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Yucatán's pink rusa, cubed papa, zanahoria, chícharo, and betabel bound in mayonesa con limón and naranja agria. The mandatory cold side that sits beside the cochinita and the relleno negro at every family table from Mérida to Tizimín.
This is from Yucatán. Not from any other state, not from any other country. The rusa yucateca is the cold pink salad that lives on the table next to the cochinita pibil at a baptism, next to the lechón al horno at Christmas, next to the relleno negro at a wedding. You do not eat a Yucatecan feast without it. Ask any señora in Mérida and she will tell you the same.
The Russian Salad traveled the world from late-19th-century Moscow and landed in every Spanish-speaking country with its own accent. Yucatán took it, added betabel for the color, dressed it with naranja agria instead of vinegar, and finished it with grated queso de bola, the Dutch Edam that Yucatán has been importing through the port of Sisal since the 19th century. That cheese is not a substitution. It is what the peninsula uses, the same wheel that fills the relleno negro and the queso relleno. Cada estado, su propia cocina.
The technique that separates a real rusa yucateca from a sad pink mush comes down to one rule: the beets cook separately and go in last. If you boil the betabel with the papa, you have made a uniform magenta salad and lost everything that makes the Yucatecan version beautiful. The pink should streak. The cubes should be distinct. You should see the yellow of the potato, the orange of the carrot, the green of the chícharo, and the pink bleeding through it all. That visual tension is the dish.
My mother did not cook Yucatecan food. She was from Jalisco. But I spent six weeks in Mérida and Valladolid one summer and I came home with a notebook full of rusa recipes from courtyard kitchens and birthday parties. The constants were three: separate the beets, use naranja agria, finish with queso de bola. Everything else is the cook's hand. Así se hace y punto.
The Russian Salad (ensalada Olivier) was created in Moscow in the 1860s by Lucien Olivier, a Belgian chef cooking French cuisine in the Hermitage restaurant, and it traveled through the Spanish-speaking world during the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a marker of European cosmopolitan dining. Yucatán adopted and naturalized the dish during the henequen boom, when the Yucatecan elite of Mérida looked to European cuisine for prestige while their cooks adapted every borrowed recipe to peninsular ingredients: naranja agria in place of wine vinegar, queso de bola in place of Gruyère, betabel as a distinct addition rather than the European Olivier's pickled cornichons. The dish became a fixed companion to the celebratory meats of Yucatán's mestizo cuisine, cochinita pibil, lechón al horno, pavo en relleno negro, where its cold sweetness and creamy bind balance the smoky achiote and the heat of habanero.
Quantity
2 pounds
peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Quantity
1 pound
peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Quantity
3 (about 1 pound)
scrubbed with tops trimmed
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
or frozen petite peas, thawed
Quantity
1 tablespoon, plus more to taste
Quantity
1 1/2 cups
Quantity
1/4 cup
Quantity
3 tablespoons
or 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
Quantity
1 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 teaspoon
Quantity
1/2 small
very finely diced
Quantity
1/4 cup, finely grated, plus more for serving
Quantity
for serving
Quantity
for serving
sliced thin, on a side plate, for the table
| Ingredient | Quantity |
|---|---|
| yellow waxy potatoes (papa amarilla)peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes | 2 pounds |
| carrots (zanahoria)peeled and cut into 1/2-inch cubes | 1 pound |
| medium beets (betabel)scrubbed with tops trimmed | 3 (about 1 pound) |
| fresh shelled green peas (chícharos)or frozen petite peas, thawed | 1 1/2 cups |
| kosher salt (for cooking water) | 1 tablespoon, plus more to taste |
| mayonesa (Mexican-style, McCormick or Hellmann's mayonesa con limón) | 1 1/2 cups |
| crema mexicana | 1/4 cup |
| fresh naranja agria juiceor 2 tablespoons fresh lime juice plus 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice | 3 tablespoons |
| kosher salt (for the dressing) | 1 teaspoon |
| freshly ground black pepper | 1/2 teaspoon |
| white onionvery finely diced | 1/2 small |
| queso de bola (Edam) | 1/4 cup, finely grated, plus more for serving |
| pickled habanero and red onion (cebolla morada en escabeche) (optional) | for serving |
| chile habanero (optional)sliced thin, on a side plate, for the table | for serving |
Place the whole scrubbed beets in a saucepan and cover with cold water by two inches. Add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook for 35 to 45 minutes, until a knife slides into the center with no resistance. Cooking the betabel whole and separate is not optional. If you peel and cube them raw and boil them with the potatoes, every vegetable in the pot turns magenta and you have made a different salad. The pink in a rusa yucateca is earned at the end, not by accident.
While the beets cook, place the cubed potato and carrot in a separate large pot. Cover with cold water by two inches and add the tablespoon of salt. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat and cook for 10 to 12 minutes, until a fork passes through the potato cleanly but the cube still holds its shape. Test one. If it falls apart on the fork, you have gone too far. Drain immediately into a colander and spread the vegetables on a sheet pan to stop the cooking and let the steam escape. Wet potato makes a sad rusa.
If using fresh chícharos, blanch them in salted boiling water for 2 minutes, then shock in ice water. If using frozen petite peas, a quick rinse under cold water is enough. They are already cooked. Drain well. The peas keep their bright green color and their bite, which is the whole point of including them. Mushy peas in a rusa are a sign the cook stopped paying attention.
Once the beets are tender, drain them and rinse under cold running water. The skins will slip off with a paper towel or your fingers. Wear gloves if you do not want pink fingers for the rest of the afternoon. Cut the peeled beets into the same 1/2-inch cubes as the potato and carrot. Uniform cubes are not vanity. They are how a forkful gets every ingredient in one bite, the way a Mérida cook would serve it.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the mayonesa, crema, naranja agria juice, salt, and black pepper until smooth. The naranja agria does the work of vinegar here. It carries that bitter-floral edge that defines Yucatecan cooking, the same juice that wakes up cochinita pibil. If you cannot find naranja agria, the blend of lime and sweet orange gets you close. Bottled white vinegar does not belong in this salad. No me vengas con atajos.
Add the cooled potato, carrot, peas, and the finely diced white onion to the bowl with the dressing. Fold gently with a rubber spatula until every cube is coated. Now, and only now, add the cubed beets. Fold them in with just a few strokes. You want streaks of pink running through a salad that is still mostly white and yellow and green, not a uniform fuchsia paste. The pink should look like it bled in slowly, the way it does on a Mérida table. Stir the grated queso de bola in last.
Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, preferably 4. The salad needs the cold to set up and for the flavors to marry. Serve straight from a Ticul-red clay bowl or a glass jar, with extra grated queso de bola on top and the pickled red onion and habanero on the side. This is the cold side that sits next to cochinita pibil, lechón al horno, or relleno negro at every Yucatecan family meal. Recetas probadas y garantizadas.
1 serving (about 285g)
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