What’s For Dinner? v 21.15 Potato Salad

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Facebook Share on Bluesky (Opens in new window)Bluesky Share on X (Opens in new window)X Share using Native toolsShareCopied to clipboard Save 13 Comments Add Daily Kos to Google Behold! A Potato Salad!Casey Rooney, getonmyplate.com In the spirit of Diogenes, I posit that mashed potatoes and gravy is a potato salad. After all, a salad is just mixed ingredients with a dressing. And a potato salad is potatoes with a dressing. And isn’t gravy just a hot dressing?

Therefore, if it has potatoes and some sort of dressing, it’s a potato salad.

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Joking aside, there are infinite ways and combinations of ingredients to put together and call a potato salad. But, all you really need potatoes and a dressing.

So first I want to talk about my Mom’s potato salad. She made it the same way for decades, and I grew to absolutely love it. She only used 5 or 6 ingredients:

She would boil the potatoes whole with skins on. When they cooled, she’d scrape the peels off, then dice them. Then she would throw them in a bowl with green onions, a bunch of parsley, and some chopped up hard boiled eggs. Then she’d start mixing in the mayo. She used Kraft, so she would at times add a small bit of mustard–just to take some of that unnatural white of Kraft mayo off or to give the smashed egg yolks a little bite. I think she also added a bit of black pepper, too. She would smooth the top of the bowl, then garnish with sliced hard boiled eggs and a sprinkle of pepper and nutmeg.

That was it. When she took it to office type functions, everyone raved about it. I know when Mom made it, she was constantly tasting. I think her secret was that she figured out the perfect balance of tastes and textures. There was the perfect textural balance between the potatoes, eggs, green onions, mayo, and parsley; and the earthy, tangy, sharp, herby, and sweet tastes also equally balanced. It was just the most ordinary of ordinary potato salads, but it always tasted way more elevated and refined than anything in the store or at a restaurant.

And that was Mom’s potato salad. Now it’s time for my story.

So, as I talked about last week, I needed something light-ish not only in seasoning but also in how it settled in my tummy. And then I hit on a simple potato salad idea that worked super well. Here’s what I used:

First I did the corn. I minced up the shallot and garlic while the butter (Yes, the whole stick) was melting in a pan. When the butter was melted, I added the corn, seasoned with a bit of black pepper, and set the stove to high to evaporate the water. Once the corn was frying and starting to caramelize, I added the shallot. When that started getting soft and some color, I added the garlic, turned the heat off, and let it get cool. The corn and shallot absorbed a lot of the butter, so it wasn’t swimming in a pool and didn’t make things too greasy at the end.

I diced the potatoes into the size of the crab meat chunks, and boiled them in lightly salted water. When they were done, I drained them, put them in a bowl, and tossed with the shiro dashi. Only a couple tablespoons for two pounds of potatoes. And as the potatoes were hot just out of the water, they absorbed the shiro dashi wonderfully.

As the potatoes cooled, I took the crab meat chunks and put them in a colander to drain off excess liquid. Then I chopped the chives and dill. To the now cooled potatoes I added the corn and fake crab and mixed. Then I added the chopped dill and chives and mixed those in.

Finally I added the mayo a bit at a time. I started with close to what I think I needed, then added just enough to barely coat everything. Which is THE key secret to using mayonnaise as a salad dressing.

And it was GOOD. All those umami components mixing together, not too salty, the slightest hint of butter, and different textures. The dill and chives weren’t finely chopped, so they gave a little vegetal crunch when I ate them, and the corn, while not crispy crunchy, was caramelized and firm and had some chew to it. And the corn also complemented the textures of the crab meat and potatoes. Each with its own bite to it.

I had originally planned to add cucumber to it, but I forgot. And I’m glad I did. This was a perfect mix. And I used the cucumber with mayo and some tuna. Next time, and there will definitely be a next time, I’m definitely going bigger, with more potatoes and more fake crab.

And I’m already thinking variations. I mean, if you start with potatoes and mayonnaise, the possibilities are endless.

But as I mentioned, anything with potatoes and something that can dress those potatoes classifies as a potato salad. Like pommes persillade, for instance. Crisp up the potatoes in butter, and that butter, plus the parsley and garlic, become the dressing. Roast up some diced potatoes and toss them in wing sauce–potato salad. Poutine? Potato salad. Chili cheese fries? Potato salad. Loaded baked potato? Deconstructed potato salad.

As far as tonight’s WFD, I had some boneless pork shoulder country style ribs. I decided to dice them into cubes, season and roast them, then pair them with some buttered homestyle egg noodles and sauerkraut. I should be good with that, as long as I keep an eye on how much black pepper and butter I use.

Tonight, let’s see if we can make each other “ooh” and “aah” with super surprising, inventive and otherwise fantastical interpretations of potato salad.

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