Greek Style Potato Salad

I was going to make some burgers on the grill a few days back and couldn't think of anything for a side dish. I have made my Mustard Potato Salad a few times recently, and of course my Pan Potatoes, Oven Fried Potatoes, and Grilled Potato Salad a couple of times. I know there are other things than potatoes to make as a side dish for burgers, but there was not much else fresh to make. Summer is nearly here but really wonderful summer produce is still a ways off. The grocery stores still have the same tired vegetables that have come from all over the world. Good enough I guess, but I am really craving nice fresh garden vegetables from our little Farmers Market. Not yet, alas.

Greek Style Potato Salad

So back to a side dish. Potatoes it was going to be. What to do differently? I have a recipe for a Greek potato salad that I made up quite a few years back. It was really good, using red skinned potatoes sliced thinly with skins left on. And therein lies the problem. My husband won 't eat potato skins, so that potato salad, while delicious to me, was anathema to him. I am going to make it again sometime soon regardless. It is a long time since I made that. Meanwhile, the "Greek" flavors sounded good to me. I had some Feta in the fridge, dill in the spice cabinet. Lemon is also a classic Greek flavor and I thought I would use the vinaigrette concept, but using lemon juice.

Bowing to my husband's dislike of potato skins, I baked the potatoes whole and let them cool enough to handle easily. I took off the skins and just crumbled them into a bowl with my hands. I was going for rustic instead of structured. I made the lemon and olive oil vinaigrette and used capers and the Feta cheese. Olives and/or tomatoes would also be nice additions if you like them. I do; my husband does not. I left them out.

All in all, the flavors in this potato salad were really wonderful. Everything tasted great together. I would love to have used fresh dill, but even still this was good. 

Greek Style Potato Salad

Greek Style Potato Salad

Serves about 6

2 pounds russet potatoes (5 - 6 medium)
1 teaspoon salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon dill weed or 1 tablespoon fresh
⅓ cup lemon juice
½ cup olive oil
3 scallions, chopped
1 - 2 teaspoons capers
½ cup Feta cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Scrub the potatoes well, pat dry and set them on a baking sheet. Bake the potatoes until tender, about 45 minutes. Set the potatoes aside until cool enough to handle.

In a large bowl, whisk together the salt, garlic, dill weed and lemon juice. Add the olive oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly to emulsify.

Once the potatoes are cool enough to handle, remove skins if desired, then crush the potatoes into the vinaigrette. If leaving skins on, you may need to cut them into chunks. Add in the scallions, capers and Feta cheese and toss well to combine. This potato salad tastes best tepid or at room temperature.


My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

A New Potato Salad

I had stopped getting any food magazines for a while, mainly because I wanted to spend more time inventing recipes of my own. Still, getting inspiration is helpful. I watch TV shows and get ideas. I keep a pad of paper nearby to scribble notes on ideas to try when I see something I think would be good to experiment with. It can be any aspect of a food that calls me. A mix of spices I hadn't thought of. A food addition that sounds good. And then I got an invitation to re-subscribe to Food & Wine Magazine that was just an offer too good to refuse. And shortly after, I got an even better offer from Bon Appetit. So now I am getting 2 magazines, where I had been getting only one. And I am getting more new ideas. 

In the latest Food and Wine Magazine there was a recipe for a Grilled Potato Salad. The recipe is extremely simple, and it is hard to really think of a way to make it completely my own. I did not read the recipe beyond the ingredients. It called for small potatoes like fingerlings, a vinaigrette and some scallions. This caught my attention. I love potatoes with skins. My husband does not. If I made this recipe, would I have to eat the whole thing myself? No matter how good, after 3 or 4 days, I just want something different.

Mustard Potato Salad

My regular Mustard Potato Salad recipe, which I have been making for a very long, long time, uses a vinaigrette to start the layers of flavor. I know this is not everyone's way of making potato salad, but my husband and I love the flavors, and that is all that matters. For Memorial Day, yesterday, I planned to make steaks on the grill, my Mustard Potato Salad and Mom Rawstern's Famous Baked Beans. I invited my sister-in-law and a friend she has staying with her. As I was going to be grilling anyway, I decided this would be my chance to try the new potato salad idea. This would be in addition to the regular potato salad. I figured if the new potato salad was a no-go, at least the other potato salad was there, and I know everyone likes that.

