Real People's Recipes - Val's Russian Salad

It's no secret that I love trying food from other countries and discovering the history behind each dish. When I was at Val and his girlfriend Olivia's leaving party the other day, he started preparing this Russian salad and I was really interested and then I remembered I hadn't done this feature in a while so luckily he agreed to share his recipe with me and my readers. The party was amazing, the variety of food was great and I also got to try these tasty Brazilian condensed milk sweets - Brigadeiro.

Tasty traditional Brazilian sweets - like a squidgy caramel with cocoa

"The dish is called "Olivier salad" but in restaurants its usually just called a "Russian salad".

The version i usually make is vegetarian and very easy, some people add meat to it like fine chopped chicken or duck.

As its a very popular salad in Russia, I'm sure each chef makes their own special recipe. Its usually served as a garnish to a roast dinner, like they add peas to dinner in UK I guess :)

I moved to UK when I was 13. I have always been able to cook for myself, but lately I found that the only way to get the Russian cuisine was to make it. So now I find recipes for the dishes I like on the internet and then tweak it to my taste, also my mother gives me tips and cooking techniques.

In Russia many people buy fresh produce on the market or grow it themselves on allotments - so much of the cuisine is seasonal and uses local products only. Here in UK you get so much imported ingredients its easy to cook dishes from anywhere and any time of year."

Val peeling the eggs

The potatoes which are boiled whole

The delicious finished salad

Ingredients:
4 large potatoes - boiled whole then diced
2 carrots - boiled whole then diced
lots of gherkins! - diced fine
about a cup of peas  - cooked
4 boiled eggs - chopped
mayonnaise - enough to coat
fresh dill
salt and pepper

Just combine the ingredients in a bowl then serve. Didn't last long at the party, everyone loved it!