The First Beets into Shuba

I spent some time in Russia after high school, and this salad takes me straight back.  I adore it on a summer's day with sourdough bread and butter or cheese and a cold beer.  It goes very well with peas of any kind, and sometimes there were peas in the salad, too, in Russia.

For dessert with this shuba, we had a strawberry pie that was divine.  It's this "French" one (a retro Bisquick recipe gussied up with "French").  I used my own tart crust and brushed simple syrup over the berries because I didn't have apple jelly. I'm absolutely going to make this again with whatever fresh fruit is around.

Shuba can be a strange-looking salad if you're not used to violet-colored mash (it's very hard to photograph, by the way).  And you probably should like strong fish in order to like this salad.

I feel a little rustic when I eat this salad, like I should be wearing a dirndl beside a mountain lake with a kerchief on my head and a basket in hand for berries.  I have a clear memory of visiting a friend's dacha (summer house) beside one such lake in the sunshine.  We biked around and swam in the sharply cold water, and then she served us scrambled eggs beside garden zucchini and tomatoes with hot chocolate in a mug. That food tasted like nectar, and years later, I finally understood that the flavor came from the perfect day, from the lake and the pine trees and the little yellow dacha.

Shuba
2 large potatoes
2 large beets
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup mayonnaise, divided
2 3-oz. tins kippered herring or sardines, preferably in oil (bonus points for smoked fish)
1/4 cup minced onion
1/4 cup snipped fresh dill, or 1 1/2 Tbsp. dried dillweed, divided

Place potatoes and beets in baking pan, cover, and bake until soft (about 350 for 1 hour; to shorten the cooking time, slice in half first and place face down).  Or use leftover cooked potatoes and beets.  Allow to cool until you can handle them.  Mash the potatoes (you can peel them if you want) with a potato masher onto a shallow serving bowl, dinner plate, or glass baking dish.  Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Dollop on 1/4 cup mayonnaise.  Mash or mix again.  Flatten.  Lightly break up the fish and sprinkle evenly over the potato layer.  Sprinkle with onions and half the dill (how I wish I had fresh dill!  Mine gave up the ghost in the hard winter).  Slide the skins off the baked, cooled beets.  Grate.  Sprinkle the grated beets  over the fish/onion/dill layer.  Dollop on the rest of the mayo, 1/4 cup, and use a spatula to spread over the beets; a lovely lavender should emerge from the combination of beets and mayo. Sprinkle with remaining dill. Cover.  Refrigerate at least three hours before serving.