Shuba Recipe: Russian Recipes Revisited (RRR)

It's time for another Russian Recipes Revisited post! Are you excited!? I hope you are, because this is a stellar recipe. Shuba in Russian means winter coat, usually made from fur. No, I'm not going to tell you how to make a winter coat...no worries.

Shuba is a traditional layered salad served usually for New Year celebration: it has layers of herring, potatoes, hardboiled eggs, beets and mayonnaise. Some people add boiled and chopped carrots, or raw onions, or even apples. Below is my version of this dish.

Growing up in Russia, fish was often on our menu. My maternal grandmother loved fish and often fried it, made fish soup and even made her own gefelte fish! My paternal grandfather loved herring. Whenever we visited him and our paternal grandmother in Ukraine, herring was often on the table for zakuski: appetizers before the meal. The problem was, my twin and I HATED herring. Our grandfather would often say What kind of a Berman are you if you don't like herring!?

Oh, sweet memories!

Turns out, I don't hate all types of herring: just the salted one. I actually really like marinated herring and smoked herring.

Shuba is usually made with salted herring, but I decided to use the kind sold in jars in wine sauce. You can do whatever you want.

Shuba
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 large potato cooked in its skin till tender, peeled and mashed
12 ounce jar herring in wine sauce
2 hardboiled eggs, chopped
1/3-1/2 cup mayonnaise {I used homemade kind, but you can use whatever you like}
2 beets, cooked till tender, peeled and grated
dill

Directions
1. Make a layer of mashed potatoes on a flat plate.
2. Add a layer of herring {I also used the onions that were in the jar for a bit of crunch}.
3. Spread around chopped eggs.
4. Add mayonnaise. {I used my mom's trick and put mayonnaise in a plastic bag, cut off the corner and used it as a piping bag.}
5. Pile on grated beets and add another layer of mayonnaise, spreading it carefully so it covers all the beets.
6. Cover the salad with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours.
7. Before serving, add fresh chopped dill.

My friend Cindy came over to try this dish and LOVED it, as did I! I'm sure the herring will scare quite a few of you, but I dare you to try this anyway. You could also technically leave out the herring or use good quality tuna, but you will miss out on the briny flavor.

For next month's installment of Russian Recipes Revisited, I'm planning on baking my mom's sour cream cake! She sent me a recipe in the mail and I can't wait to recreate the cake I fondly remember from many celebration! {That's my mom's handwriting :) }