Food Adventure 10: Selyedka pod shuboi

Hi everyone this is Kim. Today I’m going to share with you a Russian salad known as Селедка под шубой (Selyedka pod shuboi), which is literally translated as “Herring under a fur coat”.

Селедка под шубой (Selyedka pod shuboi)

Like many Russian dishes, it’s a bit of a visual assault and it may take a moment for your eyes to adjust to the intense fushia colouring that dominates this dish.

Selyedka pod shuboi consists of 5 simple ingredients:

·        Salted herring

·        Boiled potato

·        Boiled beetroot

·        Mayonaise

·        Hard boiled eggs

Shell the eggs, and use your fingers to peel the skin from the beetroot and potatoes (quite easy to do once boiled).

Get someone else do the beetroot to avoid staining your fingers.

Dice the herring into little squares and arrange over base of the plate. Grate all potatoes (the main ingredient) to create a large mound. (Optional: we added extra herring on top of the potato.) Generously smear mayonnaise over the mound of potato. 

Grate all the beetroot and distribute evenly to cover the whole mound. Generously smear more mayonnaise over the beetroot. Grate the eggs over the top for the final touch, then tidy it all up.

It’s actually looking pretty good at this point. Am I crazy to be a little bit excited?

I decided to mix it all together. Here goes nothing…

The verdict…actually quite yummy- I even went back for seconds.

You barely taste the herring, and the other flavours are far from offensive. The main flavour is potato, the herring adds a touch of salt, the mayonnaise makes it creamy, and the beetroot provides a little zing. And because it’s made of root vegetables, plus two sources of protein, it’s quite filling for a salad. 

This one's a keeper!