Potato Salad Time!
I don’t particularly like russet potatoes and I definitely do not like radishes- both key ingredients in our family’s potato salad recipe.
Now, I can choke down a baked potato if there’s nothing else to eat (and I have dump truck full of butter, maybe some cheese) and if radishes where the last food on earth I just might not make it. so, I have to hang my head in shame, because- remember- I’m Norwegian?! Russet potatoes and radishes seem to be staples for these people… And to add insult to injury, if radishes aren’t in the food, Norwegians will use radishes for garnish… blech! And so goes our family recipe, but not for me!
Tonight I made potato salad because it is really feeling like spring. We mowed the grass and filled the bird feeders with black oil sunflower seeds- it felt like a potato salad kind of night! And yes, I made it without Russet potatoes or radishes!! (My ex-husband once made the mistake of telling his mother that my potato salad was the best he’d ever had… much better than hers. Ouch! But, alas, I knew it to be true- it’s the Norwegian Yellow Sauce!)
Janine’s Potato Salad
1 small bag (10- 15) of cooked new red potatoes or baby red potatoes cut up very small. I almost always steam my vegetables- potatoes included- in a bamboo steamer, have for years.
Cut up 2 dill pickles (I made these pickles two years ago- I have a great recipe from my mom that is terrific- I’ll write it up next fall when I need to make more.)
2 hard boiled eggs- chopped up
2-3 Green onions chopped up (I used the tops of some Walla Walla sweets I have growing right now) and 1 small can of sliced black olives.
I like to have almost equal parts of potato, pickle, egg and olives (I think that is one of the reasons everyone likes my salad so much. It is more than just potatoes with spots of color.)
“Norwegian Yellow Sauce” (it’s not really called Norwegian Yellow Sauce… that’s just what I call it! I don’t think there is a name for it, but all Norwegians seem to know it.)
¾ C Mayonnaise
¼ C Yellow Mustard
1 TBS Sugar
2 TBS Milk
S/P to taste
*The consistency should be like cake batter or pancake batter- maybe not quite as thick.
Garnish with paprika and a few chopped green onions- and I promise, red potatoes instead of Russets taste great- an no one will miss the radishes! Happy Spring!
Janine Blackwell
Food has always been a main focus of my family life! At 12 years old I picked berries during the summer and at 15 I started work in the local cannery. This was my summer job all through college (my father was the production manager for Norpac Foods for 30 years, so I had an in!) Each summer my mom would can and preserve fruit and vegetables so we could have "good stuff" all year long. I attended a cooking school while I lived in England for about a year, but my life took a different turn and I did not go into food professionally. My sister owns a restaurant in Colorado and my brother works for a blueberry processing plant in Silverton, OR. Like I said- a family affair! I teach video and film at Columbia River HS (love it) but I also love to cook, can and preserve. I work to use as much home grown, locally produced and organic product as I possibly can.