, pre-soaked onion, salt, hot pepper. The whole secret is in the origin and quality of tomatoes — it is the southern sunny varieties that are needed.
In addition to these salads, Russian trattorias often offer traditional European Nicoise, Caprese, Horiatiki or Greek salad. Their recipe, I think, is known to you, dear reader, and without my suggestions. However, it should be understood that attempts to reproduce the original recipes from the products of another country are in the end far from the original ;)
Do you have similar salads in the traditional cuisine of your country? Tell us about it in the discussion!
In the next part of our review, we will get acquainted with the most common main dishes that you can encounter in a simple tavern in Russia and possibly touch on the topic of popular Russian snacks. I thank my readers for their attention to my articles!
