My Favourite Potato Salad

I call this My Favourite Potato Salad, as that is exactly what it is. I may be in the minority here, but what I think of as an American-style potato salad, slicked with mayo, sprinkled with raw onions and eaten cold, is a distinctly unappealing proposition for me. I like a potato salad much the way my grandmother and mother before me made, just warm (or at room temperature) and dressed while the potatoes are hot enough to absorb some of the mustardy, pickle-tangy dressing. Neither of them used the glorious, golden cold-press rapeseed oil I can now get and, indeed, a not-too-emphatic olive oil can easily be substituted.

And while I love this just as it is, I can tell you it’s also gorgeous with some cut-up or torn anchovy fillets added along with the capers and cornichons, and my mother often made a version with chopped, still warm, just-hard-boiled egg. I should add that you could well fry some streaky bacon till crisp, use the fat in place of  some of the oil, and chop or crumble the bacon and toss it in at the end. I must insist – please – that you steam your new potatoes. Indeed, I always steam them, even if they’re to be eaten hot and glistening with melted butter. The difference it makes to their taste and texture is a game-changer.    

I call this My Favourite Potato Salad, as that is exactly what it is. I may be in the minority here, but what I think of as an American-style potato salad, slicked with mayo, sprinkled with raw onions and eaten cold, is a distinctly unappealing proposition for me. I like a potato salad much the way my grandmother and mother before me made, just warm (or at room temperature) and dressed while the potatoes are hot enough to absorb some of the mustardy, pickle-tangy dressing. Neither of them used the glorious, golden cold-press rapeseed oil I can now get and, indeed, a not-too-emphatic olive oil can easily be substituted.

And while I love this just as it is, I can tell you it’s also gorgeous with some cut-up or torn anchovy fillets added along with the capers and cornichons, and my mother often made a version with chopped, still warm, just-hard-boiled egg. I should add that you could well fry some streaky bacon till crisp, use the fat in place of  some of the oil, and chop or crumble the bacon and toss it in at the end. I must insist – please – that you steam your new potatoes. Indeed, I always steam them, even if they’re to be eaten hot and glistening with melted butter. The difference it makes to their taste and texture is a game-changer.