This salad is very popular in my family. I cook a lot of traditional Russian dishes. My son, who lives overseas and came for a visit, specifically requested this salad. As all my boys love it, i get them to do all the hard work, peeling and chopping, Normally this salad is made for special occasions in Russia, i just make it when i feel like it. The quantities given are for a big salad, you can always adjust it to your liking. There are very few variations of this salad, maybe the order of ingredients can differ, but the list is the same.

Ingredients:

Herring- 2 packets

Beetroots -4 medium

Carrots- 4 medium

Potatoes -3 medium

Onion- 1 medium

Eggs -6 pieces

Mayonnaise – 1 tub (best quality you can get)

Salt, very little amount or none, as herring  and mayo are both salty.

Instructions:

Line a cake tin with a parchment paper.

Boil potatoes and carrots with the peel. Boil beetroots (with the peel) separately, as you don’t want the color to shift to other veges.

I normally put beetroots to cook early, as they take the longest time. Followed by potatoes and carrots. All ingredients have to cool down, please allow time for that.

Boil eggs with a pinch of salt (that is to prevent the liquid escaping in case eggshell is broken)

Cut herring in tiny pieces and lay down on a tin. That is your first layer.

Chop onion very finely and put atop of herring. Second layer.

Peel and chop completely cooled potatoes in small pieces. That is your third layer. Now spread mayo over it.

Peel and shop carrots (same size as potatoes) and put over potatoes, again spread mayo thinly, this is your fourth layer.

Now start working on cold boiled eggs. What i do next is completely unnecessary, but looks pretty, so i keep on doing that. I separate egg whites from yolks. Put yolks aside for the moment and chop whites finely (all ingredients should be similar size pieces) and put the next layer number five.

Next layer is cold peeled beetroots, finely chopped, this is your sixth layer, put mayo over it.

And finally crumble all the egg yolks and spread them atop of beetroots. I just love how gold color of yolks shines on top of deep purple color of beetroots. You can always exclude the separation of yolks and whites, just chop the eggs and add all to a layer before beetroots. Let it sit in a fridge for 2-3 hours before serving.

As you can see it’s all about chopping (and shopping).

Here we go look at that beauty, looks like a fancy cake!