Salata De Boeuf - cooking recipe

Ingredients

2 -3 lbs boneless beef shank
3 large scraped carrots
1 large onion
3 celery ribs
6 whole peppercorns
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
4 whole large peeled potatoes
3 quarts water
3 medium no-garlic dill pickles
3/4 cup frozen tiny peas, thawed
1 lemon, juice of
mayonnaise
yellow mustard
vegetables, for garnishing

Preparation

Place beef shank, carrots, split parsley root, whole onion, celery, salt and peppercorns in soup pot.
Add water and cook as you would for soup.
When meat has cooked completely, remove pot from stove and strain into another pot.
Discard onion and peppercorns.
Remove meat and vegetables to large plate.
Remove all visible fat and gristle from meat while it is still hot.
Then cool completely and chill meat and veggies, preferably overnight.
While these are cooling, cook the whole peeled potatoes in the soup stock until just done, taking care not to allow them to become mushy.
Remove from soup and chill.
When meat and vegetables are cold, cut all into small dice, no larger than 3/8\".
Place in mixing bowl.
Finely chop dill pickles and add to meat mixture together with thawed peas.
Squeeze lemon juice over all.
Taste, and add salt if required. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste and mix well.
Now add enough mayonnaise just to bind the ingredients together.
Spoon out mixture onto oval serving platter and shape with back of spoon or spatula into oval shape about 2\" thick.
Mix a small amount of mustard into 1/2 cup mayonnaise to color it somewhat and frost the meat mixture with this.
Decorate the salad with cut vegetables like slivers of green pepper, strips of wilted chives, slivered olives, or simply with fluffs of parsley.
Chill till serving time.