Potato Salad I Finally Like

I have always thought that most potato salad is pretty bland.  Including any I have attempted to make.  Recently I saw a cooking program and they were making chicken salad.  They added sour cream to the mayonnaise, to cut the richness of the mayo.  I tried it, and it was pretty good.  So I figured it would be good on potato salad too.  I made it, and I liked it a lot better that way.  But now I have one more ingredient to add, and it really makes it tasty.  It is Irish Stout mustard.  Delicious.  And even if you don't typically like mustard, try this.  There is a sweetness to it that I love.  Now I have a potato salad dressing I actually like.

Here are the ingredients I used, but there are so many veggies you can add.  It is all a matter of taste.  This one is very basic. 

Yukon gold potatoes

Red onion

Celery

Fresh Parsley 

Mayonnaise

Sour cream

Irish stout mustard

Kosher salt

Fresh ground pepper

I forgot to mention the hard boiled eggs.

I want to steer you to a new blog I am enjoying. It is called The Reluctant Gourmet. It is a great blog, and this link will get you to a great list he created for ingredients you may want to try with your next chicken salad, or potato salad for that matter.

I started with 4 good sized Yukon Gold potatoes. In my opinion these are the best potatoes for potato salad. They are not quite as starchy as Idaho, and they are delicious. Cut the potatoes up into bite size or a little larger pieces. I didn't cut these small enough, but I remedied the problem later.  Place the potatoes in cold water in a pot and bring to a boil.  When they come to a boil, salt the water pretty heavily.  Maybe a couple of teaspoons.  Cook them until they are fork tender.  This can be a little troublesome to figure out what fork tender should be.  How do you know when they are fork tender, or are just about to fall apart, which you don't want.  I will actually test them with a fork, and if they seem tender, I will take one out and cut off a tiny piece and eat it.  If the texture is pleasant, you are done.  If it still seems a tad hard, boil a little longer.  Just keep testing it.

 

I used a half of a large red onion.  UD and I LOVE onion, so I go quite heavy on it.  Along with 3 stalks of celery, and a couple of tablespoons of fresh parsley.  Cut these all up into a small dice.

Set them aside and you will add them a little later.

 

Now the dressing.  This is the most important part to me.  This is usually the reason that a potato salad tastes bland.  That, and not enough salt.  Any who, make the dressing in a separate bowl.  If you add the ingredients to the potatoes at this point, they won't mix together well.  I like it if there is left over dressing.  I refrigerate it and keep it for sandwiches, instead of just mayo.  So at this point I would put just about a 1 to 1 ratio of mayo and sour cream.  Maybe just a little bit less of the sour cream.  Here I probably used 3/4 cup mayo to an overflowing 1/2 cup sour cream.  And then two or three tablespoons of the Irish Stout mustard.  Add about a teaspoon of salt and some fresh ground pepper.

Mix it all together and then TASTE IT!  Sorry I am yelling, but tasting now is so important.  If it doesn't taste good at this point, it is not going to taste any better on the potatoes.  If you think it needs more of something, add just a little and mix well again.  Then TASTE IT again! 

 

Drain the potatoes and let them cool a little.

 

Remember I cut mine too big?  So at this point I put them on the cutting board and cut them into smaller pieces.

 

Then I put them in an over sized bowl, to do the mixing.  This helps in a couple of ways.  A, it allows the potatoes to cool even more, because they aren't on top of each other keeping the heat in.  And 2, you can be messy in your mixing and put it in a pretty bowl later, for a nice presentation.

 

When you add the dressing mixture, go easy on the amount.  You don't want to drown the potatoes.  You can always add more later.  Just lightly coat them at this point.

 

Cut up your perfectly cooked hard boiled eggs.

 

See posting Stinky But Delicious to see how to create the perfect hard boiled egg.

Add the eggs along with the onion, celery and parsley.  Mix everything together somewhat gently, so that you don't mush the eggs all up.  If at this point you think you need more dressing, by all means add it.  But just a little at a time.  And please taste the potato salad as you go, to see if it is to your liking.

When you are happy with it, put it in a pretty bowl.  Ina Garten from Barefoot Contessa, always says food looks pretty on white plates.  I completely agree with her, except in the case of potatoes.  So I went with blue.

I hope you like it.  Bon Apetit!

A bientot!  See you soon.