Potato Salad

[tamouse]

The great Garrison Keillor opines that no one should buy potato salad from the store -- everyone should know how to make it. And he's right, potato salad is so dead easy that it can be done by anyone.

Ingredients

• 2 large potatoes, peeled, 1/2 inch cubes


• 2 jumbo eggs, hard boiled*


• 1/4 cup diced celery


• 2 tbsp sweet pickle relish


• 1-2 tbsp yellow mustard


• 4 tbsp mayo or Miracle Whip


• salt & pepper to taste


• a dash of paprika


• a dash of curry powder

Directions

1. boil potatoes until soft but firm (about 20 minutes). Rinse in cool water.


2. mash eggs


3. Drain potatoes (they should be no more than room temperature)


4. Combine all ingredients in a bowl and thoroughly mix together. Cover and refridgerate until ready to use (at least 2 hours).

* I hope someone has told everyone how to hard boil an egg!

Comments

[brigid]

2 things:

1) For the potatoes, you want a waxy potato and not a baking (russet) potato. Those red potatoes, or yukon gold potatoes, are a good choice. They'll cook to tenderness (you can pierce them easily with a fork or skewer) but retain firmness and not fall to pieces or get mushy, which russet potatoes often do when boiled. You might have to use 4-5 medium ones instead of 2 large ones, depending on how big they are though.

2) How to hard boil an egg:
a) put your eggs in a large pot (which has a tight fitting lid) and cover with an inch or so of cold water
b) put the pot (without lid) over high heat until the water boils
c) lower the heat until you have a medium (not roiling) boil (more than a simmer); cook for one minute
d) turn off the heat, put the lid on, let sit for 12 minutes (if you have an electric range, move the pot to a cold burner)
e) Fill a bowl with ice and water
f) after the eggs have sat in the still-hot water for 12 minutes, carefully lift them out of the water (I use a slotted spoon) and put them in the ice water bath until cool.

Because I'm kind of anal, I'd mix all the dressing ingredients together before adding the potatoes. I hate getting, say, a big chunk of yolk in a forkful of potato salad.

Thanks for this recipe! It looks good. A lot of people don't add mustard to potato salad, but it adds a LOT of great flavor and depth.

[tameiki]

Your recipe looks yummy and very nearly like the one I use. We prefer a "not sweet" version so instead of using sweet pickle relish, we use the dill pickle relish. Change the curry powder to a heavy dash of dill and you have a whole different flavor :)

Thanks for sharing!

[redsnake05]

I love potato salad in summer. So delicious. Instead of making a mayonnaise dressing, I sometimes just mix some plain unsweetened yoghurt with chopped spring onion and chives, and sour cream is very popular as a dressing round here.

[tamouse]

Great point about what kind of potatoes to use. I prefer the new red potatoes, personally. Sometimes I even leave the skins on for something different!

Since this is about people who burn water, one clarification:

"put your eggs in a large pot (which has a tight fitting lid) and cover with an inch or so of cold water"

That's an inch OVER the TOP of the eggs, folks!

Also: good mention about mixing all ingredients before adding the potatoes. As you can see in step 2 of my OP I make sure the eggs are well mashed up before combining things, but first mashing the eggs, then combining all ingredients save potatoes is a good addition as well. (I think that's actually how I did it last time, anyway.)

[tamouse]

I have done this with dill relish as well, and even thrown in the dash of either crushed dill seed or dill weed instead of the curry powder. My family's taste tends to favour the sweeter variety so that's what I usually do.

But, yeah!! This is such an easy recipe, it can be a springboard for all kinds of shenanigans. If you're just a beginning cook, this is an easy place to start experimenting! Paprika, pimento, chopped green olives, no eggs, tofu for the adventurous, different kinds of potatoes (blue potato salad, anyone?), red onions, green onions, chili powder, ... -- you can go wild here!

[tamouse]

Good adds! My family is from the Midwest and of Scandinavian extraction, so Miracle Whip is the dressing of choice in many of our salads. However, having lived elsewhere where tastes aren't so "Midwest" I appreciate the use of yoghurt as a dressing.

[tameiki]

Okay, now you've done it. You've made me hungry and I just finished eating dinner! Lol.