Chapter 9 - Pickled Herring on Toast, Salmon Koulibiac, "Russian Salad," and Apparently Some Russians Drink Rum

Book:  War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Recipes:  Blue Hill Bay Pickled Herring
Trout Koulibiac
Russian Salad

Music:  A Russian Weekend - Various Artists

Pickled Herring on Dark Wheat Toasts

(I did not pickle my own herring)

I bought a jar of Blue Hill Bay Herring Fillets in Wine Marinade and I cut up some Dark Wheat bread and it was delicious.  Interestingly sweet and surprisingly tasty.  After the toast was gone, Samantha was eating it with a fork from the bowl, it was that good.

Salmon Koulibiac

Ingredients:

2 Salmon Fillets

2 Hard Boiled Eggs
1 cup of cooked long grain rice

2 Bunches Green Onion (sliced both white and green portions)

Large bunch of Fresh Dill

1 Lemon (zested and juiced)

Box of Puff Pastry

1 Egg (beaten for glaze)

If you are going out to see some friends at an open mic before dinner and don't want to eat at midnight, I suggest prepping your filling ahead of time.  Add half the dill to the water and steam the salmon for just about 4 minutes.  Don't listen to any web site that says you have to (over)steam your salmon for 10 minutes, it won't ruin it, it just won't be nearly as tasty.  Flake the salmon,  and mix everything together in a big bowl to await your return.  And don't, as I did, forget to boil the eggs, because that will spoil your whole plan for getting that prep work finished ahead of time.  If  you have a faithful kitchen friend named "biscuit Ben," ask him kindly to boil the eggs for you, then crumble them and add them to the mix.  When you are ready to bake, use one sheet of puff pastry for the bottom.  You are supposed to roll it out - I don't have a rolling pin and couldn't use my grandmother's "Vodka bottle as a rolling pin" substitute because my vodka bottle has chocolate drips all over it - so I just oiled a baking dish and threw the sheet in there and that worked fine.  Spread the salmon mixture evenly over the pastry, leaving room at the edges to seal it.  Assemble the top, pressing the edges together and brush with the beaten egg.  Bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes until golden brown. 

A note about looking for fresh, skinless trout fillets in East Harlem.  Don't bother.  The original recipe called for trout, which I really wanted to try, but there is only one fish market in my neighborhood and no trout to be found and only salmon steaks with the skin on.  I ended up buying frozen fillets in individual sealed packages.  It was fine.

 "Russian Salad"

Ingredients:

2 cartons of grape tomatoes (because they are the only ones that are red right now)

3 cloves garlic

1/2 Vidalia onion

1/2 Cup sour cream

Salt pepper to taste

Slice tomatoes into chunks, press garlic, and chop onion finely. Add sour cream and salt and pepper. Mix well and chill. Let stand long enough for flavors to blend.  If you are not a big onion person, don't add the whole onion, it's really oniony.  But tasty and a nice, creamy accompaniment to our Koulibiac.

Some suggested variations to the Koulibiac:  Sam thought Feta would add nicely to the mix and I think some white sauce or alfredo-style sauce would complement it deliciously.  I think you could use the alfredo sauce especially if you used a regular pie crust, which would give you more of a pot-pie taste to it.  I imagine you could substitute any other sort of shredded meat as well, if you are not a fish lover.  Also, if you have any leftover filling when you are done, I think it would be great mixed up with mayo in pita bread.

About the book:  Apparently, the Russian aristocracy was even more "French" than I realized.  At one point, an awkward son of our social grasper wished to tell a story at a party and insisted on it being spoken in Russian, but he spoke haltingly "as a Frenchman might, who'd lived in Russia for a year."  I also read about the other son, Anatole, who was a "rake" about town and threw drunken card parties every night before visiting the brothels.  He had a friend who made a bet that he could climb out on the roof, drink an entire bottle of rum (not vodka!) without taking the bottle away from his lips and without holding on to anything for support.  He won his bet and he might be a quite charming addition to some of our more raucous, modern fraternity parties.

The set up of the story right now is that all the proper people are anti-Napoleon and have staying in their midst a "true" emigre from France.  Who seems to be staying there only until the Bourbon restoration comes out on top.  These folks have his and her coachmen to assist with capes and jackets, and twiddle their time away at parties praising the Czar and his family and cursing the revolutionaries.  A few "uncivilized" young persons advocate for Napoleon,  but so far they have been quickly muffled up by empty pleasantries and overzealous hostesses who speak too much French.  NB:  It is only to the revolutionaries that Pierre (a half-Italian illegitimate son) is know as Pyotr. 

About the music:  The nutcracker suite is not suggested eating music.  I believe all the comments were to the effect of "I feel as though I have to eat faster!"  We had to skip ahead to the Borodin in order to enjoy a relaxing tune with our meal.