How to decorate Olivier for the New Year and other holidays?

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

The history of salad, popular not only on New Year's Eve, but also on other Russian holidays - Olivier - has its roots in the 19th century. On Russian soil, this meat appetizer was first prepared by a French culinary specialist. Alien to Russian taste, the dish immediately became a favorite delicacy of the intelligentsia. Today, this salad has undergone a number of changes and does not cause such enthusiasm due to its popularity and availability. Now, in order to somehow surprise the guests, you have to impress them with the serving of the dish. It remains to figure out how to decorate Olivier for a spectacular appearance of the "king of salads"?

Origin

It's no secret that the first chef who came up with the original combination of ingredients in a meat salad was a Frenchman. He maintained a tavern with the cultural name "Hermitage". The name of the tavern had nothing to do with the Petersburg Museum; in translation from French, it meant "a secluded place." Nobles were the patrons of the upscale establishment.

Question: "How to decorate salad Olivier?" the chefs of the tavern did not arise then. The dish was served from unmixed ingredients: the products were laid out in layers or separately laid out onplate.

Today, the salad familiar to everyone can be found in different interpretations, and all because after the death of the owner of the tavern, Lucien Olivier, no one knew the real recipe for this delight. Of course, the predecessors of the French chef tried to reproduce it, and the recipe as close as possible to the original was published in the cookbook of 1897.

In the thirties of the XX century, in the Soviet restaurant "Moskva", Ivan Mikhailovich Ivanov invented a salad from available ingredients, which became a kind of Olivier. It was dubbed the "Capital".

Royal recipe

How to decorate Olivier, photo, description, slicing technique - for a modern housewife, this is accessible information, not like a recipe for a classic dish in Tsarist Russia. Nevertheless, even then there were craftsmen who repeated the taste of the salad as much as possible.

The ingredients of the Tsarist dish were:

• grouse;
• veal tongue;
• salad;
• boiled crayfish;
• black caviar;
• piculi;
• fresh cucumbers;
• eggs, capers, soy kabul.

The dish was seasoned with a sauce based on French vinegar, Provence oil and egg yolks.

The list, headed by ideologically intolerant grouse, clearly did not resemble the products of the worker-peasant class. Therefore, in Soviet times, the chef Ivanov replaced the royal ingredients with affordable products. Then there was no thought: “How to decorate Olivier?” One of his appearances at the New Year's table wasluxury.

Modern interpretation of the dish

For workers and peasants, the ingredients of the royal recipe for meat salad were alien, and even more so black caviar, crayfish, pickles. The New Year's dish combined potatoes, carrots, boiled sausage, pickled cucumbers, eggs, green peas and mayonnaise.

All family members ran in search of scarce salad products, and after purchasing them, there were no more ideas: “How to decorate Olivier for the New Year?” Peas, mayonnaise were bought far before the arrival of the holiday and were kept under the inviolable slogan: “This is for the New Year!”

In modern society, it has become easy to get the listed ingredients of a meat snack, and the appearance of a salad on the festive table does not surprise anyone. Here are advanced housewives looking for options for “how to decorate Olivier salad beautifully” to add sophistication to the dish.

Carrots: to put or not?

Many amateur cooks, when preparing Olivier, are wondering about the need for the presence of such an ingredient as carrots in it. Indeed, the Soviet list of products is somehow an analogue of the royal ingredients of sophistication. Except for potatoes and carrots. But if the presence of potatoes can be explained as an attempt to make the dish satisfying, then the slight presence of boiled carrots in it is not entirely clear.

There is a legend that resourceful chefs replaced crayfish necks and crabs, which were present in the traditional Olivier, with an orange root vegetable. Yes, the presenceboiled carrots in a favorite salad has become not an obligatory ingredient, but a desirable one. However, if the question is how to decorate Olivier salad, then the presence of a bright root vegetable in it should not be in doubt, since the dish becomes more noticeable with carrots.

