Russian Potato Salad - Olivye (Olivier)

Since I was little, this salad was always on our table whenever there was a holiday or we had guests. My mother wittily took advantage of her production from the marriage: me and my brother, to utilize in making this salad. Taking advantage of our youth, she taught us really fast how to peel the carrots, potatoes, clean eggs and prepare other ingredients.  As we mastered the art of "undressing" the veggies, she later taught us how to cut properly. And just like that, the Olivye production has began. Now, whenever I come home from college, my mother is already prepared with the ingredient and frees my working place so I can put my computer there and watch a movie while preparing the salad. 

For some reason, I always thought Olivye (Оливье) originated from France. I was once eating Olivye in my dorm and my roommate asked what it was. I thought she knew since she was French but she said she never heard of such a salad but she did eat a whole bowl of it. Apparently, Olivye was was "invented" in 1860's  by a French chef in a well known restaurant in Moscow - Hermitage. Though the dish became really popular, it has gain greater recognition with the help of another cook who stole the recipe and ran away to another restaurant to serve it under a different name "The Capital Salad" ("Stolichny" Столичный). So as you can see this salad has a bit of drama in its history.

Warning: Salad Olivye can be very time consuming if made in large quantities but it will last for a LONG time. If made in small quantities, it is rather fast to make, about half an hour perhaps , and can be used as an appetizer or side dish for three of four meals.

Ingredients for a large batch: 

3 medium potatoes 

2 medium carrots, 

5-6 eggs 

5 cucumbers 

Jar of pickles 

Can of peas 

200 gram Bologna (1 lb)

Mayo

Let's Begin: (order is reversed for optimal time)

1. Wash the potatoes, carrots and eggs. Without cleaning of the skin, boil them until cooked. Usually I boil carrots and potatoes in one pot and eggs in another since they cook faster. To check if they are cooked or not, I stick a knife into potato and carrot to see if it it goes through smoothly and softly, if it does it is ready. (30 min)

2. While other ingredients are cooking, we should begin cutting to increase the process. 

• Skin the cucumber, and begin to cut it in cubes a little less than half a centimeter. (10 min)
• Take out of the pickles, if they are small about 2-3 inches, I use about 20 of them. Usually the small ones are more crunchier which is good for this salad. Cut them up into small cubes.  (15 min)
• Begin cutting the bologna in cubes as well, but slightly bigger than the cucumber, now we can be exactly half a centimeter (just kidding). (15 min)
• Take out the eggs. Let them cool under running cold water. Clean them. Now cut them into cubes as well (10 min)

3. 30 minutes passed? Okey, lets let the potatoes and carrots cool down after intense cooking. When cooled, skin them as well. Cut them into cubes as well but carrots must always be the macho guy, so make his cubes bigger than carrot's. (20 min)

4. Everything is cut up? No escapee? Now, release the peas (drained from water of course.) Lets sprinkle some salt and pepper in there. No need for a lot of salt as the pickles should provide the saltiness. (5 min)

5. Time for mayo. This part I was taught to put in whenever the food was to be eaten. If the salad has mayo in it it will go bad faster than without the mayo. So keep the salad "mayoless" until you are ready to put it on the dinner table or  in your lunch box. For the whole batch, no more than 4 tablespoons of mayo. But when doing it in small quantities, put to your own tasting. All veggies in the salad should have a coating of mayo around them, but should not create mayo soup. (1 min)

Hints and Notes:

- Bologna that we buy is a Russian dietary bologna called "Doktorskaya Kolbasa" or "Докторская Колбаса." Usually its the one that kids eat (I think) since other sausage are a bit more induced with spices and fat and very chewy. However, if you can't find this sausage since it is usually sold in the Russian Market, then just buy bologna in your regular supermarket. If you don't know which one, neither will I since unfortunately I am not a bologna expert, but I can tell you this - "just buy the pink one." 

- There are many variants to the meat used in this salad. Vegetarians may exclude it, other people that I know, put in regular boiled meat (usually veal), or boiled cow tongue, which tastes pretty good too.

- This is a large batch and when I do this, it takes about 2 hours ( just as long as the movie I am watching). To make a smaller batch, just cut down the proportions. 

- to save time in boiling the veggies, and waiting for them to cool, do the night before, and when cooled down may be placed in the fridge (without the boiled water of course) till the next day when you are ready to prepare this. My order for this is (Potatoes, carrots, cucumber, eggs, bologna, pickles, and peas. Why? I don't know....tradition??

- If you do this batch on a sunday night, you can cut it up next day without the need to wait for it too cool down.

ENJOY!