Happy New Year 2022! I want to share the dishes from our table this year. I hope you will enjoy and find the following ideas and recipes helpful.

As always, cooking, recovering, and posting after the holidays takes time!

We had all of the European Delight dishes this year after buying the key ingredients (seledka, caviar, cod liver, beef tongue…) at the local European store!

Lots of salads and seafood dishes are usually what I make for New Year’s!

I usually spend a day brainstorming and narrowing down my long menu plan. Murphy’s laws come in handy, always.

Nothing is as easy as it looks. Everything takes longer than you think. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

Then I start decorating the dinner table and deciding which recipe will look best in which serving dish.

I write down notes and place them on each plate. I love selecting different shapes and sizes of plates to create interest and harmony on the table.

My main objective is to create a pleasing-to-the-eye atmosphere, that is casual and elegant at the same time.

New Year’s Dinner Menu 2022

Salads

Boiled potatoes with butter and dill

Beef tongue sandwiches

Chicken liver pate and bread slices

Bread with butter and red caviar

Main

Baked Scallops in shells

Shrimp and Scallops Scampi

Pasta

Lobster tails and broccoli

Rice

Dessert

Ricotta Chocolate Cake

Fruit

Candy

Shuba salad

Shuba is a traditional New Year’s Salad that I make every year slightly different. You can see my previous presentations here:

New Year’s 2021

New Year’s 2020

New Year’s 2018

Christmas Dinner 2016

This time I’ve decided to serve Shuba in these beautiful Martini glasses.

How to make Shuba

It’s challenging to give precise measurements since I make it different sizes every time. You will need to estimate how big or small you want your salad to be and have enough ingredients ready.

From the bottom, let’s start layering.

Seledka thinly sliced
Marinated onion
Grated or chopped potatoes
Grated carrots
Mayo
Grated Beets
Mayo
Grated egg whites
Mayo
Grated egg yolks (or combine egg white and yolks with mayo and spread evenly)

Decorate as you like.

Again you don’t have to follow this exact order, you may want your beets mixed with mayo to be your top layer.

There are so many variations of this popular salad, have fun layering it.

Vinaigrette salad

Vinaigrette Salad (Vinegret, Винегрет) – vibrant, fresh, and healthy!

This salad is even more delicious cold the next day after it has absorbed all the flavors.

This classic festive ruby-colored salad is made with beets, potatoes, carrots, sauerkraut, and onion.

HOW TO MAKE COD LIVER SALAD

I don’t have exact proportions, but here are the layers. Mayo, is just a very thin layer, just for flavor and to hold it together.

Shredded potatoes
Cod liver
Mayo
Thinly sliced cucumber and green onion
salt/pepper
Mayo
Grated egg whites
Mayo
Grated egg yolks

Decorate on top as you like.

Previous presentations:

New Year’s 2020

New Year’s 2021

Olivier salad

How to make Delicious Salad Olivier

2 pounds potatoes, boiled, peeled, and finely diced
3 eggs, hard-boiled, finely diced
1 onion, finely diced
3/4 cup mayonnaise
3 small dill pickles, finely diced
1 cup canned peas or frozen peas
carrots (optional)
dill, minced
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients, and add more or less of the ingredients to taste. Enjoy!

Seledka selection and Boiled potatoes

Another New Year’s classic dish. We bought this selection of different seledka at the local Euro Deli, and I boiled young potatoes and served them with butter/oil, garlic and dill.

Beef tongue sandwiches

Since we bought delicious rye bread and beef tongue at the Euro Deli, I’ve decided to make sandwiches.

Beef tongue sandwiches:

Bread, beef tongue, inside mashed eggs with mayo/mustard/dill. On top, sliced cucumber and tomato.

Easy!

Chicken liver pate

Usually, my mother-in-law brings her delicious chicken liver pate, but a few times, we bought the one you see below at Sprouts Farmers Market and really liked it.

Bread with butter and red caviar

Another Classic New Year’s favorite: good quality bread, butter, and red salmon caviar!

Baked Scallops in shells

Baked Scallops in shells. Scallops baked in their shells with white wine, garlic, Parmesan, and fresh herbs… Yum!

Baked Sea Scallops are a simple yet elegant meal with a fantastic flavor.

I bought these special Nantucket Seafood Natural Baking Sea Shells, 5-Inch, Set of 4 on Amazon.

How to make Baked Scallops in shells:

Ingredients:

sea scallops
3 tbsp. soft butter
1 tsp. minced garlic
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. parsley, diced
2 tbsp. white wine
1 tbsp. parmesan grated
1 lemon, sliced
fresh parsley for garnish

Bake in the preheated at 400F oven for 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of your scallops.

Shrimp and Scallops Scampi with pasta

This is my mother-in-law’s favorite dish and I always make it for the holidays!

You can see how easy it is to prepare them here.

Ricotta Chocolate Cake

This Ricotta Chocolate Cake is the most delicious Italian-inspired dessert. The rich Ricotta provides the cake with perfect moisture and density, and the Chocolate adds so much to the flavor! It’s like a combination between a cake and a cheesecake.