Salad Recipe: Mushroom Meadow/ грибная поляна

It was a typical, Russian New Year for us and there were with plenty of salads, including Mushroom Meadow (Gribnaya Polyana).

As with all Russian salads and soups, there are as many variations as there are families. This is how I made it.


Ingredients:
450g tinned mushrooms (drained weight)
300g quorn
100g cheese
3 eggs
2 potatoes
1 cucumber
soured cream
herbs
season

How:
1. Boil the potatoes and eggs. Allow to cool.
2. Chop the quorn, (cooled, boiled) eggs, (cooled, boiled) potatoes, cucumber and herbs. Grate the cheese.

 

 3. Place the mushrooms upside down in a bowl.

 

 4. Place the herbs on top.

 5. Add a thin smearing of soured cream.

Note: it's important that the mushrooms go in first, followed by the herbs (so it looks like a mushroom meadow). After that, it's your choice, but it's best to alternate harder and softer ingredients for the layers as it holds together better that way. The order from now on is how I did it.

6. Add the egg and a thin layer of soured cream.

7. Add the cucumber and a thin layer of soured cream.

8. Add the potato and a thin layer of soured cream.

9. Add the quorn and a thin layer of soured cream.

10.  Add the grated cheese.

11. Leave in the fridge for about an hour to set in place.
12. Remove from the fridge. Place an upturned plate on top of the bowl.

 13. Tip upside down so the plate is underneath. Bang on the bowl to loosen the salad. Cross your fingers (metaphorically) and remove the bowl. You should be left with a perfectly formed, not falling apart salad.

Variations
chicken instead of quorn; 3 salted cucumbers instead of the fresh one (sometimes people slice them thinly and decorate the edges with it); a layer of carrots (2-3 boiled and cooled), a common ingredient which we didn't include as we did another salad on the same day with carrots in.