In Ukraine dressed herring is mostly served at New Year celebration. It originated in Russia in the early 20th century and then spread to all former USSR cuisines including Ukrainian. Since then Shuba (literally: fur coat; colloquial name for dressed herring) is rightly considered to be national Ukrainian dish.
Shuba is multicomponent dish. Its main ingredient is herring of spiced salting covered with layers of different vegetables: onion, potato, carrot and beet root. It's better to serve this salad in deep bowls with ledges or in special serving ring.
Shuba is regularly made upon standard recipe that is seldom changed in order not to break the harmony of taste. However, some housewives add grated apple to the dressed herring salad, and the combination of sweet and salty gives the dish piquant taste.
Ingredients
Herring 700 g
Onions 1 pieces
Boiled potatoes 3 pieces
Boiled beetroot 3 pieces
Carrot 2 pieces
Egg 2 pieces
Mayonnaise 200 g
Cider vinegar 2 tbsp
Salt to taste
Stages of cooking
1
The spiced salting herring is traditionally used for salad. Cut the head, end, fins off. Make a lengthwise cut along the belly and discard the guts.
2
Make a cut on the herring’s back and peel the skin from each side. Widen the back’s cut and divide the herring into two pieces. Then discard the herring spine starting from the end and remove all bones.
3
Boil the potatoes, carrot, beetroot, and eggs until cooked through. Peel them and grate coarsely in separate bowls.
4
Dice the herring fillet.
5
The salad is made in layers. If the bowl is tall, it is possible to repeat all the layers once more taking into account their succession. The first layer is a herring. Put it in the bottom of a salad dish.
6
Then put the onions, and potatoes. The potatoes’ layer could be dressed with mayonnaise or crisscrossed with fine strips of mayonnaise in order to reduce the fat content of the salad.
7
Then put the carrot, dress with mayonnaise, follow with beetroot layer, and the one again dress with mayonnaise.
8
Decorate the salad with finely grated eggs, or egg yellows. Put the salad into the fridge for one night.
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It is very delicious and easy-to-cook traditional Transcarpathian dish. Usually it complements the meats. The salad can be cooked beforehand as it might be stored in the fridge in a sealed glass jar.
It is a tasty and nutritive salad, which requires only three main ingredients. It will be a great scarlet decoration at any table and will diversify the everyday fare. The finished salad can be dressed with ground walnuts.
