CookingBites dish of the month (June 2022): potato salad

Morning Glory

Morning Glory

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'Dish of the month' focusses on an accessible and generic dish, so that most of us can join in, cook and post the results. Its non competitive and there is no need to post the recipe unless you want to. This month, potato salad has been chosen.

So, its over to you to make your finest potato salad and post the results in this thread. Innovation is positively encouraged. Its worth considering that potato salad can be served warm, room temperature or cold. In fact, personally I think its best served warm. There are no rules here except it should contain potato! So, maybe kick out boring old mayonnaise and think outside the box...
 
Will it be acceptable to put chillis in it?

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SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Definitely

Though I really have drawn a blank on a vegan hot potato salad. Perhaps I can morph a potato & onion gratin into one? Ideas anyone?
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Vegan hot potato salad? Cook the potatoes and toss in a salad dressing of your choice along with other ingredients - couldn't be easier really. A classic vinaigrette (for example) doesn't contain animal products.
 
Morning Glory said:
Vegan hot potato salad? Cook the potatoes and toss in a salad dressing of your choice along with other ingredients - couldn't be easier really. A classic vinaigrette (for example) doesn't contain animal products.
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I guess we have different ideas on a potato salad. Mine always include a "cream & yoghurt" dressing, grapes and nuts, chives it onions etc... i just can't picture that hot. And i suspect that a classic vinegar dressing will set my asthma off to be honest, hot vinegar isn't good for it, it's the fumes. One of the reasons I had to quit my PhD in organic chemistry.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
i suspect that a classic vinegar dressing will set my asthma off to be honest,
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I was only mentioning vinaigrette as an example. You wouldn't heat up the vinegar - simply toss hot potatoes in the room temperature dressing. All manner of ingredients could be used in a dressing really. Yoghurt would be fine. I've used that before in a warm salad.
 
I’ll display the first pic - made this last week:

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Nothing special or alarming in this one, but I’ll say that it uses sour cream in place of the mayonnaise, so that, along with the cider vinegar, make it good ‘n’ tangy.

One thing I really dislike about room temp/cold potato salad is that it has all this wonderful mustardy-creamy dressing, but as soon as you bite into a potato chunk, you get this…well, face it, a somewhat bland taste of plain boiled potato.

What this recipe does to combat that is to mix up the dressing while the potatoes are boiling, then after draining and drying them, it calls for tossing the still very warm potatoes in a few tablespoons of the dressing, and then letting them sit for an hour or two. The potatoes, as they cool, pull the dressing in, flavoring each chunk all the way through. No more bland potato bites!

Between the two styles (warm/cold)…I guess they’re like dogs or kids: you’re not supposed to have a favorite, but I do, though I’ll never tell!
 
TastyReuben said:
What this recipe does to combat that is to mix up the dressing while the potatoes are boiling, then after draining and drying them, it calls for tossing the still very warm potatoes in a few tablespoons of the dressing, and then letting them sit for an hour or two. The potatoes, as they cool, pull the dressing in, flavoring each chunk all the way through. No more bland potato bites!
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Absolutely. I've always used hot potatoes, just cooked and drained and then immersed in the 'dressing'.
 
Morning Glory said:
I was only mentioning vinaigrette as an example. You wouldn't heat up the vinegar - simply toss hot potatoes in the room temperature dressing. All manner of ingredients could be used in a dressing really. Yoghurt would be fine. I've used that before in a warm salad.
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Anything acidic (including citrus) over hot food (and hot potatoes going cold rapidly will still have the same effect) still causes problems with acid fumes into the lungs which any severe asthmatic will tell you doesn't work well for breathing especially at the worst time of year, winter. I'm already having repeated asthma attacks with no obvious cause. Add acid fumes to smoke from a wood burning stove (smoke comes in through the closed windows, cold air traps it on the front lawn) and cold air and anyone with moderately severe asthma will tell you it isn't going to end well. Even chillies if they are too spicy hot will trigger my asthma at the moment. It's a common problem all severe asthmatics have and even during the best of times I can't enter certain shops (Boots in the UK for example) through the main front doors because of the perfume counters and make up. There are certain isles I can't go down in every supermarkets etc. All of this is normal for severe asthmatics. We just have to live with it.

My water supply is coming through the pipes that cold it is hurting my hands to wash them in it. That's unusual for me. I've never washed my hands or my hair in hot water (I shower in warm water, not cold). But at certain times of year (and this was the case in the UK as well), the cold water is just too cold. The water in the fridge is actually warmer than the water in the pipes at the moment.

Warm is just not hot enough right now. It's 3 hot meals at day and two fingers to the diet at the moment. Like I said, I can't see a hot potato salad, vegan or otherwise. All ingredients would need to be hot, not just the potatoes. Without central heating, warm food isn't going to make the cut.

Off to chop the logs for today's heating.
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
Anything acidic (including citrus) over hot food (and hot potatoes going cold rapidly will still have the same effect) still causes problems with acid fumes into the lungs which any severe asthmatic will tell you doesn't work well for breathing especially at the worst time of year, winter
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Then allow the potatoes to cool down completely before you add the vinegar.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Then allow the potatoes to cool down completely before you add the vinegar.
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I think you missed the point entirely. I don't want a cold potato salad when it's 3°C outside, blowing a gale, snowing and I don't have central heating, double glazing it even windows and doors that actually fit properly. Frankly when it's like this, camping is actually warmer.

Hence why I was asking if anyone knew of any hot potato salads (not warm but hot).
 
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