Herring under Vegetable Coat

Ingredients:
4 fillets of salted herring (0.7 lbs)
4 potatoes (about 1 lb)
4 carrots (about 1 lb)
4 medium beets (about 1 lb)
4 eggs
2 Granny Smith apples
1.25 cups mayonnaise
Salt

I'm not offering you the correct recipe but rather the best one. Everyone who has ever used this recipe said that «it was the best herring under the coat in my life».

We're not going to argue whether you need onions in this salad. Also no need to discuss what should be the first layer: the herring or the potatoes.

The first layer is definitely the herring because everything on top of it makes the «coat».

I would advise to make this salad in two separate plates: one for the guests and one for yourself, to enjoy later. I’ll bet you won’t get to even taste the one on the table – the guests will make it disappear that fast!

Rinse the carrots, potatoes and beets and place into a pot (or each vegetable into a separate pot, if you wish). Cover well with water, add salt and cook till tender.

It’s always best to add salt when boiling the vegetables for a salad in order to avoid adding more salt to the actual dish later.

Keep in mind that these vegetables require different times for cooking: the potatoes are the first to cook in about 20-30 minutes after boiling. The carrots need an additional half-hour after the potatoes are done, and the beets yet another 30 minutes on top of the carrots (you may have to add more water to keep the beets submerged).

Let the vegetables cool and peel them with a sharp knife.

Separately prepare hard-boiled eggs (they need to cook for 7 minutes after boiling). After they are done, cool them under a stream of cold water and peel. Separate the whites from the yolks since the whites will go into the salad itself, while the yolks will be used for decoration.

Chop the herring fillets into small cubes. I recommend buying filleted herring rather than a whole fish – unless you derive special pleasure from cleaning and deboning the whole herring.

Coarsely grate the carrots and the potatoes, keep separate.

Peel the apples and grate coarsely.

Finely grate the beets. If they let out a lot of liquid, pour it out. The softer the beets are before cooking, the more liquid they will have when cooked and grated.

Lastly, coarsely grate the egg whites, setting the yolks aside.

Take out two flat plates, and let’s start to assemble the herring and its coat.

Divide the herring, potatoes and carrots into four parts each.

Place one part of the herring on each plate in an even layer.

Over the herring layer in each plate spread one part of the potatoes and pat with your hand.

Add one tablespoon of mayonnaise and spread evenly over the potatoes.

Place one part of the carrots evenly on top of the mayonnaise, pat with your hand.

Divide the grated apples in half and place one half on top of the carrots in each plate.

The next layer is one half of the grated egg whites.

Some of the layers are repeated in this salad, but not the apples or the egg whites – there is only one layer of each.

Pat with your hand again. Spread with one tablespoon of mayonnaise.

Repeat one layer of the herring.

Then a layer of the potatoes.

Then another layer of the carrots.

Add 1-2 tablespoons of mayonnaise to the grated beets and mix well.  

Then divide the beets in half and spread on top of the previous layer in each plate.

Smooth the beets evenly across with a flat knife. You will see that it’s easy to shape – the beet mixture is very malleable.

The salad is almost ready.

Wipe the edges of the plates with damp paper towels before anything that may have stuck to them dries up.

Then holding a fine grater over the dish, grate the egg yolks sprinkling them evenly over the whole top of the salad.

Refrigerate for a few hours, then take out and enjoy!