Real Salad
Description
The salad is quick and easy to prepare. In our country, this salad has been called "Olivier" for a century and a half, named after its creator, chef Lucien Olivier, who ran the Parisian cuisine restaurant "Hermitage" in Moscow in the early 1860s. Meanwhile, in all other countries, it is known as "Russian salad." Perhaps no other dish in the history of Russian cuisine has undergone as many transformations as the Olivier salad recipe. The fact is that the French chef never disclosed the detailed recipe of his creation, and numerous attempts to reconstruct it have only led to the emergence of new variations of the salad. Fortunately, the very first published recipe of Olivier salad is known—it was printed in the magazine "Nasha Eda" (Our Food) in 1894. According to this publication, the main ingredients of Olivier are grouse (which we, for obvious reasons, replace with chicken fillet), potatoes, cucumbers, leaf lettuce, Provençal mayonnaise (of course, only homemade), olives, capers, and crayfish tails. Boiled eggs are absent in the original recipe, but to us Russians the salad seems incomplete without them, so eggs are an "optional" ingredient. I hope that, having learned this, the salad is ready to be served.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
First, boil the chicken fillet until cooked. Let it cool.
- 2
Step 2
The potatoes should also be boiled in their skins. They must not be overcooked—if a fork pierces the potato with almost no effort, the potatoes are done.
- 3
Step 3
We will wash the lettuce leaves and dry them.
- 4
Step 4
Finely chop the cucumbers.
- 5
Step 5
Remove the pits from the olives.
- 6
Step 6
Grind the potatoes.
- 7
Step 7
Slice the chicken fillet.
- 8
Step 8
In a deep bowl, combine chicken fillet, potatoes, cucumbers, and olives. Add capers and, optionally, chopped boiled eggs. Dress with mayonnaise and mix well. Chill in the refrigerator for 1–2 hours. Before serving, place on lettuce leaves and garnish with crayfish tails.