Technically Olivier salad so simple that there is almost nothing to say. Boil all products requiring boiling separately and until tender, cool to room temperature. Then cut everything, everything, everything into small neat cubes, mix, season, mix again, cool and serve.
But in Olivier salad there is something else: the possibility of experience, texture and volume. We are going through Olivier salad with fierce concreteness, without unnecessary intermediaries such as intelligence, skill or habit. When you try the right one Olivier salad, you turn into a child, and not at all because you have been eating it since childhood; I saw the eyes of foreigners eating this salad for the first time - believe me, the same thing.
What about the texture Olivier salad, it is formed from a combination of ingredients that are crunchy and melt on the tongue, and the combination is pulsating and renewing with each new spoon. Perhaps the same cannot be said about the flavor composition of this salad, frankly primitive and flat, but the texture justifies even it.
When I say "volume" I don't mean the crystal bowls used in Russia for serving Olivier salad to the table. I'm talking about the feeling of roundness when swallowing Olivier salad that inevitably arises in the mind of every person who can feel. It is pleasant and creates dependence - on good Olivier salad no one ever refuses.
Orchestra rehearsal
But let's leave the theory aside and move on to reality.
Salad Olivier salad includes three main ingredients, four slightly less main ingredients, one classic dressing and three ingredients added to taste. Do not be smart, and everything will turn out fine.
The main ingredients create that same feeling of volume. These are potatoes, eggs and carrots. Their taste is subtle, but familiar. Potatoes and carrots are also sweet - and to the extent that is pleasant even to a person who hates desserts. In terms of volume, they should be in Olivier salad most (that is, if you add them together). Buy these ingredients should be without much fanaticism, but with attention.
Look for potatoes made specifically for salads (and not necessarily French, although French is good); and boil a couple of tubers in advance in order to make sure they are suitable. It’s easier with carrots - any one will do, except for the one recommended by the Uzbeks on purpose for pilaf. Among the eggs available for free sale, only guinea fowl eggs stand out in taste, so you can use any other than them.
Slightly less main ingredients are responsible for the texture. These are salted capers, pickled cucumbers, something protein (boiled chicken fillet, boiled veal, beef tongue or doctor's sausage) and canned green peas.
To the inevitable question “is it possible without capers?” I will answer "may". But what the hell? Capers are sold in any decent supermarket, jars last for six months, and they sharpen the taste a hundred times better than pepper. Before using capers, put them in a glass, fill with water and leave for half an hour, and then squeeze. So you get rid of excess vinegar and excess salt.
Many use in Olivier salad salty instead of pickled cucumbers. God is their judge. In my opinion, pickled cucumber, combined with potatoes and mayonnaise, gives rise to a piercing aftertaste of a factory canteen, a station buffet and all that I would rather forget and never remember. So my opinion, if you care about him - only pickled. Moreover, pickled squash also, to my surprise, works just as well (but not better).
Which protein ingredient to choose, only your imagination can tell you. And your conscience - the child understands that doctor's sausage is cheaper, beef tongue is tastier, and veal is more dietary. In any case, this protein ingredient should have a delicate texture and unsharp taste, as well as the complete absence of any signs of wiryness.
Green peas are a must. There are many brands of it on the market, and large Western companies make the best of them. From myself, I note that the smaller the peas, the tastier they are.
Classic refill for Olivier salad- mayonnaise. You can cook it yourself or take an industrial one, this is unlikely to affect the taste of the salad. Just don't try to run Olivier salad diet mayonnaise, or sour cream, or yogurt. And try not to add too much mayonnaise. Refueling in three steps will help to avoid this. Perhaps the last third of the mayonnaise will not be needed at all, or only partly.
To taste in Olivier salad fresh cucumbers, fresh sour apple and dill are added. Fresh cucumbers enhance the texture, apple adds something unusual to the taste, and dill, oddly enough, adds freshness. Although without them it will turn out textured, unusual and fresh.
