Speaking of potato salad...

[nancya]

...I was wondering, in a "traditional" potato salad, are you pro or anti-mustard?

I am emphatically anti-mustard.

[Isa]

I prefer potato salad with vinaigrette. If it happends to have mustard I'll take it, if it doesn't I'll still eat it. Guess that puts me in the in between category.

[Kimmie]

Pass the mustard! Definitely...Grey-Poupon!

[lynne]

Mustard -- in a cooked dressing -- the only way!

[Mezzaluna]

No mustard if it's the yellow kind! I'm a mayo fan, myself, but I do dash in some dry mustard. I haven't made it in a long time, but I've also used some capers along with minced celery, onion, and a small amount of chopped, fresh dill. The rest is only potatoes and HB eggs. No relish, no peppers for me!

Ah Spud salad.....seems I have a curse with potatoes for life! Have put potatoe salad thru so many tests...mashed or cubed....cold or warm....red or white potatoes...I work on a set of 4 month long menus changed 3 times a yr and have to serve "hot potatoe salad" twice a month to a thousand "army brats"
have tried many different ways to sell the hot salad and find the most popular is made with mashed potatoes with a mixture of both mayo and vinagrette they don't like the red potatoes as much as the white..it give the look of moms salad with a different bite... but in cooking for just me and my baby...I like a nice honey mustard put into it.

[MikeLM]

A little different spin- we have come to like our cold potatoes with garlic mayonnaise. The basic recipe is from "Tapas- the Little Dishes of Spain:"

3/4 lb red potatoes, peeled, diced 1/2", steamed until firm but tender.
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup mayo
2 Tbsp chopped parsley
Mix garlic, mayo, parsley, and stir into the cooked potato cubes.

HOWEVER

If you double the garlic, put 2/3 of it into a small dish, cover with olive oil, and cook two times for 25 seconds each in the microwave, add a squeeze of lemon juice, some salt and pepper, and mix everything, you get something MUCH better. We don't peel the potatoes, either.

This trick of cooking 2/3 the garlic to deepen the flavor, and leaving 1/3 raw for the bite, makes a big difference in every garlic-laden preparation we've tried.

It was described in an article in Cook's Illustrated, and it's a real breakthrough, as far as I'm concerned. That magazine's a great cooking resource in my opinion.

Mike

[Pastachef]

Honey mustard in potato salad? Spinin, I never heard of that one and it sounds wonderful! What else do you put in it? Actually, could you give me your exact recipe? It always tickles me when I come here to Cheftalk and learn some seemingly small thing that becomes big news at home and on the job

[nancya]

I agree with you Pastachef! Honey mustard does sound interesting and I'd like the recipe too. Also, Garlic mayo sounds so good. Love the garlic!

But Mezz.....no pickles? Oh, how can you?

[ziggy]

just browsing through this morning and saw this...we had the tastiest potato salad last night, and so pretty. thought I'd share:

Purple Potato and Sugar Snap Pea Salad
1/2 pound small purple potato
1/4 pound sugar snap or snow peas
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
10 fresh basil leaves, sliced thin
salt and pepper to taste

Boil pototaoes and slice lengthwise. Blanch sugar snap or snow peas.

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy!

The original recipe called for mint...I didn't have any so used the fresh basil instead. Imagine it would be excellent with the mint as well.

A touch of mustard is nice - actually Cooking Light (or Eating Well) had a really wonderful potato salad that was coarse country mustard, shallots, olive oil and parsley . . . probably a couple of other things as well, but it was delish.

A regular mayo potato salad really benefits from a shot or two of Old Bay Seasoning! (like, what doesn't?)

[Pastachef]

Old Bay does sound like an interesting addition, MaryO. I'll try that one on my college girls. They don't seem to go for potato salad no matter what I do or don't do with it, but there are some new things on this page for me to try. I hope Spinin sees this page soon and gives us the recipe for honey-mustard potato salad

[W.DeBord]

I've always used a dash of mustard, not enough to notice for most palates. Mike I will definately try your recipe, sounds great. I had some at a Tapas bar that sounds exactly like what you described.

The best potato salad I had was simple and supprising good I'd never have added those condiments myself but they did work well together. She used chopped tomato, chopped pickle, chopped black olives, red new potatos, salt & pepper, mayo and green onion.

I make a pig of myself with german potato salad, that's a big big hit in my family!

[MikeLM]

Pastachef:
DO NOT use my garlic potato salad recipe for your college girls. It will color their relations with the opposite *** to the point they may wind up as nuns. (Unless they can hold their breath for two or three hours of an evening.)

On the other hand, they may weed out the turkeys and get through to a guy who thinks garlic is one of the finer things in life, and an appropriate basis for a really long-term relationship.

It worked for me!

On edit: We seem to have a REALLY sensitive automatic censor going here. The dirty word vaporized by the editor referred to GUYS (hope that gets by) which are usually considered the opposite *** (I censored myself) to the college GIRLS you work with.

Hope I didn't offend anybody!

Mike

[ September 03, 2001: Message edited by: MikeLM ]

[Athenaeus]

Forget about mustard in the potato salad and try some dried estragon!
I hope you use it in the States!