after hours of craving – warm german potato salad

On Friday when I was at my supermarket doing my weekly I start craving for German potato salad – a salad I haven’t made for about 30 years. Just out of the blue and of course I needed bratwurst too, but I didn’t find any that “talked” to me, so I took a pack of trendy flavored hot dogs instead.

“German Potato Salad” has to be served warm and I prefer it to the mayonnaise based salad. To do this salad am I taught by the best – one of my German head chefs and I had quite a few in my days, Carl.

It’s a salad that goes with any kind of meat or chicken, even pan-fried fish. 

Warm German Potato Salad, serves 4-6

Ingredients:
900 gr (2 pound) white new potatoes, cut in half if big
salt
Olive oil
8 bacon slices, cut into lardons or diced – I prefer diced
1 red onion, finely diced
1 large shallot onion, finely diced
110 ml (1/2 cup) meat, chicken or vegetable stock – I use Knorr’s beef stock pot.
55ml (1/4 cup) apple cider vinegar
15ml (1tbsp) sugar
dill and parsley, finely chopped

Directions;
1. Boil the potatoes, try to keep them so whole as possible, cut them you do after they are boiled. – cover generously with water and season generously with salt for about 20 minutes..

2. Then mix stock, sugar and vinegar in a small sauce pan – stir while giving it a quick boil. Put to the side. Remember that the dressing should be sweet and tangy.

3. Coat a large straight-sided sauté pan lightly with olive oil. Toss in the bacon and bring the pan to a medium heat. When the bacon is golden, toss in the onions and cook them until they are very soft and aromatic, 7 to 8 minutes – don’t let fried or crispy, just nicely sauteed. Grind some black pepper over the mixture.

4. Drain potatoes well and to make sure that the potatoes is dry put them back on burner without lid so the excess water can evaporate for about 30 sec. Cut the potatoes in bite size while they are still warm.

5. Mix gently the potatoes in with the bacon and onion mix. Reheat the “dressing” and like doing risotto add a little warm dressing at the time and let the potatoes soak up the dressing before adding more. The salad is not supposed to be swimming in dressing.

In the end add the chopped herbs, I used frozen dill and fresh chopped Italian flat parsley.
I’m sure I that I don’t have to instruct you how to grill the “hot dogs” *smile

It was so warm on my balcony, I really struggled to eat my dinner out there, but I want to enjoy the sunshine evening meals when I have the opportunity.

And I had somebody watching me very closely from my neighbor’s balcony the whole time. I think it was the smell that lured him over – nice with dinner company, but I didn’t share …. I kept it all to myself. Sorry!

It’s not easy for Oscar to do a good  job when the sun is so intens and straight into the lens, but I want to share the sunshine that I had on my plate and had for weeks now.

Have a lovely weekend, Everybody!

“The potato, like man, was not meant to dwell alone.”
Shila Hibben

For cloud do I use James Last and his Orchestra … James Last had a big part in me getting use to classical music in my youth. James Last (also known as “Hansi”); born in Bremen 1929 is a German composer and big band leader.

James Last  made arrangements of classical music it the late 60’s and early 70’s for big band and I had every album. He has reportedly sold in excess of eighty million albums worldwide.