Sprat abundance
The topic of our article is salad with sprats: a recipe for “Fish in a Pond” and other goodies. Just some 30-40 years ago, jars of this small smoked fish were a delicacy that our parents had great difficulty getting for the holidays. Each sprat was carefully taken out of tin cans and placed in saucers, surrounded by slices of the then rare lemons or seedless olives.
Much has changed since then, stores are filled with once-scarce products, and salad with sprats has become completely familiar to us. The recipe for “Fish in a Pond” is simple in its ingredients. But the dish itself is cute in design and very tasty. You will only need 2 carrots, 3 potatoes, 4 eggs, a jar of canned food and a packet of mayonnaise. Plus 100 grams of hard cheese. And also lettuce leaves.
Salad with sprats “Fish in the Pond”. Photo
I offer you another option for preparing the “Fish in the Pond” salad with the addition of canned corn and pickled cucumbers.
Ingredients:
- Potatoes – 2-3 tons,
- Sprats – 1 jar,
- Processed cheese – 1 pc.,
- Canned corn – 30 gr.,
- Pickled cucumbers – 1-2 pcs.,
- Blue food coloring,
- Eggs – 3 pcs.,
- Mayonnaise,
- Green onions and parsley.
Fish recipe
How is this salad with sprats prepared? The recipe for “Fish in a Pond” looks like this: boil carrots and potatoes in salted water. Then peel and grate on a coarse grater. Finely chop the hard-boiled and peeled eggs. Mash the sprats with a fork, just don’t forget to leave 5-7 pieces whole for decoration. Place lettuce leaves on plates. They will serve as decoration. And now lay out the salad with sprats in layers.
The “Fish in a Pond” recipe recommends starting with canned food. Distribute the mashed sprats evenly in the shape of a circle. Make a mesh of mayonnaise on top. The second layer is potato. You can sprinkle it with ground black pepper and lightly pour sprat oil over it. And again mayonnaise. The third should be carrots. Lightly salt it and also season it with butter and mayonnaise. Next are eggs, a layer of Provencal and grated cheese. Now attention: you need to decorate the salad with sprats. “Fish in the pond” - it’s not for nothing that the dish is called that. Using the handle of a teaspoon, carefully make holes in the salad and insert whole fish into them, tails up. And between them or in place feathers of green onions or sprigs of dill or parsley. Well, is it effective? And very tasty too!
Salad “Fish in the Pond” with pickled cucumbers – recipe
Boil the potatoes in their jackets. Hard boil the eggs in a separate pan. Peel the potatoes and eggs. Then grate the potatoes using a medium or coarse grater. Take out the yolks. Crush them into crumbs. Grate the egg whites, processed cheese and pickled cucumbers on a medium grater. As in the previous recipe, you need to set aside a couple of sprat fish for decoration, and grind the remaining fish with a fork until it becomes a pate.
The salad is laid out in layers in this order. The first layer is sprats, then potatoes. Potatoes are smeared with mayonnaise. Next, add canned corn, pickled cucumbers, and yolk crumbs. Again, everything is coated with mayonnaise. The next layer is processed cheese.
The most interesting part remains - decorating the salad. To imitate a pond, you need to tint the whites with blue dye. Dissolve blue dye in a small amount of water. Place grated whites in it and leave to sit for literally 5-10 minutes. Place the whites on napkins. Dry them slightly.
Cover the salad with them. Next, decorate the salad with fish, onions and parsley. Enjoy your meal. Salad “Fish in the Pond” with sprats, corn and pickled cucumbers is ready. If you like salads with canned food, I also recommend making a layered salad with sardines and beets.
Canned salad
The next dish for our holiday table is a salad with sprats and peas. It also includes 2 large potatoes, several tablespoons of pickled or salted mushrooms, canned green peas, 1 onion, mayonnaise for dressing. Cut the sprats into small pieces. Boil potatoes in their skins, cool, cut into cubes. Chop the onion into thin half rings. Cut the mushrooms into strips, after rinsing them and throwing them in a colander. Combine products, add peas. Pour over sprat oil and season with mayonnaise. Stir. It would be nice to decorate the dish with halves of pickled plums, and you can serve it on the table. This dish will also be in great demand.
Culinary pranks
You have already learned how to prepare the “Fish in the Pond” salad. The step-by-step recipe clearly demonstrates that there is nothing complicated about it. Special efforts need to be made only when preparing a cold dish.
As already mentioned, there are other options for preparing this salad. Let's look at another time-tested recipe.
Compound:
- 1 can of sprats in oil;
- one head of red onion;
- canned green peas - 1 can;
- 0.1 l mayonnaise;
- carrots - 1 root vegetable;
- 0.2 kg of crackers;
- 1 fresh cucumber;
- chicken egg – 3 pcs.;
- greens - to taste.
Preparation:
- You can use store-bought crackers or make them yourself from stale bread in a microwave oven or oven.
- Open the jar of sprats, take them out of the oil and place them on a plate.
- As you already know, a few pieces need to be put aside. Then we will use them to decorate the dish.
