Potato Salad with lots of stuff in it.

It's been terribly hot lately, an oppressive, heavy, wet, humid heat that makes going outside unbearable. So today, when the humidity dropped and the temperature averaged a lovely, cool 87 degrees, I decided that I should take advantage of the opportunity and do some cooking that would last through the next heat wave. Which could only mean potato salad.


Potatoes are easy to come by for everyone, and during these summer and fall months when plant life is sustainable on this coast, I buy my potatoes from one of my favorite growers at my weekly farmers' market - Savoie Organic Farm. Barry Savoie is awesome, knows everything about potatoes, and has introduced me to some fabulous varieties that I'd never eaten before (Rosegold potatoes are really beautiful, crunchy, and delicious). For potato salad, or when I'm feeling vague about my potato plans, I usually get Onaways, which are pretty standard new potatoes.

I'm a big fan of simplicity, and I often make potato salad with whatever leftover ingredients turn up in the fridge, so my usual recipe tends to focus on texture rather than specific ingredients, and goes something like this:

A 4-ingredient vinaigrette-based salad.

a pot full of boiled potatoes
some sort of onion-thing (red, green, shallot, garlic scave)
some sort of crunchy thing (pickles, celery, cucumber, capers)
some sort of green leafy-ish thing (dill, parsley, more green onion, chives)
mayonnaise or vinaigrette
mix together everything, realize you've once again failed to calculate how much potato is really necessary (my math usually goes something like 1 person = 4-6 potatoes, which is way too much potato/person), try to foist leftover potato salad on everyone you know.

But for this potato salad, I wanted to make sure I got some significant vegetable matter in with all the egg and starch. This wasn't going to be some half-assed barbecue side dish, it was going to be a summer staple. It had to have some semblance of balance.

So I went to the grocery store (a rare occurrence lately) and scanned the aisle for impulse potato salad buys. And then I went out to the backyard and picked some chives and parsley. And then I raided the fridge.I ended up with pickles, cucumbers, red onion, fennel, chives, green onion, capers, and parsley. 

Fennel is fine raw, but I decided to sauté mine with olive oil, then add the chopped, boiled potatoes to get a little crispy brown texture into the mess. The fennel caramelized nicely and gave off a subtle

flavor which was, on the whole, a little overwhelmed by all the everything else. I've never used fennel much in cooking, but I'd like to start - it would be fantastic in a more simple, less mayonnaise- based dish.

Probably if one hadn't started getting really hungry and had planned out her day to provide plenty of time for cooking experiments, one would let the potatoes and fennel cool down before throwing in everything else. This would ensure that the cucumbers wouldn't get warm and flimsy, that the greenery wouldn't wilt, and that everything would be chilled a bit before the mayonnaise hit it.

I got hungry, threw everything in together, peeled some hard-boiled eggs, whipped up some mayo (an egg yolk, a lot of olive oil, and a bit of vinegar), and ate it still warm, completely undermining the entire concept of a cold dinner. It was pretty delicious. Tomorrow, once it's had some quality time with the refrigerator, I imagine it will be even better.