In other words, this popular salad has long become a classic culinary feast. " Olivier salad”, prepared according to the classic recipe, also has the apt names “Soviet” and “Winter”. If the first name speaks about the area of his veneration, then the second - about the time of preparation.
Indeed, “Olivier” can be called a salad of winter time, as it is hearty and contains vegetables prepared for the future in the ingredient lists. But you should not so categorically deny this dish at other times of the year, if it is really your favorite. If you wish, you can add more greens to the list of ingredients, replace pickles with fresh ones, add an apple or other product that can bring out bright flavor notes - and your Olivier will be adapted to any season.
Thanks to the popularity of Olivier salad, many options for its preparation have appeared. As they say, how many housewives - so many salad recipes. After all, everyone tries to bring their own zest of taste to the preparation.
But as you get creative with the process of creating Olivier, remember the three main ingredients that are responsible for texture, spiciness and piquancy. This is a meat ingredient (most often sausage), pickled or pickled cucumbers (sometimes fresh) and canned peas.
Buy a sausage that you really like, because the meat component sets the flavor tone for the whole salad.
The choice of salted, pickled or fresh cucumbers affects the degree of piquancy of the resulting salad.
Canned peas for salad should be tender and sweetish, but in no case hard.
And especially it is necessary to make a reservation about mayonnaise. You can buy it or cook it yourself. But remember, mayonnaise without sour additives is suitable for Olivier. It is better not to save on mayonnaise. After all, by pouring low-quality mayonnaise into prepared foods, you can spoil the whole salad.
Secrets of a delicious salad "Olivier"
A few tips to help you prepare the most successful Olivier salad
1. The size of cubes of vegetables cut for salad should be commensurate with peas of green peas. This will help create a single harmonious structure.
2. Traditionally, Olivier ingredients are diced, but long straws are also allowed. Such cutting will give the salad unusualness.
3. Experienced housewives have noticed that the number of potatoes and eggs boiled for salad should correspond to the number of guests at the table.
4. Do not cut salad foods hot or even warm. The taste of "Olivier" will deteriorate from this. Do not refrigerate boiled vegetables. They should cool down to room temperature.
5. Do not put the prepared Olivier salad immediately in the refrigerator, but let it brew for 2-3 hours at room temperature. This will add juiciness to the salad.
6. Most often, a ready-made salad is decorated with greens or products from which it is prepared: peas, beautifully chopped sausage or meat pieces, figuratively carved carrots.
7. "Olivier" is considered an independent dish. To enjoy its taste to the fullest, do not serve it as a side dish.
8. In an unfilled state, the salad can be stored in the refrigerator (at 2-6 degrees) for 1-3 days in a resealable container or under foil.
9. And more about the variations: fresh cucumbers or apples will give a pleasant taste and freshness; onions will add spice, but will reduce the duration of storage; boiled meat instead of sausage will reduce calories and change the usual taste; smoked meats, shrimp, capers will add unusualness and piquancy.
Good luck and delicious Olivier salad!
Is it possible to cite at least one more salad as an example, which will be a real symbol of home holidays and a family feast? Probably not. Olivier salad has become a real classic, they know how to cook it in almost every home, and everywhere there are little secrets and preferences.
It is believed that it is quite simple to prepare, the ingredients for Olivier are quite affordable and relatively inexpensive, but, as they say, everywhere there are little secrets and tricks to make the dish really tasty.
If you are wondering how to cook Olivier salad so that the result is five plus, then we will definitely share with you all the secrets of this process. True, we will do this a little later, but first we will get acquainted with the history of its occurrence on the horizons of modern culinary.
Interestingly, such a popular and already almost inalienable recipe for the peoples of the post-Soviet space appeared some 50-60 years ago in the form in which we know it today. He owes his invention to the famous French chef Lucien Olivier, who, by the way, awarded him the modern name.
Lucien Olivier in the 60s of the XIX century kept a small restaurant on Trubnaya Square called the Hermitage, the main attraction of which was the eponymous one.