- Mash the remaining sprats thoroughly with a fork and combine with crackers.
- Mix well.
- Boil carrots and eggs.
- Peel the boiled carrots and cut into small cubes.
- We do the same with eggs.
- Finely chop the red onion with a knife.
- Wash the fresh cucumber thoroughly.
- Using a vegetable peeler, remove the skin and chop the vegetable into cubes.
- Strain the juice from canned green peas.
- Combine all ingredients in a deep salad bowl.
- Mix and season with mayonnaise.
- We level the surface of the salad and stick the previously set aside sprats into it.
- Decorate the dish with chopped dill and parsley.
On a note! If you are worried that the crackers will not soften, add a little oil to them that contained the sprats. But keep in mind that such a dish will turn out fattier and, accordingly, higher in calories.
Fish and vegetable platter
A salad with sprats and corn may taste unusual to you. However, once you try it, you will become a devoted fan of the snack. Moreover, the food consists of a large number of vegetables, which means it is very healthy. Ingredients: 2 boiled potatoes and 1 carrot and 1 turnip each (just don’t take the kind of turnip like in a children’s fairy tale - 1 small or half a medium one is enough for a salad!), several pickled or fresh cucumbers, a jar of canned corn. Cut the sprats into pieces. Boiled vegetables - cubes, cucumbers - thin slices. Combine the products, add salt and pepper, season with mayonnaise. Separately boil 1 egg. Cut it into slices, and cut the cucumber into elongated oval pieces. Place the salad in a mound, garnish with an egg and cucumber, let the dish brew for a couple of minutes and try it!
Preparation
1. Wash the lettuce leaves and place them in bowls or on portioned dishes.
2. Grate the boiled potatoes on a coarse grater.
3. Place a layer of canned Sardines in Oil on top of the potatoes. You can use any canned food you like: sprats, sardines, tuna or krill meat. If the canned food itself is salty, then it is not necessary to salt the remaining layers of the salad.
4. Remove the shell from boiled chicken eggs. Rinse them thoroughly in water and separate the whites from the yolks. Crumble the yolk onto a layer of canned fish.
5. Grate the whites on a fine grater and mix with mayonnaise - you are also free to choose it to your liking!
6. Cover the salad with a layer of egg whites and mayonnaise. Try to lay it out so that the layer of yolks is not visible at all.
7. Remove the sprats from the oil and dry them carefully with a paper towel, and then stick them into the protein layer.
8. Decorate the salad in a circle with sprigs of parsley or dill to make the “pond” look more elegant, and place viburnum or cranberries on them.
9. Let the dish soak in the refrigerator for about 30-40 minutes and serve.
And again the mushroom theme
A wonderful variety of canned fish snack is a salad with sprats and potatoes, stewed mushrooms, eggs, pickles and green onions. Approximately 300 gr. Boil fresh mushrooms in salted water until tender. Then cut into thin slices and simmer them in white sauce. Boil 3 potatoes, peel the skins and cut into cubes. Chop the sprats and cucumbers into pieces. Hard boil 4 eggs. 3 crumble. Chop a small bunch of green onions. Combine the ingredients into a salad with sprats and mushrooms, add salt to taste and season with mushroom sauce. If there is not enough, add a little mayonnaise or sour cream. Cut the remaining egg into circles or slices and decorate the salad with it on a plate. Slices of red and yellow tomatoes or rings of sweet bell pepper would also look good here. Sprinkle the salad with parsley. Let all the ingredients soak in the dressing and hurry up to enjoy a wonderful meal!
Step-by-step recipe with photos
First of all, we need to think about the design of this dish and choose a plate. After all, that’s the whole point. Of course, you can put this salad with sprats on a flat plate, but “Fish in a Pond” is somehow more associated with depth, so you should take a deep plate. Looks beautiful in glassware, and even better in crystal plates. I think you still have such wonderful, expensive sideboard decorations from the Soviet past. Let's take them out of there and put them to use for their intended purpose, because the dishes were originally created to be eaten with, to be served on the table, and not just admired through the glass of a cabinet. The time has come for crystal plates to go into everyday life. On the New Year's table they will look impressive and shimmer with all their facets, making everything around more festive.
Let's start cooking.
Boil the potatoes in their skins, cool and grate. Salt and grease with mayonnaise. This will be the first, bottom layer of our salad.
Cut the onion into cubes, grate the carrots. Place in a frying pan with vegetable oil and fry until done. Allow the fried vegetables to cool completely and place them on top of the potatoes. Lubricate with mayonnaise.
Now you need to open the sprats and drain the oil from them. Leave a few pieces for decoration, and mash the rest of the fish with a fork. Lay out the next, third layer. Let's not forget about mayonnaise.
Grate the cheese.
First boil the eggs hard, peel them and grate them on a fine grater. We do not grease it with mayonnaise; those pieces of sprat that we left for decoration should be used. Insert vertically into the salad and decorate with green onion feathers. And you can serve it to the table.
As you can see, there is nothing complicated, just 20 minutes of your time and the delicious holiday salad “Fish in the Pond” with sprats is ready.
