Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Potato Salad with Bacon

So, that's not really what it's called.  It doesn't have a name.  In our family it's just "potato salad", and it's what I grew up with.  A family friend, "Uncle Don" made it and refused to tell my mother and grandmother the recipe, so they sat down and analyzed the flavors.  This is their re-creation of his recipe.  There are no measurements really, so you'll have to play with proportions until you find what you like, but I'll try to approximate measurements for what I did.

Ingredients:

2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, cubed
1/2 package really good quality bacon
1 small yellow onion, chopped
1 cup thinly sliced celery (I think)
Splash of cider vinegar

Mayonnaise:

1 egg
1 cup canola oil
a few dashes of dry mustard powder
pepper to taste
a few dashes of garlic salt

Method:

Chop and cook the bacon, cook the potatoes in a pot of water.  When the bacon is crisp, take it out of the pan to drain, and put the chopped onion in the bacon grease to cook until golden. Take out of the pan and let drain and cool off, you don't want *too* much grease in there.  When the potatoes are falling off a fork, they're done, take them off the heat and drain, rinse with cool water to stop the cooking and let them finish cooling off.  If you can hold and eat a piece without hurting yourself, it's almost cool enough to finish assembling the potato salad.

While all of the above is cooking and doesn't really need your attention, slice as much celery as you want, I prefer mine thinner sliced instead of chunky, so maybe 1/4 inch or so.

To make the mayonnaise, you really need an immersion blender, also called a stick blender, and a container tall and narrow enough to use it in without having anything splash.  Put the egg, oil and spices in (you can add more spice to taste, above is just what I did) and put the blender into the oil and turn it on.  It should whip everything together in about 5 seconds.

After that's done, time to put it all together.  Put the potatoes (should be barely warm) in a big enough bowl with the bacon, onions, celery and mayonnaise, and mix gently.  Grind some fresh pepper on to taste, add a splash of vinegar and mix one last time.  Taste test it before anyone else gets it so you can see if it's to your liking.  (Hey, you went to all the trouble to cook it, you should get the first taste!)

It's good immediately, it's also awesome cold.  And yes, I've had it for breakfast.

Oh, and you *can* use mayonnaise you bought at the store, but it's so easy I just thought I'd try it myself this time.

Bon appetit!

4 comments:

  1. Sounds delicious! I love homemade mayonnaise.This sounds like a Pennsylvania Dutch recipe.

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  2. Yeah, I think I'm a convert to the homemade mayo since I can make it with "healthier" oil and it's SO easy. :)

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  3. I usually don't add the celery until after the potato, bacon, onion mixture has chilled for a while and flavors have a chance to develop. That way the celery stays crisp. MOM

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  4. Hi Alan, Long time no see. Just a note to wish you a very happy holiday season. Ron aka Ron and T.J. Elk Grove

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