I brought up the vinaigrette because I thought since I would be making my vinaigrette anyway, I would make 1/2 recipe more and use this for the grilled potatoes. I had no scallions, though they would be a great addition whether raw or grilled. I do however have a pot of chives, currently in flower out in my sun room. I thought I would grill a half yellow onion and add that to the salad, just to see how it tasted. In retrospect, probably 1 or 2 onions would have been better. They shrink so dramatically when they are cooked. 

Grilled Potato Salad with Three Onions

The potatoes I used were small "Klondike Gourmet"; not fingerlings. I boiled them whole with a tablespoon of salt until tender, then drained and left them on the counter to cool. I sliced them in half once cooled and brushed the cut sides with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. While I grilled the steaks I also grilled the potatoes, cut side only. The onion slices were added to the grill pan and tossed until nicely charred. The whole recipe came together easily and I presented it at table. These potatoes were such a hit that my Mustard Potato Salad was hardly touched! I believe if using the tinier fingerlings, these would be an excellent addition to an appetizer party - they are that tasty! Serve with toothpicks or little bamboo cocktail "forks"

Bamboo Cocktail forks

. There is a great website called Pick on Us, that sells all sorts of bamboo toothpicks and other picks - I love it for all my appetizer needs!

I called this dish Grilled Potato Salad with Three Onions because I used grilled yellow onions, snipped fresh chives and the chive flowers. If the chives or chive flowers are not available, I would toss in some chopped scallions and some of my new Pickled Red Onion, chopped. Shallot would also be nice. Basically, the differing onion flavors and textures to compliment the grilled potatoes was the goal.

Grilled Potato Salad with Three Onions

Grilled Potato Salad with Three Onions

Serves 4 - 6

1½ pounds small potatoes
1 tablespoon coarse salt for cooking water

VINAIGRETTE:
¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper
1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced

salt and pepper and olive oil for brushing
1 - 2 white or yellow onions
chives, to taste
scallions, optional

Place the cleaned potatoes in a pot with er to cover. Bring to boil, add the tablespoon salt and lower to a simmer for 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked through. Drain the potatoes and set them aside to cool. 

Great Grill Pan

Make the vinaigrette: Place the salt and pepper with the tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the oil in a bowl and whisk them together. Add the rest of the olive oil in gradually, whisking constantly until totally incorporated. Set the vinaigrette aside. 

Once cooled, slice the potatoes in half - lengthwise and down the narrow side so you have thinner pieces to grill. Set all the potatoes cut side up on a baking sheet. Brush the cut sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Preheat a grill. Having a grill pan works wonderfully to keep all the potatoes from slipping through the grates. When the grill and the grill pan are very hot (at least 400 degrees) place the potatoes cut side down on the grill or pan. It will take at least 15 or more minutes for the cut sides to get very crispy and a little charred. Remove them to a bowl once done. 

Slice the onions across into rings about ¼ or more inches wide. Separate the rings and set them on the grill. Turn them frequently to prevent burning before they get cooked through. Once they are cooked and lightly charred in places, remove them to the bowl with the potatoes. Pour the vinaigrette over the potatoes and onions and toss to coat. Add the chives and chive flowers if available. If these are not available, slice scallions to add the gentle onion bite.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Updates & Recipes

My new Book

Starter just mixed: Day 1 and Day 2

Yesterday I wrote about my excitement with the new influx of cookbooks to my shelves, mainly about bread baking. I started out almost right away, making a "Seed Starter" from scratch. I am fishing entirely for wild yeasts to ferment my starter, so there is no commercial yeast added at all to give it a boost. The particular book I am following for this recipe (The Bread Baker's Apprentice by Peter Reinhart) calls for starting out using 1 cup of white rye flour mixed well with ¾ cup of water on the first day. He explains that there may be little, if any, activity in the first 24 hours. On the next day, we mix together 1 cup of bread flour with ½ cup of water and combine this with the mixture from day 1. There is still anticipated to be very little action in the starter after the second 24 hours (tomorrow morning). Tomorrow morning, I will discard half of the starter already made (the option being to share with a friend who is into this same thing, so they might pick up the ball and continue from this point). Again I will mix together 1 cup bread flour with ½ cup water and combine with the remaining starter. It is anticipated that this time there will be a bit of fermentation taking place. I will keep tabs on that. On Day 4 it will repeat again. For the time being, I am anxiously awaiting the wild yeasts who will presumably work their magic. For now it is a boring enterprise, but I have faith!

