A Potato Salad Saga

If your life experiences aren’t too far out of the ordinary, at least if you grew up in America, you associate potato salad with comfort food. For me, Christmas Eve comes to mind. It’s when we would open gifts and was always celebrated at my grandparents in walking distance from our home. As the big holiday meal was the next day, a buffet was laid out for munching. The star of that buffet, at least in my mind, was my Grandma’s potato salad. My mouth waters as I think about it…the tang of cider vinegar the creaminess of added thick cream, wow. It truly celebrated the simple ingredients of potatoes, eggs and onions.

I wasn’t much of a cook most of my life until inspired by the challenge of Indian cuisine. My Indian adventures in the kitchen began to pique my interest in the broader adventure of creatively combining ingredients into something greater than the sum of their parts. In all my food challenged years, though, I was known for my (my Grandma’s) potato salad. Its simplicity might have been the secret. There are as many potato salad recipes as there are American families. Many have odd and sundry ingredients like olives, pimentos, relish, pickles, you name it. And, have you ever had a restaurant potato salad beside a sandwich you’d ordered and wondered who in the world thought it had any taste worth serving? Now, I’m not going to pick on family food heritages, but my Grandma’s potato salad has never met a person who hasn’t found it’s creamy tangy simplicity delicious, and most say so. It’s like ‘the essence of potato salad’ not cluttered with odd and sundry things for reasons of texture, or color or just automatically following the family’s oft made recipe. OK, I’m not insulting other potato salad recipes by calling them cluttered but, on a consistency scale, I bet my Grandma’s potato salad would be more universally well liked than other more “kitchen sink” versions.

I think it’s partly that the onions are chopped very fine, leaving almost an essence of onion with every bite rather than crunching down on an onion chunk every other bite or so. Also, the extra eggs, it’s a very eggy salad. You don’t have to wait for the pleasure of finding an egg chunk. And then the creaminess created by that quarter cup of unwhipped whip cream (or in my Grandma’s day, thick cream delivered by a local farmer). Its creamy texture creates a pleasing sensation in your mouth unlike some, more dry, potato salads where the potatoes are separate chunks barely blended.

Now my love of my Grandma’s potato salad has kept me uninterested for many years in ever making another version. My only problem is that I can make up 5 lbs. of potatoes and eat it all myself over several days. The other day, I went to a potluck and, unbelievably, the desire to try another version of potato salad overtook me. I munched on the proffered ‘unique to my taste buds’ version and couldn’t stop munching. How unusual, how interesting. I caught myself thinking. I knew it wouldn’t have the universal appeal of my Grandma’s potato salad but it was quite the taste treat. I also knew several people, including my husband, who would really enjoy how it incorporated its unusual ingredient - wasabi. Yes, that ‘take your breath away’ green paste mostly appearing in Japanese restaurants. Interestingly, it’s something you usually really love or you really don’t love. I’ve been in the camp of not loving it a lot – but then I don’t hang out at sushi bars amidst which it appears as an accoutrement. 

Here I was, though, savoring bite after bite of this intriguing take on potato salad. What was it? I had learned with Indian cuisine that often even stubbornly intrusive ingredients like cumin added in a blend of other spices do not assault the taste buds in the same way as when alone. Yes, I could still taste the wasabi but it blended somehow with the creaminess and other flavors and didn’t assault me as it does eaten straight. I really liked the tanginess of this potato salad.

The long and short of my potato salad saga is that I actually made it, making a potato salad other than my Grandma’s for the first time in my life. It isn’t the comfort food staple that began on Christmas Eves but it intrigues my taste buds in a very pleasing way.

I requested the recipe from the gal who brought it and found that it’s available on the Internet at:  Alan Wong's White House Wasabi Potato Salad

I cut it in half and left out the chives (I didn’t want to run them down) and parsley (I could never understand it but for some sundry green color). Here is my version that I’m munching on as I type. (And because I discussed it in-depth, below it is my Grandma Allen’s Potato Salad recipe.)

Alan Wong's White House Wasabi Potato Salad My version

If you are fond of a wasabi/horseradishy tang, you will love this potato salad.

INGREDIENTS:

4 slices bacon plus 2 Tablespoons reserved drippings
1 cups mayonnaise
1 Tablespoons creamy horseradish
1 Tablespoons wasabi paste
1 Tablespoon Dijon-style mustard
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons finely chopped celery
3 Tablespoons finely chopped onion
4-5 medium Russet potatoes
(Original recipe had 1 Tablespoon chives and 1 Tablespoon parsley - I omitted)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In a medium saucepan, cook potatoes covered in boiling salted water till tender. Drain. Cool and chop into  1" pieces.

2. In a skillet, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels; reserve pan drippings. Cut bacon into small pieces; set aside.

3. In large bowl, combine mayonnaise, 2 Tablespoons reserved bacon drippings, horseradish, wasabi, mustard, salt and pepper until blended. Toss potatoes, bacon, celery, onion then stir in dressing carefully until combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Ruth Allen’s Creamy Potato Salad

(Marilyn’s maternal grandmother)

 INGREDIENTS:

1 - 5 lb. bag of Russet potatoes, peeled and quartered.
2 teaspoons of salt (for boiling potatoes)
1 large sweet onion, chopped very fine
8 large eggs, hard-boiled, peeled and chopped
2 cups of Best Foods Mayonnaise
½ cup of cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of salt

¼ cup of heavy cream or whipping cream (not whipped)


INSTRUCTIONS:

Place eggs on to boil. When they are hard boiled, peel and place them in the refrigerator to cool. (I sometimes boil them with the potatoes.)

Peel all the potatoes and cut them in quarters for boiling. Cover them with salted water.

Bring to a boil and keep them boiling uncovered for around 15 minutes keep and eye on them, a potato chunk should break easily in two when cut with a spoon or fork.)

Drain the potatoes and allow them to cool.. (Never use hot ingredients for this potato salad.)

In a food processor, finely chop the onion.

In a very large bowl, slice the potatoes and eggs, mixing chunks together but not stirring too much (the potatoes may be a little flaky.) Add the finely chopped onion, 2 cups of Best Foods Mayonnaise; slightly mix the mayonnaise into the ingredients. When the potatoes and eggs are slightly coated, add ½ cup cider vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt. Mix until all ingredients are blended. It’s very creamy. Cover and refrigerate for a couple hours or over night. Before serving, fold in ¼ cup of whipping cream.