Thursdays Are For Cooking…. Outside!!!
Baby red potatoes
We’re talking about plain old American potato salad, none of that heated German version, no Frenchified stuff: just plain old potato salad that the lunch ladies in my grade school made from scratch. So here goes.
Plain Old American Potato Salad
Wash, peel and boil one potato for each person you’re serving, plus one extra.
Use the russets, because they hold up best for this. Red potatoes are also okay, but whichever you use, do not overcook them! You aren’t making mashed taters.
One (1) red or yellow onion, peeled, coarsely chopped
3 to 4 stalks of celery, chopped, include the leaves, but cut off the root ends
A large bunch of green onions, washed, trimmed, and de-rooted, chopped, include the tails
2 large bunches (or bags) or red radishes, cleaned up, tails and roots removed, cut into halves or quarters
1 large bunch of white icicle radishes, cleaned up, tails and roots removed, sliced up
1 zucchini, stem and bud end removed, cut into quarters and sliced
Real mayonnaise; pickle relish is optioal
Directions:
— Peel and cook the potatoes to a firm state and let them cool, then cut them up and put them in the mixing bowl
— Cut the veggies up and dump them into the mixing bowl
— Give everything a good mix before adding the mayonnaise, and let it all cool completely in the fridge
— When the veggie-potato mix is completely cooled, add real mayonnaise to the bowl and stir thoroughly. If you want to add salt and pepper as well, now is the time, but don’t overdo that part
— Cover with cling-wrap and put the bowl back into the fridge to chill until food is served. You can put one of those cooking screens over it to keep bug out
Just in time for the Labor Day cookout. Thanks, Ex.
A thousand pardons Mi’Lady, and yes AW1Ed, I realize that recipes are for guidelines only AND “that’s how I planned for it to turn out” is always the reply, but NO NO NO NO NO! Tater salad is a dish made from taters, with some finely chopped sweet gerkans, some boiled chicken embryos, Duke’s Real Mayo, and for a little crunch of God’s Goodness, some crumbled up rashers of bacon For those that hasta, put them onyums on the side.
Them radishes and celery? Feed that to the rabbit that you gonna put on the grill with them zookeenies.
Other than that, sounds good…and or regional. Least you didn’t throw no bell peppers in there too. Let’s eat!
Well, see, that’s my paternal Grandma’s recipe that she made every time we went to visit her in Nebraska, so that’s how I make tater salad.
Yours, on the other hand, is how you learned to make it your way, so it’s still tater salad, just a difference in the ingredients. I can’t stand that mushy, ooky store-bought stuff.
Yes’sum, I know. Think I saw this recipe in a Nebraska Life Magazine (?) or somewhere on one my trips out there. I think I said ?DAHELL? then too. They do eat a little different there than we do in God’s Country. Bless their Hearts. Good thing that Sister M_______’s Magical Miracle Kitchen has maintained her Southern Roots and blended the best of here with there. Even after 60 years there. Spoke with her today and she is canning and freezing fresh picked green beans.
People buy it from a store?
Yes, if the store has a refrigerated section, they’ll put it in little plastic cartons with a lid, for people too lazy or unskilled to make their own.
For those who like to cook under pressure….
1) Find an outdoor electrical outlet.
2) Set up a table near said outlet.
3) Find an extension cord long enough to reach said outlet.
4) Set pressure cooker on a table near said outlet and plug the pressure cooker in.
5) Cook using pressure cooker.
That is all.
In the 50s we had real cafeterias with real kitchens and those lovely folks were cooking by 9:00 AM. The whole school smelled wonderful.
Other than home cooking, the school pretty good but there was no competition between the school and Wednesday night church suppers. Mind now, it helps if you like potatoes, mashed, boiled, salad, it would be a feature.
Gotta say I have never seen nor heard of putting radishes in potato salad but am well known to eat radishes as a snack!
Hah, have you ever seen family warfare over which variety of mayonnaise is best? For my pleasure, whoever is doing the work gets to choose. Besides, the central flavor, potatoes, needs to prevail.
I think y’all have already covered coleslaw but that’s another of those “standards” that can have a lot of variability.
Thanks for the recipe and bringing up some fond memories from another era.
We musta been VERY poor because there was never an argument over what variety of mayo was used. Whatever had been on sale last was what was used. Adjustments were made depending if salad dressing was the last thing available. And there wasn’t any more of either until the next sale.
Well, maybe the family was just frugal. But I do remember a fair number of times the neither mayo nor salad dressing was in the potato salad – just pickle juice.
Hmmm. This does sound pretty good. Maybe we can get some celery today. Got everything else.
No mustard, no eat.
So add mustard to it and enjoy it!!!
And sprinkle with celery seed…