For now, I have a couple of recipes I wanted to post, but realized that in all the hullabaloo surrounding the arrival of 4 guys into the house for a week and the Wine Tasting Event that happened on April 12th, while I was cooking nonstop, I entirely forgot to get photos of some of my finished meals. I made a most excellent Chicken Curry one evening and Naan. Since I made the Naan breads while the guys were out fishing, I did take photos of the finished product. The Chicken Curry however, was completely gone before I realized I had no photos. I made buns and potato salad earlier in the day while they guys were fishing, so I got photos. The pulled pork was finished just as they arrived home for dinner. RI will post the recipe for the pulled pork as it turned out so very good.  My pork roast had been frozen. I left it in the fridge overnight, but it was still frozen in the center when I started the roast in the crock pot.

Pulled Pork BBQ on Homemade Buns

Pulled Pork

Serves about 8 or more

1 (4.5 pound) pork shoulder roast
1 large onion, quartered, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon coriander seed, crushed
1 tablespoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seed, crushed
1½ teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1 (12-ounce) bottle Guinness Stout or other liquid of choice
1½ to 2 cups Barbecue Sauce of choice

At around 8 or 9 AM, set the onions into a crock pot and set the pork roast on top of the onions. Combine all the spices together and sprinkle them over the meat. Pour on the entire Guinness Stout, cover the crock pot and set on High for 8 hours. If your roast is not frozen, you may set the crock pot on Low for the full time, or switch to Low about midway through the cooking time. I have a Crock Pot with a removable heavy crockery insert. If your slow cooker is thin walled, you may need to adjust cooking time.

Once the meat is cooked through and falling-apart-tender, remove the meat from the pot and set on a plate to cool slightly. If the remaining liquid in the crock pot is more than 1 cup, pour the liquid into a saucepan and cook over medium high heat until reduced to about 1 cup of liquid. Add the barbecue sauce to the liquid and stir to combine. Set aside.

Using 2 forks, pull the pork apart into ragged shreds. Add the pork to the sauce in the pan and toss well to combine. Serve on buns with a side of Mustard Potato Salad and Coleslaw.

Basic Coleslaw

Basic Coleslaw

Makes about 6 - 8 servings

8 cups shredded cabbage
1 carrot, peeled, shredded
¾ cup mayonnaise
¼ cup vinegar
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
a few grinds good quality pepper

Place cabbage and carrot in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the remaining ingredients and pour over cabbage, combining well.


If you love pasta salads, there is a recipe I made recently that is good without mayonnaise if preferred, although I do add a little for the creaminess it imparts. I do use Dijon Mustard in the salad. I note this because I have a sister who hates both mayo and mustard. For anyone out there with this same dilemma, I have no idea what I would substitute for the mustard in this recipe. Maybe pickle relish? It would need something suitably piquant to compensate for the missing mustard flavor. 

My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.

Spring is Making an Appearance

I live far enough north that I know winter is not over yet. Still, these last few days, with the temps making their way into the 50s is like a little slice of heaven after the winter that has been unlike anything I have experienced in my 64 (almost) years. While yesterday may have just squeaked to about 50 degrees, it is a hefty difference from 24 below. Walking outside in just a light sweatshirt was such a wonderful feeling. With this spring feeling in the air, I decided to dust off the grill and make hamburgers. I also decided that I would make potato salad, since I am also tired of constant oven fries or mashed potatoes.
 

Mustard Potato Salad

I have been making my own potato salad - well it seems like forever. I changed my way of making it over the years, until I have pretty much settled on a method of my own. My husband is very pleased with my potato salad, so I relax, knowing what I can do in that regard. We both prefer the mustard style, so that has become a staple. I add a few things that might be different, such as a small amount of capers and olives. My husband will not eat capers or olives. However, if they are very finely minced in a dish, they add wonderful piquancy that would not ordinarily be there. Their flavors are indistinguishable in the finished potato salad, but add something wonderful to the bland potatoes. I also add one little carrot, very finely grated, just to get some little bit of carrot into his diet. He has been unhappy about this choice of mine, as he dislikes carrots, and they are VISIBLE! Shudder! However, after a doctor consult one time, where he was urged to eat more of them, he has let up on that complaint. He may not like it, but...

