NEW YEARS EVE IN RUSSIA: cooking Olivier salad (recipe with fish) and sharing stories in Russian

Hello everyone! It’s Russian with Dasha, my name is Dasha. Today, as you can see, we are going to cook And we will cook Olivier salad, but not a simple Olivier salad - not according to a standard recipe, but according to a recipe that I like very much. The main difference of this salad is that it will be with salmon. In my childhood, my mother and grandmother always made salad with sausage, it is also called “doktorskaya kolbasa”, but it always seemed to me that this sausage had little taste, and when I first tasted salad with salmon, I realized that “ here it is - the perfect taste! ” It is very simple to cook it, so today, while I cook, I will answer some of the questions you asked me on instagram, and also tell you some stories. Hope you find it interesting. Firstly, I want to immediately inform you that one ingredient is still missing, and I realized this only when I already sat down at the table.

I realized that I don’t have pickles at home, 01:23 - so if you like pickles, you can also add them to this salad. They will also need to be finely chopped - into small cubes - but without pickles, in principle, the salad will also turn out very tasty, so we don’t lose anything here. First, what do we need for cooking? Of course - a Christmas tree for a festive mood, a board on which we will cut everything with you, a good knife, onion. These are onions. You can have one onion or two. I don’t really like onions very much, I ’ll look at the volume, how much it turns out, maybe I’ll leave only one onion. Also four boiled eggs - I’ve already boiled them.

They are hard-boiled, that is, the water boiled, about five minutes passed, 02:23 - I took out the eggs and cooled them under cold water. I also have boiled potatoes - three pieces, also cooked in advance. One boiled carrot - I have already peeled this one. Mayonnaise, of course! This is the main dressing of all Russian salads - mayonnaise. Green peas in a jar and, of course, a slice of lightly salted red fish. I have this trout, you can also use salmon. We always cook lightly salted trout ourselves. It is very simple to do this: you need to buy fresh fish, cut it into two halves, remove all the bones - and then cover the piece of fish with coarse sea salt - this is a must. You need to find coarse sea salt in the store , put a piece of fish in some container - we use a glass container - fill it well with salt so that there is salt on the entire surface, and pour one glass of alcohol. This time we used brandy, sometimes we also use vodka or cognac. Brandy makes it taste well. We cover it with foil and put it in the refrigerator for one night, that is, for about 7-10 hours.

The next day we need to get this fish, completely remove 04:10 - salt from it and cut into the desired pieces. If you don’t know how to cook the fish yourself, or don’t want to cut it, you can: firstly, buy ready-made lightly salted trout or lightly salted salmon, or also ask the store to clean it for you, and you can salt it yourself at home. We really like it - when we salt the fish ourselves. Then, the next day, we make different sandwiches. This piece contains about 150 grams. Let’s start. Where do we start? I usually start with onions. Nope.

I will probably leave it till the end because I will 04:58 - most likely cry. I always cry. So. Let me peel the potatoes first. In order to peel the potatoes, I took a small knife. The first question you asked me is “how do Russians celebrate Christmas?” First, Christmas in Russia is celebrated on January 7th, that is, after the New Year. This is the holiday of Orthodox Christians - Christmas. Usually people, believers, go to church and listen to prayers, and in the evening before Christmas the family usually gathers at the table, everyone talks, wishes each other all the best and also eats something tasty.

But since I did not grow up in a 05:55 - religious family, that is, yes, we are all baptized, we have crosses, but we did not have such a tradition - to go to church every Christmas, so I can probably tell you little here. We definitely always celebrate the New Year’s Eve. We don’t usually celebrate anything on December 25th because it is Catholic Christmas. The first holiday that we celebrate is the New Year’s Eve, on the night of December 31 to January 1. How does this day usually go? I have already told in detail in our podcast with Tom, which is called The Russian Twist podcast.

You can listen to it 06:45 - on any platform, that is, you just need to enter The Russian Twist podcast in the search, I will leave the link in the description. Together with an Englishman named Tom, we discussed different traditions in Russia and Great Britain: how Russians and Brits celebrate Christmas and New Year. I already said this: the fact that we usually decorate the Christmas tree in advance, and on December 31 in the morning we get up and start cooking. We usually prepare several types of salads, we make different snacks, for example, red fish snacks or sandwiches with butter and red caviar. You probably all already know what it is… the most important thing, one might say, is the dish on the festive table - Olivier and sandwiches with red caviar.

Also, the obligatory attributes of the New Year are, of course, champagne and 07:50 - tangerines. Today I have no tangerines on my table, they are over there, so you cannot see them. What else are we cooking? My mom usually roasts some meat in the oven, I prefer to cook fish for the New Year’s Eve. On December 31st, we start cooking. If the tree has not been decorated, we dress it up, take out all the decorations and decorate the house. Well, usually in our family it was always on December 31st when we bought a Christmas tree and decorated it quickly.

