My Mum’s Potato Salad
The best potato salad recipe in the world!
Here’s my mum’s potato salad, I grew up eating as much of this as physically possible and whenever I visit my parent’s and this is on the table I almost crawl to my car having eaten too much.
Potato salad should be relatively easy but I have eaten some Godawful excuses for it in my time. Undercooked potatoes, overcooked eggs, unmixed mayonnaise, no seasoning, raw onions and on it goes. There are different ways of making this, some use stock, others use mayonnaise. Either way, when made properly it is magnificent with cooked meats and most especially warm sausage. I’ll ask my mother to describe the recipe to you. You may know her as ‘Mrs C’ or the pseudonym ‘Elsie’ but to her many friends she’s best known as plain old Anne…..
You must be reading my mind, Miles. I’ve actually been wondering why Elsie hasn’t been commenting on your blog. I’ve missed her charm and wit!
Okay, I’ll be back for the details. This potato salad looks wonderful! And welcome back, Elsie. We’ve missed you. Cid and I need some female help over here.
Melissa
P.S. How are you feeling today, GDave?
April 19, 2009 @ 8:03 pm
Miles,
You are absolutely right in that there are many ways of making potato salad, cold as well as warm. I grew up on the stuff and it remains a firm favourite in Germany at all manner of functions.
After some years I found my own favourite recipe that has no measurements. It is best done the day before use to allow the flavours to be absorbed and much of the liquid is taken up. This is what I do:
Boil salad potatoes in skins until done.
Meantime, put a chopped onion into a jug and cover with boiling water & vegetable stock cube. ( I use about half a cube to a quarter pint of water).
Poor this over the peeled and sliced/cubed potatoes whilst both are still warm. Use only enough stock to about half the level of your potatoes. Don’t drown them.
Add some finely chopped gherkins and parsley.
Combine some mayonnaise with some mustard and mix it all together. Add pepper & salt to taste, cover and leave in fridge until required.
Have fun experimenting and find the right flavour for your taste buds.
Guten Appetit!
April 19, 2009 @ 8:05 pm
Melissa,
Many thanks for your kind words.
Dear old Elsie has been put to rest and consigned to history. If it is o.k. with you perhaps you can think of me as Anne now? Who said: “What is in a name”? Hmm!
Smiley greetings
Anne
April 19, 2009 @ 8:19 pm
Elsie,
Come back immediately…. Miles has obviously lost his mind and has started to call you plain old …. worryeth not, I shall dispatch a clip round the ear as soon as I catch up with him
By the way Melissa and I have roped you in to our soup business (it could be a soap business, depends how we’re feeling on any given day), front of house as a matter of fact… on the days when you are off duty I’ll have a cardboard cut-out of you
dragging folk off the streetwelcoming guests inLove that potato salad, summery deliciousness.
Cid
April 19, 2009 @ 8:48 pm
Double portion Table 5. Hold . . . Nothing !
April 20, 2009 @ 8:07 am
Anne (is it Anneliese) — either way is charming and you sound like quite the special mom. Regardless of which name you choose to use, I’m glad you’re back. You add a nice touch to the mix and Cid and I do need help with our soup kitchen plans.
I’ve never heard of pouring hot stock over raw onions. How long do you let the onion sit in the stock — does that parboil them in a way?
Melissa
April 20, 2009 @ 12:03 pm
Anne / Miles,
Ahhh I didn’t think of Anneliese. The best anagram I could come up with was ‘Insane Eel.’ Lovely looking potato salad, Anne. I’ve never made it with stock before, just with a tiny spot of minced garlic in the mayo and some shredded scallions. And my potatoes are ‘al dente’ not undercooked! 
‘Little Brother,’ ‘Elsie Nean.’ Such a cloak-and-dagger family.
GDave
PS. Melissa, it wasn’t a good sporting result so I probably upped the beer intake to numb the sorrow, needless to say I’m feeling a little shabby. My hair hurts!
April 20, 2009 @ 12:50 pm
GDave,
If your hair hurts then you’ll be needing our new patented Organic Coconut Scalp Massage Oil…. I’m wearing one at the moment
Cid
p.s. that’s nothing compared to the dark green spirulina face pack I had on yesterday
April 20, 2009 @ 1:16 pm
Oh, Miles — look what you have created.
Somehow you’ve attracted quite the eccentric group. Or maybe we should point the finger at Anne as it does go back to her. GDave’s cloak and dagger commit made me laugh out loud. Followed by another hearty laugh at Cid’s organic “day after” hair cure. All the while, Rod is holding court at Table 5.
What a colorful cast of characters! I must get my daughter involved in this, especially for you, GDave as she lived in Glasgow (after living in Camden Town) and probably knows where you injured your hair.
Poor Miles. Do you feel like this blog of yours has taken on a life of its own?
Melissa
April 20, 2009 @ 4:27 pm
Cid,
.
Thank you for your kind comments and everyone elses. Use whatever name you like - I am glad to talk to anyone nice
Cid & Melissa,
). I have a big pot on the go right now and made a big spinach soup yesterday. So, I am prepared!
Thank you for including me in the soup group (I am not so sure about the SS name
Melissa, I found that the hot/boiling stock softens the onion and mixing it all whilst still warm, soaks up all the flavours. The following day should only be a small amount of liquid left.
GDave,
.
I hit on the idea of the stock after eating hot potato salad in Germany that includes smoked bacon. I now find potatoes just mixed with mayo too sickly. At the end of the day it is all a matter of taste, I guess.
Thought about you during the match last night, sorry about the outcome
Insane Eel, GDave? I know I once went mad when I caught a big eel and dare not touch it!
Anne
April 20, 2009 @ 6:05 pm
Anne,
Rumour has it Elsie ran off with Ray Mears… well it had to happen, all those months spent whittling a jungle holiday retreat out of vines and tapioca… I warned her
Cid
April 20, 2009 @ 7:07 pm
Anne,
I’m definitely giving your stock recipe a go!
Gosh I can imagine smoked bacon working so well in a potato salad. Mind you, I love good bacon so much I’d probably tell you it goes well with a Twix.
Cid,
“… whittling a jungle holiday retreat out of vines and tapioca”
GDave (genuinely in tears of laughter)
April 20, 2009 @ 7:32 pm
Miles,
I’d eat anything your mother makes… must be nice to spend time with your family around the table when you don’t have to cook.
Cid
p.s. will you be requiring any of our Organic Coconut Oil hair treatment? Taken in conjunction with the green algae anti aging face pack, it’ll do wonders for you
Arnold himself has admitted that the battle with Predator might have been a good deal shorter had our product been on the market at the time 
April 20, 2009 @ 7:36 pm
Cid,
. Never mind, there is still Colin 
.
Well, I sort of knew that but did not want to let on for fear of upsetting you.
GDave,
Good luck and let me know what you think. If you like a little more acidity, add a drop of wine vinegar.
Anne
April 20, 2009 @ 7:42 pm
Melissa,
Right now I’m happy to hand it over-I’m pretty whacked
Miles
April 20, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
Welcome back Elsie/Anne. Perhaps we should just give you a numbered identity like 008. Then you’d have a license to kill, or at least, seriously maim anyone who messes with you.
April 21, 2009 @ 6:48 pm
Annie,
.
Thank you. I’ll just have a license to thrill
Anne
April 21, 2009 @ 7:41 pm