Indian Potato Salad

Apparently there is a lot of argument about who introduced the potato to Europe; from the Spanish in 1570 to the English in 1590. Well, I have no idea who it was, but I thank them mightily for it. Oh, and especially for thinking of using it for vodka, one of my fave tipples.  Not that I can afford the real potato version!  Mm there is always moonshine I guess.  Just kidding.  Remember those poor young fellas on the Southern Downs who drank their dad's moonshine and actually died from it?  Eek how awful is that.  But I am dying to get myself to the vodka belt countries like Lapland and Poland and all those other 'lands'.  Yes that is a real thing - the vodka belt :=)  Ah well, one day.


But here I am blathering away about vodka when I should be telling you about this potato salad.  Technically it is meant to be served warm as a side dish, but I prefer it at room temp. as a salad. I have made this several times and have never had problems popping the mustard seeds before.  This time it was a disaster and I went thru 3 lots of oil and seeds.  I blame the oil!  Finally I added half olive and half peanut oil and managed not to burn them.  Yay!

ingredients

Serves 6-8:


ingredients:


1 red onion, sliced finely

1 tsp sumac

1/2 tsp sea salt 

15 mls olive oil plus 2 tbs to pop the mustard seeds

juice of 1 lemon

1 kg. small potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks (no need to peel)

1 tbs brown mustard seeds

extra salt, and pepper to taste - to add at the end 

a drizzle of extra olive oil to finish off the dish




Method:


First blanch the sliced onion by putting it in a colander and running it under hot tap water for a few minutes, or simmer it for a minute or 2 in a saucepan of boiling water 

Drain it well; place it in a bowl with the sumac and salt 

Stir and put aside for 30 minutes

Add the olive oil and lemon juice, stir and leave for another 30 minutes

While the onion is marinating, boil or steam the potato chunks till tender

Drain well and tip them into a serving bowl

Heat up the extra 2 tbs olive oil-or use half olive/half veggie oil- and throw in the mustard seeds; they should start to pop very quickly

Toss them thru the potatoes - gently

Add the marinated onions to the potatoes and stir thru gently

Season to taste with salt and pepper and drizzle with a bit more olive oil

Serve either warm, or allow to cool down before eating

onion, sumac, salt, olive oil and lemon juice soaking for another 30 minutes 

boil/steam till tender 

pop the mustard seeds in hot oil 

salt, pepper and olive oil finish off the dish 

oops! murky night shot

Eat it right now, or wait till it has cooled down.  Oh, two more things to tell you: this is a recipe from an old Vogue magazine I have rattling round the kitchen.  Well, it sits there quietly on my shelves in truth.  I have rewritten the recipe a bit, as they blithely suggested "olive oil" and "salt" but gave no quantities.  As you can see, I used yellow mustard seeds rather than brown but it worked out fine.  It is so darn hard to buy brown seeds these days.  Why?
  

Last thing to tell you: Mr P. being from Irish stock, loves his potatoes.  Last night for dinner, he decided to make smashed potatoes rather than the chips I was going to make.  I kept hearing lots of little yelps, and discovered it was Mr P. smashing the very hot potatoes with the palm of his hand.  "We do have a masher," says I.  "That's no good," says Mr P.  "It doesn't do it right," he informs me.  So after smashing and baking them, we had delicious potatoes with our omelette.  Just so you know; nothing at all to do with this recipe.

my spicy doodle