While decorating the tree, 08:32 - I always watch some New Year’s films, for example, Soviet comedies. On TV they always show various Soviet comedies on December 31st. I think you have already heard about some of them - these are “Ivan Vasilyevich is changing his profession”, “The irony of fate” What else? Sometimes they show “Office Romance” or “Kidnapping, Caucasian Style” - these are good Soviet comedies, which are pleasant and interesting to watch even for the hundredth time. Now I’m chopping an egg into small cubes. I never bother about the shapes of the pieces, that is, sometimes I have pieces that are more elongated, sometimes more square. So, now. There was also a question: “When are children given gifts?” In kindergartens and schools, probably on December 20, they organize a New Year tree party, that is, this is a holiday for children, for which they wear different costumes.

In my childhood, these 09:48 - were costumes, for example, of squirrels, bunnies, that is, it is a diminutive form of the word “squirrel” and “hare”. The girls were snowflakes and different animals, mostly. Now children prefer to wear costumes of different superheroes and popular movie characters, almost like on Halloween. Various contests are organized at the New Year’s tree party, children sing songs, read poetry and dance. Santa Claus comes with the Snow Maiden, they give the children gifts, wish them a Happy New Year, everyone sings songs together, they dance around the Christmas tree - this is such a fun children’s holiday.

10:46 - On December 31, some parents also change into the Snow Maiden and Santa Claus, or simply dad or grandfather changes into Santa Claus: he leaves the apartment, changes clothes, comes in and gives gifts, wishes a Happy New Year. Children usually also sing some songs or recite poems to please Santa Claus, that is, we do not have the same as, for example, in Great Britain - Santa does not come at night. It’s simple with us: Santa Claus comes in the evening and wishes the children a Happy New Year. If Santa Claus does not come, then parents simply put gifts under the tree, and children, for example, at midnight, when the new year comes, can open them or open them after they wake up - on January 1. That is, it all depends more on the family, depending on what traditions are in the family.

11:49 - You also asked a question about the cost of food and clothing. An interesting question, of course: “How much do groceries and clothes cost before the New Year? Are there any discounts or, on the contrary, price increases?” I noticed that very often there are different promotions in large malls, you can buy gifts and things with discounts, for example. In supermarkets, the opposite is true. Alcohol, for example, becomes more expensive by the New Year, especially champagne or some kind of strong alcohol, so, of course, if you celebrate the New Year in Russia, then go to the store in advance, buy some products in advance. And alcohol too, so that later, firstly, not to stand in long lines, and secondly, in order to save money. You also asked a question about “the most unusual New Year’s Eve I’ve ever had.” The most unusual New Year’s Eve… I guess I had two. In 2012, I lived in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

I was not in a very good mood then, 13:12 - because I broke up with my boyfriend in the fall, I was very sad because of this and thought: “How can I celebrate the New Year’s Eve so that I have fun?” I decided to just spontaneously drive from Chiang Mai to a village called Pai. It was in the mountains, I went there without booking anything at all, for some reason I was sure that I would definitely find accommodation with ease, because my friends said that there are a lot of hostels in the Pai village, a lot of hotels, I can easily find myself a place to stay, so on December 30, I arrived in Pai and realized that Thais, it turns out, also go to Pai for the New Year’s Eve. Apparently it was a very popular place and the streets were just packed with people! There were a lot of people, and, of course, all hotels, all hostels were already booked. I looked at different websites and realized that there were no free rooms anywhere. I didn’t know what to do, because I didn’t want to go back.

I accidentally met a family of Thais - there 14:42 - were dad, mom and three children, none of them, except dad, spoke English. They told me: “Let us help you find something.” They walked with me, but when we realized that everything was booked in general, they offered me to spend the night with them. They rented small houses. Oops! They offered me to rent a mattress and lay it on the floor in their little house. Of course, I felt embarrassed, but I agreed. I spent the night with them. They also offered me the next morning to go to a big lake, I don’t remember what it was called, but they told me that they would go very early in the morning, before dawn, because a very beautiful fog rises over this lake, and they want to see dawn high in the mountains to watch a haze rise over the lake.

I had 15:55 - no plans, so, of course, I agreed, and we all got up early in the morning and went to this lake. It was very cool! I really enjoyed it. On December 31, I found one bed in a hostel, settled there and met various foreigners, foreign women, and we all spent a very crazy night together. We walked a lot around the city, drank a lot, of course, danced - it was fun, awesome. The next morning we were all with a little hangover and just lay there, sunbathing by the pool, swimming. It is very difficult to put into words, but it was unusual, because for the first time in my life I spent New Year’s Eve in the company of strangers, and it was just awesome! It seems to me, when you plan a lot, think a lot about how everything will be, sometimes you may get disappointed.

