This recipe comes from Potato Salad: 65 Recipes from Classic to Cool. At one point in this book the authors note that potato salad is as American as apple pie. Thankfully they leave it at that. Because I am a sports researcher, it drives me absolutely bonkers when I read somewhere that something is “as American as baseball and apple pie.” In case you didn’t know (and on the slight off-chance that you actually care), baseball actually originated in Canada. So while it may be the great American pastime (and gridiron football will start hemming and hawing to be noticed at this point), it ain’t American.
I don’t, on the other hand, know anything about the origins of potato salad. Sorry ’bout that. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that potato salad came from wherever it is that potatoes are indigenous.
Okay enough blather. You want a recipe. Of course I left the recipe book at home and I’m at school so I’m guessing on the measurements from my photographs. It’s not like potato salad is an exact science.
Start with 2 pounds new potatoes. Plop those babies in a pot, cover them with water, and boil them until they are nice and yielding when you stab them with a sharp knife. Not that most squishy things don’t yield when you stab them with a sharp knife. And I don’t really like the turn this post is taking … So on that note, drain the cooked potatoes and let them cool until you can handle them without burning yourself.
Chop the potatoes up into halves or quarters or thirds (whatever works for the size of your potato) and plop those in a bowl.
Take 1 stalk celery, with all the objectionable bits cut off, and chop that up for the bowl.
Then take a TINY onion. You can see the scale. I have tiny munchkin/carnie hands, so objects in photo are smaller than they appear.
Because the recipe calls for only 1/4 cup chopped onion and that’s a very small amount. Stick that in the bowl as well.
You’re going to need 1/2 cup green peas. I thawed these from the freezer. So much for market fresh!
You’re going to need 1 hardboiled egg, as well. I don’t care how you get it, but once you have it, peel it and chop it up and add the bits to the bowl.
Chop up some fresh herbs, about 1 tablespoon chives and 2 tablespoons parsley.
How I love chopping herbs! Well except thyme. That sucker’s a real pain.
So that’s all the bits, in the bowl. Except the herbs.
Now the dressing is something unnecessarily confabulated, like 1/2 cup sour cream, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1 tablespoon greek yogurt, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and 1/2 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Or whatever the stuff in that wee bowl looks like to you.
Now, toss everything together and store in an airtight container in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight) to let the flavours blend. Then eat your face off!
Ali Does It Herself 