Steps 1 & 2 basic ingredients for vinaigrette, with garlic

Another thing I have done over the years is to make a basic vinaigrette, which is a 3 to 1 ratio of oil to vinegar and/or lemon juice. Salt and pepper this mixture and there you have it - it doesn't get easier. Remember when making a vinaigrette, that in order to emulsify the mixture, the oil should be added slowly to the acid and whisked thoroughly before more is added (Steps 1 & 2). This vinaigrette is flavorful in spite of its simplicity, and I mix it into the hot, cooked potatoes. The potatoes absorb this vinaigrette while cooling. The basic vinaigrette would be enough, I am sure, but I am always trying things out to make something just that little bit better. And so, over time, I incorporated the mustard, a clove of garlic, the grated carrot and the capers and olives. You may be wondering about the mayo. For myself, I believe I would be happy with the potato salad as it stands. Not so with my husband, so I do add in mayonnaise, though far less than would be needed if I did not use the vinaigrette. 

If gluten-intolerance is an issue, this recipe can easily be made using vinegar and mayo that fit into your particular diet criteria. The eggs are an add-on, and if eggs cannot be part of your diet, Vegenase can be used for the Mayo part of the recipe. Or, there are many possible egg-free, gluten-free, or vegan recipes for mayonnaise out there. Some use flax as the basis, which sounds interesting to me. Flax becomes gooey and egg-like when soaked. It can be used as an egg substitute in some recipes. Another recipe I saw used sesame tahini as the base. 

All in all, though I did overcook the burgers while attending to something in the house, their flavors were heavenly, and the potato salad was just what I was craving.

Mustard Potato Salad

Makes about 8 or more servings

4 pounds russet potatoes (7 - 9 medium), peeled, cut in 1/2-inch cubes
1 tablespoon salt

Steps 3 & 4 Capers and Olives, minced

VINAIGRETTE:
¼ teaspoon each salt and pepper
2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
6 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced or through a garlic press

ADDITIONS:
1 carrot, finely grated
2 - 3 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 teaspoon capers, finely minced
6 green olives, finely minced

1 cup mayonnaise, optional

Steps 5 & 6 Mixing in the additions

1 - 2 hard-boiled eggs, sliced, optional
Paprika for sprinkling

Place the cubed potatoes in a pan, just covered with water. Bring them to a boil, add in the tablespoon of salt and lower heat slightly. Cook the potatoes until just tender, about 5 minutes, depending on their size.

While the potatoes are cooking, make the vinaigrette (Steps 1 & 2). Read through these steps carefully before proceeding:

1. In a large bowl, place the 1/4 teaspoon of salt and pepper, then ONE tablespoon of the vinegar. Add in ONE tablespoon of the oil and whisk to combine.
2. Add in TWO more tablespoons of oil, slowly, whisking to emulsify. 
3. Add in ONE more tablespoon of vinegar and the minced garlic and whisk to combine. 



Steps 7 & 8 Adding hot potatoes to the vinaigrette

4. Add in slowly, THREE more tablespoons of oil, whisking constantly to completely emulsify the mixture. This vinaigrette is perfect for any salad, at this point.

Now, mix into the vinaigrette the finely minced capers and olives (Steps 3 & 4), the carrot and the mustard (Steps 5 & 6). Whisk well to combine. Drain the potatoes thoroughly, then pour them into this compound vinaigrette and toss well to completely combine (Steps 7 & 8). Allow the potatoes to cool partially at room temperature, then cover and set them in the refrigerator to cool completely.

Before serving, mix in the mayonnaise, incorporating thoroughly. Pour the potato salad into a clean bowl, top with hard boiled egg slices if desired, and sprinkle on a little paprika for color.

Because this potato salad already had plenty of flavor without the mayonnaise, this could be used for a picnic without the fear of a mayo-based salad going bad. Another option would be to find a small, 8-ounce jar of mayonnaise, keeping it unopened until time to serve the salad at a picnic. If the unopened mayo is also chilled before using, it could keep for slightly longer. 

Any of the additional ingredients past the vinaigrette are completely optional. I do urge you to try the vinaigrette and see how wonderfully it enhances the flavor of the potato salad.



My passion is teaching people how to create a harmony of flavors with their cooking, and passing along my love and joy of food, both simple or exotic, plain or fancy. I continue my journey in ethnic and domestic cuisines, continuing my journey to explore diverse culinary experiences and hopefully to start you on a journey of your own. Join me also at A Harmony of Flavors on Facebook, and Pinterest.