And when you don’t plan anything 17:08 - and everything goes spontaneously, everything goes even better than you might expect. And one more New Year’s Eve, which was also very unusual, I celebrated in the mountains - on Dombai - this is the North Caucasus. We celebrated the New Year’s Eve at 2600 meters above sea level. I arrived there with my friends to ski and celebrate the New Year. In the evening of December 31, we all went to Dombai, this is a ski resort, and at about eleven in the evening we took the lifts to a height of 2600 meters, there we had fun with friends, talked, it was, of course, cold, but we also had some warming drinks.

At twelve o’clock, that is, at midnight, where the hotels are - below, 18:05 - below us - fireworks were launched from there, and it was just incredible! When we stood at an altitude of 2600 meters and looked at the fireworks below us, it felt like we were standing on Olympus and watching people celebrate the New Year. Here it is - such a beautiful piece of fish. I’m going to cut it. Then, of course, onions. This is how I cut the fish, into such slices. I am probably using an English word. These are more or less flat pieces. Then I will also cut into cubes. What do we usually give for the New Year? It depends. Of course, children are always given candy and some toys or, for example, books or some kind of constructors. I have a friend - her name is Katya.

Katya and I were born in the 19:13 - same month - I was born on May 3, she was born on May 19, and our mothers have been friends since our childhood. Every New Year, Katya’s mother prepared a bag of different sweets for us. It was great! Each time she gave both Katya and me a bag of sweets: there were different Kinder Surprises, which were considered scarce in the nineties - we never had Sneakers or Mars chocolate bars, and it was a great joy to get some kind of Sneakers or Kinder Surprise. The funny thing is that both Katya and I are already thirty years old, but I moved to St. Petersburg, and Katya’s mother continues to collect such bags of sweets for her, which, of course, I envy very much, because it’s just nice.

It feels like you’re still a kid being presented with a big bag of candy. I usually give my relatives and friends something, for example, from perfumery or cosmetics, or some kind of clothes. You can do something with your own hands. Once, when I didn’t have a job, I had little money - it was 2016, in my opinion, New Year of 2016, I bought a lot of mugs in IKEA and painted them with acrylics, my relatives and friends really liked them. So, I added fish, now I pour in the peas - just green peas without sugar. We pour out the entire jar. Now the last thing to do is chop the onion and add the mayonnaise.

21:15 - Now I will clear the table and return to you. I always cry, so I hope you will forgive me for my tears and my red face. I’m in high spirits! I can finally feel the New Year approaching. Please write in the comments: what kind of dishes do you cook for Christmas and New Year? And I also wonder: what gifts do you like to receive? This year I decided to arrange a small holiday for my patrons - the Advent calendar, I publish every day, from December 1 to December 31. My eyes are already red. I publish on Patreon various cool - funny and interesting - posts, for example, karaoke or some kind of poems, or an excerpt from Gogol’s Christmas story.

You can join and 22:35 - access all of the Patreon content. Also on Patreon I post podcast transcriptions and video transcriptions. Now, with some tears on my eyes, I will tell you about my plans for the next year. Firstly, I teach online, I now have about 18 lessons per week. Perhaps I will take fewer students, because, after all, making content, recording video in this mode is very difficult.

I want to do 2 episodes of the Russian with Dasha podcast a month and two 23:24 - videos a month, but sometimes, I think, there will be only one episode of the podcast, because it takes a lot of time. And also every week Tom and I record the Russian Twist podcast. The following year, in the first place, we are moving into a new apartment. We are selling this apartment and moving to a new apartment, but first we need to make repairs there - there is still nothing there: no walls, no wallpaper, nothing. We must first build everything. I think that by spring we will move there, so I will definitely show you my new apartment.

I also hope 24:15 - that the coronavirus will still allow us to travel. Even if we do not defeat the coronavirus, I hope that people will still have… (will it be very interesting to watch this video?)… I hope that people will have strong immune system, and we will be able to travel, return to our usual lifestyle. Here’s a set of vegetables and fish. Down there we have eggs, potatoes, carrots, fish, peas and onions. As I said - if you like pickles, you can also add them. Now I will salt this salad, but since the fish is slightly salted, and if you add cucumbers, they are also salted, it is better to salt just a little bit - just such a pinch, maybe two pinches. If someone does not like very salty, then it is better not to add salt. You can always add salt - this is much better than oversalt. This is my mayonnaise - completely ordinary, called “classic provencal mayonnaise”. The final touch is to add mayonnaise. I prefer to add less.

I think to foreigners this recipe 25:54 - sounds weird, but trust me, with this secret ingredient (fish), it tastes amazing! I added too much mayonnaise, I think. It looks and smells good! The fish pieces are a bit bigger. I hope it’s delicious. Friends, thank you for listening to me, and watching my video. Please comment below - how long have you been with me? I will be happy to see your comments. I think we might see each other next year only, subscribe to my Instagram to see my broadcasts, I might start one on December 31st.

27:26 - I wish you to celebrate with ones you love, and have fun if you celebrate alone, everything good that happens with us is because of luck, but mostly because of the things we do. I wish you to believe in good things and do everything to make 2021 a better year. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love you all, bye! .