Red Potato Salad

Degree of Difficulty: Easy
Prep Time: 10 min
Total Cook/Assembly Time: 45 min

I think that a good red potato salad is an ideal side dish to serve along with anything BBQ’d. Here’s how I make mine:

2 lbs red potatoes – rinsed and diced
3 eggs
1 cup mayonnaise**
1 1/2 tbsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp half-and-half or milk
3 tbsp white vinegar
1/2 cup green onions – thinly sliced
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup celery – also thinly sliced (this is optional. I’m not a huge fan of raw celery but some people like it alright. The salad does fine without it, but if you like the celery crunch, go ahead and add it)

First you’ll want to rinse the potatoes to remove any dirt. After the potatoes have been rinsed, dice them up. I like a 1/2″ dice. Place the diced potatoes into a large pot, then fill the pot with cold water (enough to cover the potatoes and then some) and bring it to a boil, uncovered. When the water comes to a boil, add a few tsp of salt. Cook the potatoes until they are fork-tender, then drain and set aside.

While the potato water is boiling, add the whole eggs to another smaller pot, cover them with cold water, and bring to a boil. When it boils, cover the pot, turn off the heat and let the eggs sit for 10 min so that they hard-boil. Then take the eggs out of the water, cool them, peel them, and chop them. I like to my eggs to be a bit on the rough-chop side of things.

In a mixing bowl, combine the mayo, mustard, half-and-half (or milk), vinegar, green onions, salt and pepper and mix until smooth. Pour this mixture over the potatoes and chopped egg. I like to use a spatula so that I don’t do too much damage to the potatoes. Cover the potato salad with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours before service. Before serving, taste it to see if any additional seasoning is needed.

**Note: If I have the time, I prefer to use homemade mayonnaise in my potato salad. It’s really easy to make your own mayo, you just need time and patience. Take 2 egg yolks, 1 tbsp lemon juice, a pinch of cayenne pepper and whisk to thoroughly combine the ingredients. Use a large enough bowl so that you can really get the whisk going. Next, slowly begin whisking in 1 cup of canola oil. You’ll want to start out adding the oil in 1 tsp increments, ensuring that it has been whisked into the yolk base thoroughly before adding the next tsp. Once half of the oil has been added, you can up the oil additions to 1 tbsp at a time, whisking constantly between each addition. And that’s pretty much it. See, I told you that you’d need patience and time (and a fair amount of endurance as well). It is also a good idea to have some water on hand; if you’re mayo is too thick, just a small shot of water will do wonders for it. Also note that you might not need the full cup of oil. Ultimately, feel free to add as much oil as you like…the more oil you put into the mayo, the lighter in color and taste it will be. Once your mayo has reached the desired consistency, you may need to correct the seasoning with salt and/or additional lemon juice. A bit of freshly chopped dill or garlic also goes a long way here.