Lucien kept his recipe under the strictest confidence, and masked all the ingredients of the dish with the help of sauce and mayonnaise in such a way that at first glance it was very difficult to determine what was included in it. After the death of the creator, it was believed that the recipe was lost, however, in 1904, a recipe was made public, which was considered a true reproduction of the original.
It included completely different ingredients that we are used to seeing in our dish: hazel grouse meat, and veal tongue, fresh cucumbers and a little pressed caviar, everything was seasoned with a special sauce and decorated with fresh salad.
Isn't it hard to find any similarity? In Soviet times, Olivier salad began to appear on the tables of ordinary residents, however, it acquired a somewhat “communist” character: the dish was created from those products that were easier to find in times of shortage. It was then that peas and boiled potatoes, eggs and potatoes appeared in it, as well as a taste that is so familiar and familiar to us.
Cooking features
Today, a salad familiar from childhood, like any other, has its own characteristics and cooking secrets that help to prepare a truly delicious dish. So what are they?
- All salad ingredients are best cut into small cubes, the size of which will be in harmony with the size of the peas. The same size of all the components of the salad will reveal the taste of each, as well as its interaction with each other, in addition, this type of dish looks more appetizing and attractive. To make the olivier somewhat non-standard, the components can be cut, for example, into long straws.
- The classic salad recipe always uses boiled sausage, but today boiled chicken fillet, veal or any other meat product of your choice has long been used instead. With the help of such additions, the dish acquires new flavor notes: with chicken, Olivier becomes more tender, but with beef, a more weighty meat shade is acquired. What to choose is a master's business, but if you want to cook exactly the traditional version of the dish, then you will definitely need boiled sausage.
- In addition to meat, eggs and potatoes are always added to the salad, and so it is believed that there should be exactly as many of them as guests are planned at the table. Potatoes are cooked in their uniforms in advance, the main thing is not to overcook them, because during cutting they will fall apart and turn into mashed potatoes. Potatoes and eggs, like all other ingredients that can be cooked, must be cooled to room temperature, and only after that mix and refrigerate.
- There are some experimenters who instead of meat put fish products in the salad, for example, crab neck or pieces of red fish fillet. Although with a big stretch, but such versions of the popular dish can also be called "Olivier".
- In order for the salad to stand in the refrigerator for as long as possible, it is better not to season it with mayonnaise immediately, but to do it immediately before serving.
- It is customary to decorate a ready-made salad with greenery, as well as figures from the products that are part of it. For example, peas, beautiful meat or vegetable circles, as well as openwork molds.
- By the way, it is not necessary to use mayonnaise as a dressing, other fermented milk products are also acceptable - kefir or sour cream. It is believed that the best dressing for Olivier is 50 percent fat mixed with homemade sour cream, but low-calorie mayonnaise is not recommended. To somehow diversify the dressing, you can add a little mustard or horseradish to it, or you can make mayonnaise with your own hands, which will also add a few unusual flavor notes to the dish.
Cooking a real Olivier with our own hands
To make the result really tasty, not only the recipe itself is important, but also the quality of the products that are used in it, so approach the process of preparing them responsibly. So what do we need?
- medium-sized potatoes - 5 pcs.;
- pickled cucumbers - 6 pcs.;
- egg - 5 pcs.;
- carrots - 1 pc.;
- onions - 0.5 pcs.;
- chicken fillet - 500 g;
- canned peas - 1 jar;
- mayonnaise - 6-7 tbsp. spoons;
- salt, pepper to taste;
- greenery for decoration.
In advance, it is necessary to boil potatoes in their uniforms, carrots, eggs and chicken fillet, cool to room temperature and only then proceed to cutting. To begin with, we cut the fillet - into small cubes, then cucumbers - if you decide to use fresh ones, then be sure to cut off the skin, so the salad will turn out more tender.
Then add salt and pepper to taste, greens can not only decorate the appearance, but also add to the total mass. It remains only to fill everything with mayonnaise, mix well and let it brew for 1 hour. Before serving, decorate and serve chilled.
