How Much and How to Boil Vegetables for Olivier: Chef's Tips 0 9

Essential Ingredients for Olivier

For classic Olivier, potatoes, carrots, and eggs are boiled, mayonnaise is purchased, canned peas are added, along with a bit of greens (green onions, dill, and parsley to taste), and enough salt and pepper, while the base is usually meat or fish.

The filling for Olivier can vary: you can make Olivier with squid, shrimp, crab, brisket, roast beef, chicken, ham, sausage, or fish, such as catfish. You can even recall the classic salad recipe by Lucien Olivier with crayfish tails and lanspik.

Adding apple, cucumber, or other ingredients is a matter of taste. Mayonnaise can be made at home — this will make the salad much tastier. If someone doesn’t like fatty foods, the salad can be dressed with either sour cream or a mixture of mayonnaise and sour cream to make it lighter.

How to Choose Vegetables for the Salad

The basis of the familiar version of Olivier is boiled vegetables: potatoes and carrots. You should choose firm, non-soft vegetables that are not wilted or sprouted. There should be no damage on the surface.

Choose vegetables of the right shape and approximately the same size so that they cook for the same amount of time; otherwise, some will be undercooked while others will be overcooked.

Young potatoes should not be boiled: they cook quickly and do not hold their shape due to low starch content.

How to Boil Potatoes for Olivier Salad

Be sure to boil the potatoes in their skins. If you boil peeled potatoes, they will lose their flavor. Additionally, the root vegetable in its skin will hold its shape well and will be easier to cut, and the flavor after boiling will become well concentrated.

The water must be salted so that the vegetables absorb the salt. You should not cut the potatoes; otherwise, all the flavor will escape into the broth and water, and you will end up eating bland vegetables.

There is no fundamental difference whether you place the potatoes in boiling water or bring them to a boil in cold water. Usually, chefs toss the vegetables into boiling water if they want to blanch them. After boiling, the vegetables should be cooked over low heat.

How many minutes to boil potatoes for Olivier depends on their size. You always need to watch and control — this is part of the cooking process. On average, the tubers are boiled for 20 to 40 minutes after boiling. To check for readiness, pierce the potato: if the tip of a knife or fork easily and gently goes into the vegetables, they are ready.

How and How Long to Boil Carrots

The same rules apply to carrots as to potatoes: the vegetable is boiled in its skin in salted water. You need to ensure that the vegetables are completely submerged in water; otherwise, they may not cook properly.

The boiling time depends on the size and ripeness of the carrots. On average, boiling will take 20–30 minutes.

Then you need to let the vegetables cool, and after that, you can work with them: either cut them directly into the salad or store them in a container.

Can You Boil Potatoes and Carrots for Olivier Together

You can boil potatoes and carrots together, but you always need to check them: some may cook faster, while others may take longer — it depends on the size of the products. Choose vegetables of approximately the same size; the potatoes can be slightly smaller.

After boiling, the carrots and potatoes need to be cooled and peeled with a peeler. This is much more convenient than peeling with a knife.

There are now a huge number of kitchen helpers: special cutters that chop vegetables into cubes through a special press. This is convenient and saves time on cutting. All pieces will be uniform and beautiful, saving you time, plus different attachments provide different cuts. They are also used in restaurants because it reduces time.

Roasting Vegetables Instead of Boiling

When roasting, moisture is lost, and the flavor of the product changes slightly: it becomes concentrated and richer. But overall, there is not much difference between roasting and boiling.

For roasting, take carrots and potatoes of the same size and place them in a preheated oven at 180 °C. There is an interesting technique where the baking tray is covered with coarse sea salt, on which the vegetables are placed. They bake for 40 minutes to an hour.

Checking for readiness is very easy: pierce with a skewer; if it easily goes into the product, then it is ready, and you can take it out and cool it.