"An olive without a bow is not an olive"...
One of the most annoying things in Russian folk cooking is the addition of onions or fresh herbs everywhere and everywhere. Dill, parsley, cilantro, fresh-bitter green onion or vigorous onion - all this is designed to taste the salad and make it even more "luxurious" and "tender", as they say on culinary forums. It's not the same without them. What about compote? Without compote it is already possible, without onions - it is impossible.
I almost forgot about this feature of our women, until before the New Year I read in the Sochetaizer Instagram account (@sochetaizer) comments under the classic Olivier salad recipe. The recipe risked being without onions and herbs, which angered many Russian hostesses.
To provide evidence, I am attaching them to the case file.
Scrolling through these onion-dill pre-New Year outrages, I remembered that many years ago, my friend and I prepared our first New Year's table together without parents. I was making a salad with crab sticks and suddenly I saw how she was chopping onions for it.
- Why onions? I exclaimed in horror, hating him with all my heart.
- And we always do with onions. It tastes bad without onions! - the girlfriend answered calmly, continuing, shedding tears, to cut the fragrant head.
Naturally, I didn’t even touch the salad, which I still adore with all my heart. Juicy bitter onions to sweet corn and pleasantly salty surimi? No, sorry...
Invasion of the green 🥗
Without dill and parsley, it is already difficult to find ready-made salads like Olivier or Stolichny in Russian supermarkets. My God, why are there greens??? What is she supposed to do there? Shouldn't it accompany cucumber and tomato salads like "Spring", in perfect harmony with fresh crispy vegetables?
My mother, who loves greens and can eat them like an artiodactyl herbivore, chewing huge bushes dill or parsley in a bite with some food, I figured out one thing a long time ago (not without my active intervention). The same philosophical one, which says that your freedom ends where the freedom of another person begins.
Therefore, on the guest table, she places weighty bunches of greens on a separate plate or puts them with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers. Who needs it, who loves and cannot live without greens - he will take as much as he needs, crunching and tasting what is already on his plate. But to impose on everyone in our favorite Soviet-Russian mayonnaise mess something that, according to tradition, is not even implied there, is not worth it.
New reality 🍣
Recently, I was unpleasantly surprised by a popular sushi brand. Their sushi shop is conveniently located near my house, where I ordered sets of rolls every week. The whole last year was perfect, and as a fashionable Moscow lady, I could say that "this is the best sushi in the city." But it was not there! In the last two orders, I found that they began to add green onions to the rolls.
Green onions in classic rolls? Seriously? Tender, creamy cream cheese and fresh salmon are now set off by the juicy bitterness of spring onions, which would definitely open the eyes of the Japanese. I opened my eyes too: in the first order - from surprise, in the second - from the realization that they, like the transformed Lyudmila Prokofievna, will always look like this now. Although someone loves this kind of rolls, which are married to a country salad. They have new versions.
The rolls will now have to be adjusted to twist itself, because in another company they are nightmarish even without an onion. And you just have to come to terms with the fact that both Russian hostesses and chefs of popular brands have in their hearts an indestructible and inexplicable love for herbs and onions. Apparently, it is built into the genetic code and passed down from generation to generation.
But instead of greens and onions, there could be garlic! It is impossible to extract it from the dish, and the aroma accompanies you longer than the most persistent perfume. On the other hand, it's a great condiment for introverts in an age of social distancing. That's what I respect.
Author: an introvert with a New Year's plate of "clean" Olivier and a chicken leg in a garlic marinade