Subtleties of cooking

No matter how beautifully a salad is served, the impression of the dish can fade from the lack of taste or the right consistency in it. The popularity of the dish is great, so it is cooked in an unreasonably large amount, which is an unreasonable translation of products. The volume of salad is recommended to be calculated based on the number of invited guests, equal to the number of medium potatoes. That is, if you plan to receive 5 people, then for Olivier you need to prepare 5 potatoes.

So that the future dish does not look like porridge, it is necessary to boil carrots and potatoes, previously peeled and cut into equal cubes. In the water in which nightshade will be boiled, it is recommended to add vinegar (one teaspoon). He will save the vegetable from crumbling, and the question: “How to decorate Olivier, not porridge?” will be relevant.

It is better to choose beef as meat for this delicacy. Moreover, it should be boiled after the water boils, then the juiciness of the meat will remain inside the piece.

It is important to cut food with one technique. Brunoise is suitable for Olivier, that is, potatoes, meat, carrots, pickled cucumbers and eggs should be chopped into even cubes.

Filling and storage methods

Ifbefore the holiday, the hostess is tormented by thoughts about how to decorate the Olivier salad, then after the feast, the question worries: “How can you manage to eat all this beautiful so that it doesn’t disappear?” To avoid such a situation, it is recommended to form a serving not from the entire part of the prepared salad. If it so happened that after combining all the products, a bowl of Olivier came out, then you should not sculpt Christmas trees, sticks and thematic animals from the entire resulting mass.

An economical option for serving salad are canapes or boats. They can be quickly issued at any time, and such an appetizer will be individually one-time. That is, there is no common plate of a seasoned dish, which must be disposed of after the holiday.

It is recommended to add eggs and mayonnaise/olive oil to the salad just before decorating the salad, and the rest of the salad is best left in the refrigerator without these products, then its shelf life will last up to three days.

Restaurant serve

Home table setting is somewhat different from the restaurant one. And this applies not only to cutlery, but also to decorating dishes. The presentation of salads by gourmet chefs is more sophisticated, omitting the decoration of appetizers in the form of some animal, which is very popular at home.

But the question remains the same: "How to decorate Olivier?" Photos of the restaurant presentation of this salad impress with their genius and aristocracy. The most affordable home version is the optionserving snacks with a forming ring. His absence is not a cause for disappointment. The ring can be obtained by cutting off a plastic bottle on both sides. When it is ready, all that remains is to put the impromptu ring on a flat plate and fill it with dressed salad, and before serving, the “bottle” device must be removed. The circumference of the resulting stump can be decorated with halves of boiled eggs.

How to decorate Olivier for the New Year?

Snack options for serving salads are considered a convenient alternative to a common dish for guests. Olivier is no exception. This is not only a way to extend the shelf life of the delight, but also a tricky trick to prevent overeating.

How to decorate Olivier for the New Year in a snack version?

1. Serving in glasses. In wine glasses, a salad laid out in layers looks very original. It also takes up less space on the table than a plate.
2. In cucumbers. It is necessary to cut fresh cucumbers lengthwise and clean the pulp with a teaspoon. It remains to fill the vacated space with salad.
3. In baskets. You can bake Olivier molds yourself, but purchased baskets will be an excellent substitute.
4. In pita bread or lettuce.

Children's table: how beautiful to decorate Olivier?

How often adults try to trick a child into trying something to eat! One of these tricks is the design of dishes in the form of fairy-tale characters or animals.

Olivier for childrencan be served in the form of fly agarics in an egg. The salad also looks advantageous and appetizing in the form of a Christmas tree decorated with peas and corn. Children's delight is provided at the sight of a mouse from a traditional Olivier. The ears, tail and paws of the animal can be cut from boiled sausage. Any form of salad will already give the dish originality and will make the kids appetite. At the discretion of the parents: it is better to fill the children's Olivier not with mayonnaise, but with sour cream.