German Potato Salad

Potato Salad #3 of the 2017 season - a classic in my family, German Potato Salad which is served WARM. Yes, warm! With a simple vinaigrette dressing and loads of onions. Oh, the memories - many meals around the table with this salad as the centrepiece. Only once was it a complete disaster, in my young minded opinion, the time mom was in the hospital for surgery. My sister and I were about 12-13 years old and with mom being a full-time homemaker, even though I was pretty keen on experimenting in the kitchen, both Andrea & I had no idea how to put a full meal on the table for my hard-working dad.

Being a meat-and-potatoes kinda guy, dad knew enough to start with a bunch of cooked potatoes, and decided to make up one of these salads. Dad loved his alliums and wow, he really added the onion AND garlic to this salad. It was such a heavy raw garlic flavour! But we didn't care, we ate it anyway knowing it would at least satisfy the hunger! Boy, we sure missed mom! 

So here's how I make it with no recipe at all. 

1. Start with a 5 lb. bag of yellow-fleshed potatoes. Yukon Gold are pretty much the only ones you can get in the Fraser Valley. The flesh is buttery soft and sweet, close enough to the authentic European yellow potatoes. 

2. I cooked up the entire bag - skin on, of course. I always try to cook up enough food to last for at least a couple of days so I have something to take for lunch at work the next day. 

Always use yellow-fleshed potatoes, i.e. Yukon Gold - the smoothest, butteriest potatoes! 

3. When fork- or knife-tender, strain off the water, leave lid off and let cool enough to handle. An hour or so is enough time.

4. Peel all the potatoes and slice into bite-sized pieces. Now, this is "tricky" because you don't want to CHOP and you don't want to DICE the potatoes as you might for hash-browns. NO!

Slice off bite-sized pieces, turning the potato as you go - about 1" in size and thinly sliced 

This process took me a while because I used the whole 5 lb. bag! My dog Tess was my faithful companion (as always) waiting for tidbits of potato skins to drop her way "accidentally":

5. Once that job is done, chop up 1 medium-sized onion into small pieces, as small as you can.

Tip: Peel & cut onion in half then rinse under cold water for a couple of seconds to reduce the eye-watering scent of the onion. 

Like this: 

6. Next up is the dressing: 

For the whole 5 lbs. of potatoes I used about 3 oz. each of a good vegetable oil and white vinegar. Lemon juice is a great substitute if you don't want to use or don't have vinegar on hand. I also added about 1 oz. of warm water. 

Remember the potatoes were cooked in their skins in unsalted water so you have to add a good amount of salt, at least 1 tsp. or more; and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper, or to taste.

Mix together well - adjust liquid ingredients as needed to make the potatoes "speak to you". Yes, this is what mother always said, "Potato and pasta salads should TALK to you. Then you know you have the right amount of dressing." "Talking" means make a wet sound as you stir it. It should make noise as you stir. 

Completed salad

Ta-da! Yum! To go with the salad I fried up a package of Tofurky wieners:

And added some sliced yellow & red peppers that needed to be consumed. Here's the dinner plate complete with fresh chopped chives & cilantro.

Serve with a side of coleslaw or just like this. And don't forget the mustard! 

Guten Appetit!