Simple and Tasty Potato Salad

A Potato Salad is a staple side dish for any picnic or summer lunch here in the South. It has been done 1001 ways to Sunday, with each recipe having more ingredients than the last. Well, I for one am a fan of simplicity and enhancing the existing flavors, rather than the addition of new flavors. Well, this is one of my favorite potato salads and it is also one of the most simple recipes that you'll find.

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Serves 6

Skill Level: Beginner

Ingredients

• 4-6 Idaho potatoes (depending on size)
• 4 eggs
• ½-¾ cup mayo (See mayo recipe album)
• ¼ cup yellow onion, small dice
• ¼ cup pickle relish (not pictured)
• Yellow mustard
• 1 dash of Tabasco (not Pictured)
• Smoked Paprika (for color and garnish)
• Salt 
• Pepper
• Garlic salt

Tools Needed

• Chef's knife
• Birds beak paring knife or a standard paring knife
• Medium stock pot
• Small sauce pot

Large dice potatoes (1"x1").

Salt the potatoes and cover with water. Bring to a boil.

Cover potatoes with water and turn to high heat.

Boil potatoes until the smaller pieces fall apart, but the larger pieces are still fairly firm.

Drain potatoes.

Note: Do not run cold water over the potatoes

In a small sauce pot, place eggs that you have allowed to reach room temperature. Just cover the bottom of the pan with white vinegar and about a teaspoon of salt. 

completely cover the eggs in water, as in, no part of the egg is exposed to air, but only just covered as you don't want to dilute the vintager and salt solution to much.

Bring to a boil. When boiling, cook for 12 minutes.

Note: the salt add flavor to the egg white and the vinegar preservers the color of the yolk.

After 12 minutes, pour the hot water out and run cold water overt the eggs. In only a few moments, they';ll be cool enough to handle.

Tap each end of the egg on the counter, then gently roll the egg back-and-fourth until the shell is well broken.

Peel and rinse the eggs.

As you can see, the vinegar kept the yolks nice and yellow. Medium dice eggs (½"x½").

Use a bird's beak paring knife, cut around the root onion. Leave the other side untouched, as it will hold the onion together when you dice it.

If you cut your onions like this you have a lot less waste than if you straight cut the ends off.

Cut the onion in ½, then peel. Cutting towards the root end we cut out, make slices about ⅛-¼ inch apart.

Do not cut all the back, as it will hold the onion together when you turn it to cut the other way.

Note: Notice the finger positioning. My finger tips are curled away from the edge of the knife and my thumb is tucked behind my fingers. This is the optimal hand positioning to prevent cuts

Slice the onion in the other direction in ⅛-¼ wide slices.

Mix all ingredients together in a bowl, lightly folding. If you cooked the potatoes correctly 30% should cream and the remaining potatoes will remain chunky. 

Taste and adjust the flavor with salt, and garlic salt, pepper.

Add more mayo and or mustard if you want creamier.

.

Allow to cool to room temperature on the counter prior to refrigeration.

Note: If you refrigerate hot foods that are thick, when the edges cool off, they basically insulate the warmer interior, keeping it warm for a much longer time. The warmth is a perfect breeding ground for harmful bacteria which can spoil the food or make you ill when eaten.

After cool, cover and store in the fridge and as always, it''s better the next day.






Enjoy

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Mashed Potatoes, what can be said about this dish? You almost can't have a steak with out them, kids love 'em, and they are great as leftovers. Not to mention, they are cheap and super easy to make. So throw that box of instant mashed potatoes and lets make the real deal.

Remember, you can omit the roasted garlic and have plain mashed potatoes. You can also get creative, for example, instead of roasted garlic, add some basil infused olive oil to the mashed potatoes and serve it with fish. You could add roasted red bell peppers to the potatoes and serve it with blackened pork chops. If you were having steak, you could add gorgonzola to the potatoes instead of or in concert with the garlic. You could add roasted chestnuts instead of the garlic and serve it with cornish game hens. Get creative.

Note: It is important to realize that these recipes are merely guidelines to follow. They'll taste great as they are, but I encourage you to play with them and make the recipes your own.

Note: It is good practice to read the entire recipe, while paying particular attention to the "Notes", before you try to make the dish, as there are often subtleties that can be easily overlooked, which sometimes, can make all the difference in the world for the outcome. 

Serves 2

Skill Level: Beginner

Ingredients:

5-6 large Idaho potatoes, peeled. 

Note: You can use whatever potatoes you like and you don't have to peel them if you don't want. Yukon golds and red bliss are great substitutes.

• 3 doz cloves of garlic
• 1 pt heavy whipping cream
• 1 stick of butter
• Kosher salt
• Pepper

Tools Needed: 

• Potato peeler
• Oven safe sauté pan
• Stock pot
• Colander
• Ricer
• Tin foil
• Knife

Pre-Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Salt your potatoes.

Cover potatoes with water and place on high heat. You want to add enough salt to the water, so that you can just BARELY taste it. 

Now, in an oven safe pan, pour in salt until it is about ¼ inch deep.

Place the garlic in tinfoil and put on top of the salt.

Note: The salt insulates the garlic from the metal of the pan as it heats up, preventing the garlic from burning as it is roasted.

 Place garlic in oven. This can take a long time, depending on the amount of garlic, so you may want to roast the garlic a day ahead of time.

Expect it to take 45-1 ½ hours. You want the garlic to have a dark caramel color when done.

Check on the garlic every 15 minutes after the
first 45 minutes have gone by.

Put 2-3 cups of heavy cream and a stick of butter in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer then remove from heat.

Note: If you empty out your cream container, place it in a warm spot for a few minutes and you should get an extra tablespoon or two of cream. 

Drain the potatoes.

Using a ricer, smash the potatoes.

Add about ½ of the heavy cream/butter mixture to the potatoes. Then using a whisk, mix in. Now, add a little cream at at time, whisking in thoroughly. You do this so that you can reach the maximum creaminess without turing it into cream of potato soup. 

Note: You want the potatoes to be just a little looser than you like, as they will thicken a bit when they start to cool.

Now add salt and fresh cracked pepper (yes, fresh cracked pepper really does make a big difference) to taste. 

Note: Don't be surprised if it takes more salt than you think to get a good flavor, this is just the nature of potatoes.

After an hour or so, the garlic will look like this.

Note: The darker the garlic, the sweeter the flavor.

Purée the roasted garlic into a paste and add the the mashed potatoes. Add as much or as little as you like. I love garlic so I added it all.

Note: you can make extra and keep in the fridge for weeks. It comes in handy flavoring certain dishes and dips.

Enjoy