Let’s talk ‘tater salad
Hello! Guest blogger Nona from The Happy Wag here. And I have a confession.
This is my ugly truth: I never liked potato salad when I was a kid.
I know. Summertime blasphemy!
It was probably because my mother’s version was really more like mashed potatoes with mustard and chives. I don’t like mashed potatoes (blasphemy again, I know); I prefer baked or crispy fried potatoes.
My lack of love for tater salad always made me a one-off at most summer cookouts.
As I got older and more adept at cooking, I figured out a way to make potato salad that I really liked, and it is now a year-round favorite at my house.
This is a recipe for baked potato salad that I made up from the inspiration of a few other similar recipes. That’s a nice way to say I shamelessly stole parts of it from a variety of sources, including a Nashville restaurant and a few celebrity chefs on Food Network.
Below is my recipe for baked potato salad. Tell us how you like your potato salad.
Individuality RULES: I do not follow directions to the letter, so feel free to adjust this according to taste. A little more of this, a little less of that, no-way-I’m-putting-that-in-because-my-kids-will-never-eat-it, whatever.
This makes enough for the average family of four. Double or triple if you are taking it for a cookout there will be more people who love potato salad (that would be almost every cookout I’ve ever attended.)
Ingredients:
* Pound or so of wee potatoes (redskins or Yukon gold or a combination) sliced into 1-inch chunks.
* 4 ounces of sour cream (or more if you like your salad more creamy)
* Handful of chives, chopped into tiny bits (I use kitchen scissors, EZPZ)
* Half cup of bacon bits (real bacon is best; you can get it in the salad dressing aisle if you can’t fry your own)
* Half cup of shredded cheese (I use Colby Jack, you use what you like. Sharp cheddar would be awesome)
* Three tablespoons (or more to taste) of Kraft’s Light Creamy Caesar salad dressing (or make your own, Martha Stewart)
* Tablespoon of raw onions, chopped into teeny tiny bits
* Teaspoon of dried oregano
* Teaspoon of garlic powder
Put the chopped taters into a pot of lightly salted water and bring to a boil. Let them boil for about two minutes or so, until they are just fork tender. Strain and pat dry. Place them on a non-stick baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray. Toss them with the chopped onion and sprinkle with the oregano and garlic powder.
I don’t salt the potatoes because they’ve already had a salty bath and are going to get their groove on with the salty bacon later and too much salt makes my feet puffy. I may still want to be able to wear shoes later.
Spray a fine mist of cooking spray over the potatoes (it’s like tanning spray for taters.)
Put the tray under the broiler for about five to eight minutes. Keep an eye on them to prevent burning, which happens about a half a millisecond after they get to the perfect golden color. Remove from the broiler and let the potatoes cool.
RESIST the urge to eat them all right then. (Actually, if you just want to eat them right then, these are awesome roasted potatoes. Add a little salt and pepper and have at it.)
Assuming you resisted and still want to make tater salad, continue reading:
In a big mixing bowl, whisk the sour cream and the salad dressing together (the salad dressing adds great flavor to the sour cream) and then blend in the chives, the bacon bits and the cheese. Taste it. (Don’t eat it all! Just a taste.) Add more of anything you think it needs.
Once the taters are totally cool, add them to the dressing/cheese/bacon concoction.
Taste again. Need more cheese? More sour cream or bacon? Toss it in.
Cover and keep chilled until it’s time to share with others. Enjoy.
June 13, 2011 - 1:35 PM
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I am not a potato salad fan either. I’ve learned as I got older some of it was OK though. This looks like a great recipe! (and may I add I love reading your recipe because it reads the way my family gives recipes…)
Thanks, Nikki
I grew up on my German grandmother’s vinegar-and-oil based potato salad, and I just can’t get a taste for the American mayonnaise version. Sad to say, I can’t reproduce hers either.
The best recipe for is to go to the Roanoker, buy a bucket, take it home, eat.
Dug up about a dozen baby reds yesterday afternoon. Gonna try this recipe this weekend. Sounds awesome.
Kristen, Joy of Cooking has a recipe for German potato salad that calls for vinegar and a little bacon fat. It also calls for bacon, onion cooked in a little of the bacon fat, chopped dill pickle and a little sugar. The dressing is heated and the salad is very good. I grew on German potato salad and other goodies from my own German grandmother.
Growing up, I thought potato salad was ok. And then I had my mother-in-law’s. She uses red skin potatoes (leaves the skin on, of course), chops up some hard boiled eggs, and adds green onion, celery and lots of good creamy stuff – not sure if it’s mayonaise or sour cream or both. Either way – it’s amazing.
My mother’s was the best – mayonnaise, a bit of onion, vinegar, sugar, salt, celery, that’s it, simplicity itself and heavenly.
I love German potato salad, love the vinegar and bacon.
I’m also a fan of the basic American tater salad. I prefer dill pickles in mine instead of sweet, and saw this tip in a cooking magazine a few years ago. Right after draining your boiled potatoes, put them in a bowl and toss with 3 Tbsp of dill pickle juice. You can add a little mustard to the juice if you like. Let the potatoes soak for 20 minutes to absorb the juice. I always save a jar of pickle juice, after the pickles are gone, just for potato salad use.
Just a question, is it the consistency of mashed potatoes that you don’t like?
I like potatoes in any way, shape and form, but I dearly love mashed potatoes made with real cream and butter.
Debbie: I think it’s the consistency. I make great tasting mashed potatoes with cream and butter. At least, the people who eat them tell me they taste great.
Tammy: I leave the skin on my potatoes too.
My family makes an american-style potato salad but we prefer it served warm. We don’t heat it up after it cools off, but when it’s freshly made with hot potatoes, man it’s so good.
We use russets or yukon golds, peeled and cubed into 1″ chunks and boiled or steamed til fork tender.
Add 1 large onion, finely diced, and 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped. My mom and grandma added pickle relish (I don’t care for the texture of the pickles so I leave that out).
Then add a big dollop of Hellmans mayo and a generous squirt of yellow or brown mustard and mix gently. Don’t want to smash the potatoes! Season with salt and pepper and paprika.
I find that the mix of mustard and mayo gives a good balance of flavor – my mother in law used only mustard and it was way too tangy for my palate.
I figured it was the consistency, Nona. I’m not a big oatmeal fan for the same reason.
I’m off work today and shall be making some potato salad.
Also not a fan of oatmeal.
This recipe from the Food Network for warm German potato salad is really good.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/warm-german-potato-salad-recipe/index.html
That recipe is awesome Debbie!!! But it should include a line about opening all you windows when making it since the vinegar vaporizes and fulls your house with noxius gas. Tastes fantastic though…worth the trouble!!
Ha ha, Cole! Agreed, it is fantastic.
My son in law made some blackened fish one time while visiting, and almost choked us out of my apt!
YUM! This looks great, Nona! Having spent the last two weeks in colder climes, returning to summer in Virginia makes me crave cookout food like potato salad. My grandmother’s version was heavy on the mustard; my mom likes to make a version we stole from a guy my sister dated a long time ago, which has red-skinned potatoes, bacon, boiled egg, red onion, green onion, parsley and a mayonnaise base. If I recall correctly, it does not even have mustard. Both are great! I guess you could say I am not hard to please when it comes to potato salad, except I really do not like the cheap, super-mustardy storebought version with tiny little gray potato chunks. Yick!