Delia Smith Russian Salad Recipes

AUTHENTIC RUSSIAN SALAD 'OLIVYE'

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to a boil; add potatoes and carrot. Return mixture to a boil and add eggs; cook until potatoes are tender, 20 to 30 minutes. Drain and slightly cool mixture. Chop potatoes and carrot; peel and chop eggs.
• Mix potatoes, carrot, eggs, pickles, peas, ham, and parsley together in a large bowl; stir in mayonnaise until salad is evenly coated.

DELIA'S CHEF'S SALAD

Steps:

• Before you start, preheat the grill to its highest setting and let it heat up for at least 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, combine all the dressing ingredients in a jug or bowl and whisk them together well, tasting to check the seasoning.
• Now place the bacon on some foil on the grill pan, and grill until it's very crisp - about 7 minutes - then remove it to drain on some kitchen paper and crumble it into small pieces.
• Next slice the garlic sausage, first into 1/4in slices, then cut the slices into 1/4in strips. After that, wipe the mushrooms and slice them fairly thinly (but not paper-thin).
• Next crumble the cheese and peel and slice the avocados.
• To serve the salad, tear up the lettuce leaves and place them in a large bowl with the watercress and arugula. Scatter in the bacon, sausage, mushrooms, cheese and avocado and mix well.
• Just before serving, add half the dressing and mix together. Add the remaining dressing and toss again so that everything gets a good coating.
• Finally, sprinkle over the scallions and serve immediately. This needs lots of good rustic bread on the table.

BELARUSSIAN CARROT SALAD

Steps:

• Grate the carrots in a food processor using a fine grater blade.
• Place grated carrot in a bowl and pour over the vinegar and salt; mix ingredients well to make sure everything is evenly coated; Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) while the flavours develop; When you are ready to assemble the salad, check how much juice the carrots have made and if necessary pour excess juice away.
• Dry-roast the coriander seeds in a small frying pan over a medium heat (to do this, stir and toss the seeds in the pan for about 2 minutes, until they look toasted and start to jump); crush the roasted seeds lightly with a pestle and mortar .
• Heat the oil in the same frying pan, add the onion and fry until golden; allow to cool slightly then drain the oil through a sieve on to the carrots; the onion has now served its purpose and can be used in another dish, or discarded.
• Add the coriander seeds, garlic and cayenne pepper to the carrots, stir well and serve.

EASY RUSSIAN SALAD

Steps:

• Cook the carrots and potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water for 4 mins, then throw in the peas and cook for 4 mins more until all the vegetables are tender. Drain, cool for a few mins, then tip into a bowl with the cornichons, mayonnaise and parsley, if using. Mix well and season to taste. Delicious with leftover roast beef or lamb, wedges of pork pie or cold sliced ham or chicken.

RUSSIAN SALAD

Steps:

• Bring a large pot of water to boil. Season with salt.
• Add whole potatoes to the boiling water, and cook 15 minutes. Add whole carrots to the cooking potatoes, and cook both another 10 minutes. Remove potatoes and carrots with a spider when easily pierced with a cake tester or a very thin knife blade, and set aside in a bowl.
• Add frozen peas to boiling water, and using the spider, remove them to a separate bowl as they float, until all peas have floated and been transferred to the bowl.
• Gently add the eggs, and allow to boil 10 minutes.
• While the eggs cook, peel the potatoes and carrots under cold running water by rubbing them gently with your fingers. Rinse the peas under cold running water to cool.
• Once the eggs are cooked, drain them, and peel under cold running water.
• Neatly dice the potatoes, carrots, ham, eggs and cornichons to the same approximate (and rather small) size as the peas, aiming for uniformity. Gently toss them all together in a large bowl.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise with the cornichon brine, and pour over the salad. Toss gently with rubber spatula or using your fingers until the salad is well coated. Season with several hearty grinds of black pepper.
• Refrigerate overnight, and serve cold.