'ENSALADILLA' or LITTLE RUSSIAN SALAD

This is a very typical tapa in Spain (more accurately this is called a 'racion' rather than a 'tapa') and it was also one of the staple dishes on celebration menus when I was little.

You need:
- 2 large potatoes
- 2 carrots
- six french beans
- 2 eggs
- 1 can of tuna
- 4 tinned red peppers (preferably piquillo peppers)
- 8 green olives
- 8 pickles (acidic like cornichons, not sweet ones)
- 2 cups of mayonaise ( shop-bought or our 2 minutes mayonnaise sauce - see separate recipe)

Boil the potatoes, carrots and beans into small cubes and boil them (in water and salt) until they are tender. It should take 10 minutes for the potatoes and the carrots and 8 minutes for the beans). We boil them separately so that the flavours do not mix, but if you do not have time just boil them altogether.
Separately hard-boil the eggs.

Cut the eggs into small cubes and mix them with the potatoes, carrots and beans. Drain the tuna and add it (cut into small bits) to the salad. Then slice the olives and cornichons thinly and add them too. Cut the red peppers into small bits, add them to the salad. Finally add the mayonnaise and mix it all taking care not to break the potatoes.

Normally this is served covered with mayonnaise and with a few strips of red peppers on top (unlike in the picture - a bit too much mayonnaise for my children's taste...)