Amerca's Test Kitchen "Dish It Your Way" blogger challenge #2: Potato Salad

This is America’s Test Kitchen “Dish It Your Way” blogger challenge #2.  The subject: potato salad – an American summer classic.

I’m known in my family as being one who likes to cook.  I like to experiment.  I take recipes and deviate; sometimes it works, sometimes not.  I once tried “relooking” Thanksgiving dinner with disastrous results.  I learned my family is not “okay” with grilled apples with couscous, and I had to remake everything in the tradition fashion just to please some at the table.  I’ve learned there are some things you just don’t mess with.  So, I am a bit hesitant to “relook” a potato salad.  There are hundreds of variations of this dish, but one has a solid idea of what is coming to the table when the menu is announced.

Christophe had some elaborate ideas for this challenge: fried potato “nests” filled with rougaïl; mille-feuilles of potato and cucumber in mayonnaise, and even something that resembled a dinner more found in a mountain ski lodge than at a barbeque in the back yard.  I look back at my Thanksgiving dinner catastrophe as learning moment; potato salad is convivial, social, and to me, something served family style.  It does not need to be overworked and should not be served with grilled apples and couscous.  A classic is a classic for a reason, and its purpose shouldn’t change.  Potato salad should gather people happily around the table, feed them, and leave them with a good memory of the day.  It shouldn’t have your family asking, “And the normal potato salad, where’s that?”

Potato Salad… with a Mediterranean twist

·         1 pound small, whole new potatoes

·         1/3 cup mayonnaise

·         2 Tablespoons lemon juice

·         1 garlic clove, minced

·         ¼ cup kalamata olives, rinsed and coarsely chopped

·         2 Tablespoons capers, rinsed and coarsely chopped

                        Make sure both are well rinsed to avoid excess salt.

·         3 hard-boiled eggs, coarsely chopped

To avoid the green ring around the yoke, cover the eggs in water and heat until boiling.  Allow to boil 1 minute, turn off heat, cover, and let rest for 10 minutes.  Then, plunge into ice bath.

·         ¼ cup finely diced chives

·         Dash of salt and pepper

Add whole unpeeled potatoes to salted water in a medium size saucepan.  Leave skins on to help the potatoes stay in tack during cooking.  Bring to boil over high heat.  Reduce to simmer, cover, and cook for 15 -20 minutes until tender.  The potato peels should not yet be broken, but a knife should easily enter and leave the potato when pierced.

Drain potatoes and allow to cool.  Slice into quarters.

Mix mayonnaise, lemon juice, garlic, and pepper in a medium mixing bowl until smooth.  Then, pour over cooled potatoes. Stir in olives, capers, hard boiled eggs, and chives.  Chill 4 to 24 hours before serving.

If you have a hankering for a more patriotic salad, check out wild, fresh + tasty’s red, white, and blue potato salad – she used three types of potatoes!

Interested in some chicken with the dish?  Here’s the winner from first “Dish It Your Way” fried chicken challenge.