The Ultimate Potato Salad

There are a few staples that you will always find at a South African braai: pap, sous, greek salad, garlic bread and potato salad.  This is my ultimate potato salad recipe.  Even my German friend loves this and we all know that Germans know a thing or two about a great potato salad!

Even though potatoes are a big staple in South Africa, my mind was blown when I saw that in the UK there is such a great big variety of potatoes!  I mean, there are salad potatoes, baking potatoes, potatoes that are only good for mashing, potatoes you should only roast or boil or fry and don’t forget the precious Maris Piper.  In SA we only have potatoes.  When a wife sends her husband out to buy potatoes, she doesn’t need to worry that he might bring salad potatoes when she has mashed potatoes in mind.  We just have two kinds of potato:  a 5kg bag or a 10kg bag.

Up until my teenage years I have never seen potatoes in smaller quantities.  That was until the very posh Woolies Food started to stock these baby potatoes; ready washed and buttered.  Then the Spar also followed suit to sell these teeny-tiny, extremely expensive, ready washed, buttered and herbed bag of baby potatoes.  We never thought this fad would actually take off.  Why would you only buy 200g of potatoes?  Who is going to eat and who is going to watch them eat?

And it is not for the faint-hearted either:  At first you have to make sure you can carry the 10kg bag from the car to the kitchen (over the shoulder is best!).  Then you have to battle your way into the strong paper bag by either slicing it open with a sharp knife or risk breaking a nail as you dare to untwist the metal wire that keeps the opening securely shut.  Either way you are hoping that none of them has gone off since there are few things smelling as foul as a rotten potato…  Once the bag is open and all the potatoes are good they need a good wash to get the dirt off.  Only now that you are about to use the said potatoes will you know what they are good for!  Some will cook away until it is just a mushy mess, others will never soften no matter how long you cook them for.  But, when you get a good batch, they are great, versatile and oh so delicious as a salad.

 

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Ingredients

Dressing:

4 tbsp	Mayonnaise
4 tbsp	Plain greek yoghurt
1 tsp	Dried mixed herbs
1 tsp	Mustard seeds

Salad:

500g	Baby new potatoes
2	eggs, hard boiled
1	small red onion
150g	smoked bacon cubes
50g	chives
100g	cheddar cheese, cubed
50g	gherkins
	Salt and black pepper

Method

Dressing:

Mix and set aside

Salad:

1. Boil the potatoes until tender.  Once cooked, set aside to cool.
2. Hard-boil the eggs, peel and set aside to cool.
3. Fry the bacon until crisp then set aside to cool.
4. Dice the onion, cube the cheese and chop the gherkins.
5. Chop the eggs once cooled.
6. Once all the ingredients has cooled, combine in a bowl with the dressing and season to taste.
7. Spoon into a serving dish.
8. Take a pair of scissors and snip the chives over the top.

 

Enjoy as a side dish at a braai or with delicious homemade burgers.