Is there any surprise in a potato salad? Yes: you may add Mediterranean herbs for a delicious summer & holiday flavour …
Some years ago I made this potato salad rather spontaneously because suddenly all the rainy weather in Germany cleared up & sun came back w/ fine temperatures fit for some last BBQ events in the garden.
… & a real bit potato salad is always one of the best companions around (together w/ some green salad & baked vegetables …) for any meat feast.
As you know we are still in the south – in Northern Spain at the moment. Roast potatoes w/ rosemary are one of my favorite dishes her – so take some of these & make a potato salad is always welcome – even it’s only for the two of us.
Let’s start – best a day before our anticipated BBQ!
We need a lot of potatoes, Mediterranean herbs & the usual suspects …
… so there are:
- potatoes: baby potatoes if available (which unfortunately didn’t work out for me …)
- sprigs of rosemary
- olive oil & olive oil w/ balsamic vinegar
- cornichons
- spring onions
- chives
- thyme leaves
- eggs (hard-boiled)
- mayonnaise (70%)
- sour cream (20%).
What did I change for my small postal salad in the south – except downsizing the amounts of ingredients?
I worked w/ dried herbs and white onions (instead of spring onions). Also I used Greek yoghurt … mixed 75:25 w/ mayonnaise … & I skipped all the decoration!
Now let’s start … finally!
The potatoes will be thoroughly cleaned in fresh cool water; they end up in pieces of 2-3 cm (about 1 cm thick). If you happen to lay hands on baby potatoes just cut them in halves.
Don’t forget to preheat your often to 180 °C fan.
Take a deep baking tray & line it w/ baking parchment. (It’s easier to clean up afterwards!) Place the rosemary in the tray.
Mix the potato pieces thoroughly w/ olive oil & salt & pepper. Dump them in the baking tray over the rosemary. Let them roast for about 30 min in the oven (you’ll need not turn them over!) – voilà!
Now we’ve got soft & crispy potatoes – hot potatoes w/ intrinsic rosemary flavour!
In the meantime while the potatoes are roasted we chop the cornichons & the spring onions & mix all together w/ the olive oil & the balsamic vinegar. Some salt & pepper may be fine, too.
When the potatoes are out of the oven they are very hot – wait about 5 min. Then mix the hot (no longer „very hot“!) potatoes w/ the flavoring & let the mess cool down to room temperature.
Attention: It’s important to mix the flavoring into the hot potatoes to make sure that the overall typical potato salad flavour may spread & penetrate into the potatoes.
In the meantime … we’ve boiled the eggs to get hard-boiled eggs. We’ve chopped the thyme leaves & the chives. We cut the eggs w/ an egg slicer once lengthwise & once crosswise.
(Well: we may also add more Mediterranean fresh herbs like oregano, marjoram, basil … it mainly depends which herbs are sitting on your window sill or in your garden …)
Fold in everything w/ the mayonnaise & the sour cream & let the dressing rest in the fridge until further use.
As soon as the potatoes have cooled down we add the dressing to the potatoes!
… & we’ve got the salad!
The potatoes are skin-on & somewhat chunky: therefore the salad is a little brownish – it’s the right salad for a hearty BBQ.
I mixed mayonnaise w/ sour cream because it cares for a fresh feeling on the tongue. If it is very hot outside & you plan to offer the salad outside – meaning the salad will linger about for some hours – I recommend to use only mayonnaise for the sake of stability. Otherwise if it’s not soooo hot outside & you know that the salad will vanish rather soon you may use only sour cream …
A fresh addition – by the way – is fresh cucumber thinly sliced, salted, squeezed & folded in the salad just before serving.
We can move the mess into a fine clean bowl … & we can start decorating …
Enjoy!
- 1000 g waxy potatoes w/ skin
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 1-2 tbsp olive oil
- salt & pepper
- 4 spring onions
- 150 g cornichons
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 eggs
- 100 g mayonnaise 70%
- 100 g sour cream 20%
- 1 tbsp very finely chopped fresh thyme
- 2 tbsp finely chopped fresh chives
- salt & pepper
- chives optional
- tomatoes optional
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C fan.
- Clean the potatoes & cut off any bad spots, but don’t peel them.
- Cut the potatoes bite-sized pieces.
- Add olive oil & salt & pepper & mix well – all potato pieces should be covered w/ olive oil.
- Line a deep baking tray w/ baking parchment.
- Add the rosemary.
- Add the potatoes.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 30 min.
- Let the potatoes cool for about 10 min.
- Discard the rosemary.
- While the potatoes are in the oven: chop spring onions & cornichons.
- Mix both w/ olive oil & balsamic vinegar.
- If the potatoes have done their 10 min rest mix hot potatoes & the spring onion-cornichon mix & let it cool completely.
- In the meantime boil the eggs until very well done.
- Peel them & cut them w/ help of an egg slicer (use the egg slicer twice for each egg!).
- Add mayonnaise & sour cream & mix well.
- Add salt & pepper.
- Add thyme & chives – save some chives for decoration.
- Store the dressing in the fridge.
- If the potato mix is at room temperature add the dressing & mix well.
- Optional: use chopped chives & tomatoes for decoration.