What New Year's holidays without salad "Olivier"! There are many recipes for this salad. This is a recipe copied from the chef Olivier himself, after whom the salad was named. And not only the recipe, but also the secrets of its proper preparation.INGREDIENTS:
2 pcs. chicken fillet meat;6 pcs. potatoes medium size;
3 pcs. carrots medium size;
4 things. eggs;
6 pcs. pickled cucumbers medium size or 9 small;
1 small can of canned peas (200 gr.);
1 Apple large, preferably juicy, sweet and sour;
1 bulb bulb smaller than average;
400 grams mayonnaise "Provencal"(or 2 packs);
Salt, pepper, spices- taste.
The first day, preliminary.
On the first day, we prepare the products, cook, bake, bring them to the state we need. And here, too, there are secrets.
In the afternoon, rub two chicken fillets with salt, pepper, marinate with spices for baking boiled pork and put in the refrigerator for a day.
In the evening, wash potatoes and carrots before cooking with a brush. Moreover, at the bottom of a metal pan (but not aluminum), we put potatoes in their skins, and carrots on top. We try not to pour a lot of water - so that part of the carrots is not completely covered with water, so that the vegetables are cooked more like steamed. It is important not to overcook them. It is enough after the water boils, boil them without salt over medium heat for 45 minutes, no more. Then immediately drain the water and leave the vegetables under the lid until they cool, but not completely. In a warm state, vegetables are well peeled. But it is not recommended to cut it in a warm state, otherwise they will stick together.
We cook eggs. After they boil, 5-7 minutes, no longer. Warm (not hot!) eggs are better cleaned. Close the bowl with a lid with peeled vegetables, put the eggs and set overnight to cool completely. I usually take them to the balcony.
Second day, New Year's Eve.
First of all, we need to bake the previously marinated chicken fillet in a frying pan or in the oven. And wait for it to cool completely before slicing. Therefore, this procedure is best done in the morning. Chef Olivier's recipe did not specify chicken, but baked wild fowl. If you have such meat, you can use it. But I like dietary chicken meat. Sometimes I replace it with chicken roll, but by no means with the usual boiled sausage that my friends often put in Olivier.
We begin to cut the cold ingredients. Moreover, Olivier, in his old recipe, indicated that the diced food cubes should be small, no more than 0.5 cm.
First we cut the potatoes with the indicated cubes, then the carrots, after the egg. Cut the chicken into exactly the same size cubes. After that, the apple, peeled, cut into 4 pieces, cut out the core. And then, like the previous vegetables, we cut each quarter lengthwise, then turn it across and again - in even pieces, from which even cubes are obtained.
Cucumbers for a real Olivier salad should be taken exactly pickled, not canned, not pickled and not fresh, namely pickled. It is in them that the secret of the spicy taste of the salad lies. We cut the cucumbers into cubes, they do not need to be peeled.
Lastly, cut the onion into small cubes, as thin as possible. Not everyone loves the onion in this salad, but it gives it a kick too.
Salt, pepper, add seasonings to taste and mix the salad thoroughly. This is how I store it, and so without mayonnaise it can be stored for a long time in a cold place. I usually make this salad in more than the indicated quantity. And I fill with mayonnaise before serving only the amount that I plan to be eaten. An undressed salad later, when I dress it with mayonnaise before serving, retains its flavor better than dressed. In a dressed salad, the taste of all ingredients is mixed, the piquancy is lost.
I leave the rest for later, because I have everything at home, and my friends love this salad very much. And in this way, the prepared salad flies away from my festive table in the first place. Of course, I cook it so much that everyone has enough, and with an additive. It is really very tasty. The secrets of its preparation are also useful, as well as the recipe of the chef Olivier, which I read a long time ago in one old recipe book.
I suggest you try just this way of making Olivier salad. Both you and your friends will be satisfied. Bon appetit to all!
