Chicken Kiev (Rus. Котлета по-киевски, lit. ‘Kiev-style cutlet’) is an extravagant dish which is worth the efforts as it will be a pleasure both to the eye and mouth. It is a chicken breast wrapped around garlic and parsley butter, and then breaded or either baked or fried. When you cut through the hot meal, the melted butter with herbs will elegantly leak out adding a chic to the look of the meal.
Despite its name, it is not a Ukrainian but a Russian dish – a Russian culinary historian William Pokhlyobkin tracked the origin of the recipe back to the early 20th century where it appeared in the Moscow Merchants’ Club and later was given its present name – ‘Kiev-style cutlet – by a Soviet restaurant.
In the original recipe, the cutlet is wrapped around the wing bone which then sticks out like a handle. It must be noted though that this extra twist requires a lot of expertise and skills in cutting the meat so it’s more fun watching the professional chefs do it than trying to reproduce the technique on your own. In everyday life you can go with just a normal boneless chicken breast – at the end of the day that bone is just a show-off.
The amazing Oliver salad is known worldwide, and in some languages it is simply called the Russian salad. Although the recipe is very simplistic – boiled diced vegetables and meat dressed with mayonnaise – the outcome is so delicious that in Russia it has become pop-culture and a must-have on a New Year table.
The original recipe of Olivier salad was far more sophisticated and was created by a Belgian chef Olivier Lucien who used to work in The Hermitage – one of Moscow’s most celebrated restaurants in 1860s.
Many people, including the chef’s personnel, tried to recreate the secret recipe formula but up to this day it remains a mystery wrapped in enigma. It is only known for sure that the ingredients were very exquisite and posh, and contained grouse, veal tongue, caviar, lettuce, crayfish tails, capers, and smoked duck. Not bad, huh? The original dressing was specially prepared mayonnaise with unknown proportions of French wine vinegar, mustard, and Provençal olive oil and some special sauce exported from England similar to Worcester sauce.
In the mainstream cuisine the rare and expensive ingredients were substituted with more readily available ones: grouse with bologna sausage, crayfish tails with boiled eggs, capers with pickled cucumbers and so on. You would think, oh, what sort of a recipe is that, when everything is substituted with something else. But hold your skepticism until you try this salad: the salad is so tasty that it became a pop culture hit in Russia!
Insalata russa – Russian Olivier salad in Italy
We give you 2 recipes – the first one is the classic and modern one, and the second recipe is a pretentious attempt to get as close to the original secret formula as possible.
Boil potatoes and carrots. Cool down and skin. Boil and peel eggs.
Dice potatoes, carrots, eggs, pickled cucumbers and bologna sausage into cubes of the same size.
Add sweet peas and mayonnaise. Mix well.
Serve cold.
*Later on in this recipe bologna started to be substituted with boiled meat, and pickled cucumbers with fresh ones beacause people could afford this products in winter. But the basic and cheaper Soviet version still remains just as popular.
Olivier salad “A la original”
Ingredients
1/2 grouse fillet (or veal, quail or chicken)
3 potatoes
1 cucumber
3 leaves lettuce
mayonnaise to taste
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce
1 teaspoon capers
3-5 olives
Method
Boil, cool down and skin potatoes. Fry the grouse.
Dice potatoes, cucumbers and grouse into cubes of the same size. Put into a bowl.
Add capers and olives, mayonnaise and Worcestershire sauce.
Mix well. Add salt and pepper if needed. Decorate with lettuce leaves.
Serve cold.
Rus: Olivier on any usual day is just so salad, Oliver at New Year’s night is the food of gods! (Think of UK roast dinner for Christmas, when usual Sunday food gets a sacramental flare 🙂 )
This extremely easy and quick zakuska – finger food – is a modern Russian recipe. It will take only several minutes to prepar e and can be a great bite to eat. You will need thin flatbread lavash that is usually available in Russian or Turkish shops. In the USA lavash should be also available in Walmart stores.
Enjoy!
• If you prepare the snack in advance you can wrap it with cling film or foil and put in the fridge. Cut into pieces before serving – this will prevent the lavash bread from drying up
Sea-buckthorns are bright orange edible berries that can be used to make delicious fresh jam of unique sharp flavour.
Rip berries teem on branches of a sun-loving shrub that naturally grows in mountainous regions. Several domestic species have been cultivated that exceed the wild plant in the size of berries and their properties and this tree is very popular in Russian gardens or private lots for growing home vegetables and fruits.
Sea-buckthorn contains 15 times more vitamin C than oranges which places this tiny orange fruit among the most enriched plant sources of vitamin C (perhaps, only rose hips could compete). The high content of this vitamin accounts for quite a tangy taste of berries – you wouldn’t want to eat them on their own – but mixing it with sweeter substances like apple or grape juice to reduce the astringency certainly pays off both in taste and goodness.
Sea-bucktorn is rich in Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids (the same fatty acids you get from eating fish) which are essential to good health and play a crucial role in brain function.
The berries have high content in Omega 7 that help with weight loss and cholesterol control and is important for healthy clear skin. Also, “beauty” vitamins A and E can also be found in abundance in these wonderful little berries.
This richness in goodness can explain why sea-buckthorn is finding their way into many nutraceutical products on the market today.
You can buy those frozen berries in Russian shops, and actually the freezing helps reduce the astringency. You can use the berries for your smoothies and make very quick food condiment or dessert sauces.
5 min sea-buckthorn dip/dessert sauce
Ingredients:
½ glass of frozen sea-buckthorns
splash of water
1 tablespoon sugar
Method:
1. Put the buckthorns in a glass, fill it up with water and let the berries defrost for several minutes. Pour the water out, wash the berries and put them into a blender.
2. Add a splash of water and sugar, blitz up. Sieve to remove pulp and seeds and enjoy.
This will be great with pancakes, blini or syrniki. The sharp and rich taste will add a new elegant note to a sweet meal.
