Often inspiration draws its roots from completely unrelated things, objects, people or spheres. In my case, it caught up with me right in a store, where a new collection of clothes with seams facing out was presented on mannequins. Inside out (or vice versa) – this expression can often be found in fashion. On the eve of the New Year’s bustle, I wanted to prepare something similar from the classic holiday menu, that is, turn it the other way around. This is how the salad “Shuba inside out” turned out.
There are a huge number of legends about the appearance of this iconic dish, commonly named Shuba (fur coat), which is on almost every table of people from the post-Soviet space.
According to one version, “Shuba” was first prepared during the reign of Emperor Alexander III, and the dish was even included in the menu of the Rossiya restaurant, popular at that time. Initially, the basis of the fish and vegetable salad was anchovies, but gradually they were replaced by herring, which was more familiar to the inhabitants of the Russian Empire.
There is also a legend that says that the salad was invented by the merchant Anastas Bogomilov, who owned a chain of taverns at the beginning of the 20th century. He invented “Herring under Shuba” together with chef Aristarkh Prokoptsev in 1918 in order to rid his establishments of rowdy drunken visitors.
But these are all just inventions of an intricate collective mind that beautifully creates historical tales and there is no way to verify their veracity.
The facts say that the history of herring under a fur coat goes far to the northern Scandinavian regions, which have always been famous for their abundance of delicious fish. In Norwegian cookbooks from 1851, you can find a similar recipe called Sillsallad, which translated means “herring salad.” There is also an English analogue, where ingredients such as potatoes, beets, cucumbers and fish were laid out in layers. In our country, the dish appeared only in the 1960s of the last century.
Vegetable salad with herring in eggs, or “Shuba” inside out
Ingredients:
– 1 beet, baked in foil
– 1/2 boiled carrots
– 1 potato, boiled in their jackets and peeled
– 1/2 onion, medium size
– 1 pickled cucumber
– 2 tbsp mayonnaise
– salt to taste
– 6 hard-boiled eggs
– 12 pieces of herring
Cooking method:
- Boil beets, potatoes, carrots. Cool and cut into small cubes.
- Chop the pickled cucumber and onion.
- Mix everything and season with mayonnaise. Add salt to taste.
- Boil the eggs, cool, peel, cut in half, remove the yolks (then you can use them to make a salad sauce).
- Place the salad inside the egg white, place a piece of herring on top and garnish with mayonnaise.
Bon Appetit!
