Fish in an Overcoat

Christnas Cactus 11 24 2015

The next round of #christmascactus holiday presents:

RantWoman is deeply amused with the power of The Cloud.

Recently while dabbling with early holiday season menu planning , RantWoman decided to look up recipes for a Russian salad called Fish in an Overcoat or, if the translator's command of English is less than fully idiomatic Fish Under an Overcoat.

It was late at night and RantWoman had already put her computer to bed, so the search was by Smartphone.

RantWoman had a definite sense of messing with her search engine's mind. RantWoman definitely thinks the linguistic possibilities would make for some premium quality bad science fiction dialogue.

RantWoman's first foray into search engine output based on Fish in an Overcoat yielded all kinds of things, none of them edible. RantWoman tried again Fish in an Overcoat Russian Salad. The search results also reminded RantWoman that the particular form of overcoat referenced is more a fur coat, just in case anyone needs more holiday absurdism

Bingo!

But too much for RantWoman to want to mess with on her phone that late. Off to bed, and when RantWoman logged in the next morning on a bigger device, there her search was again without RantWoman having to do anything except start to type something in the search bar.

RantWoman thinks she is supposed to feel spoiled. RantWoman actually feels experimental. Here for instance is an excellent food porn display followed by a pretty standard recipe.



Fish in an Overcoat Salad
garnished with sliced egg and surrounded by fresh parsley.
 

Russian Herring in a Fur Coat salad

And, True to RantWoman form, she CANNOT just leave well enough alone.

Ferrener Husband boils everything including eggs for slicing or dicing in one pot.

Ferrener Husband puts layers of minced dill pickle, diced hard-boiled egg, and maybe scallions above the fish layer.

The boiled and grated vegetable option is definitely nice for people with lots of dental issues, but RantWoman is tempted to experiment with roasted and chopped vegetables.

Cooks who leave well enough alone can eat their entire month's budget of mayonnaise in one multilayered sitting.

Some recipes usse a layer of sourcream instead of one of the layers inside of mayo.

RantWoman is meditating about whether to try a mix of yogurt and light sour cream, perhaps with fresh dill.

RantWoman MIGHT blend a tablespoon or so of Wasabi mayo into the mayo for layering, though probably if some bite were wanted, it would be moretypically Russian to add grated horseradish.

But maybe one is only supposed to do this much messing with greatness if one wants, say, to create a giant gastronomic discussion to distract one's gathering from, current politics, low oil prices, things getting shot down, .... RantWoman doe  not automatically think it's a cook's job to help out in this area and remains intrigued enough by her ideas to try them for the right audience.