How many kinds of potato salad do we really need?

5 different kinds of potato salad - Amish, Dutch, mustard, seeds, red skins still on 

At least five at any given deli, of course.

These pictures were actually taken last Easter, so how appropriate to finally get them up now, right? At the time, I was trying to explain to a Canadian friend that our delis are completely different. We have piles upon piles of prepared side dishes like this. They seem to mostly have olive varieties here, a few prepared dishes, peppers, and then mostly just meats. How barbaric!

Cucumber salad, loaded baked potato salad, red skin salad, boiled egg, mustard potato salad, regular potato sald

This is from a deli in Springfield with nice little rows of dishes, whereas I’m used to large bowls of goop sitting behind the glass instead. Regardless, the idea is the same….lots and lots of prepared side dishes to choose from

While I’ll admit that some of the dishes are disgusting (pink slime ham salad, anyone?), many of them are really good, too. I still prefer a homemade potato salad any day, though, over the ones from a deli.

Why?

Because at least mine will always taste roughly the same! And well, there will be plenty of mustard. Even when I order a mustard-laden variety somewhere, it never seems to be yellow enough or tangy enough….and yes, if I’m at home, I’ll add more to it. I don’t have a recipe for it….potatoes, onions, sweet pickles, pickle juice, mayo, mustard, salt, in all the right proportions, tasted repeatedly.

Deli counter row of side dishes for Easter and Fourth of July parties - ham salad, strawberry salad, peppers, macaroni, cucumber, potato salad varieties

And why is this so hard? Because this is what some varieties may look like instead:

salad made with baby potatoes, cooked in their jackets and left whole (skin on)
larger potatoes, cooked in their jackets and then peeled and cut
salad with a mayonnaise, Miracle Whip, sour cream or milk dressing
salad with vinegar dressing
salad with bacon, anchovies, or mustard.
salad with a fresh herb or dill dressing and/or chives, scallions, tarragon, gherkins, capers or other items.
salad with raw onions, cooked onions or pickled onions.
salad with tomatoes or green beans.
salad with hard-boiled eggs (a combination of potato salad and egg salad)
salad with ham, pickles, corn, hard-boiled egg and tomato salad with orange slices, Worcestershire sauce, bacon, and chives.
salad with celery or poppy seeds

Even though I can tell you the basic differences between an Amish potato salad and a…well, whatever you want to call a basic mustard variety…they never, ever taste the same from one place to the next.

So yes, having 5 or more potato salads available for a  4th of July party might seem excessive if you’re not from Midwest US, but frankly, I don’t know how they narrowed it down to that few…

Polish White Borscht Recipe – Potatoes, pork, gravy?

Polish white borscht - sour rye soup

This is not your typical bright red/pink Ukrainian borscht, but rather a “white” Polish alternative better known as zurek or sour rye bread.

Well. Sort of, anyway.

I don’t have an exact recipe for you either, because as I often do, I found several recipes that looked kind of good or matched most of the ingredients I had, and I combined them all into a single dish that worked for me.

The result? In my case it ended up being thicker than I expected but was full of flavor and insanely hearty. I was stuffed before I reached the bottom of my bowl. No complaints here, that’s for sure, but it did kind of remind me of a thick potato soup or bacon’/sausage and gravy.

For a  cheap Polish dish, I sort of expected it to be more “one pot” style, but the recipes I used had all sorts of steps and I piled my various “completed” sections into bowls while other steps were being processed:
Sausage stock, boiled eggs, bacon, onions, polish kielbasa sausage links sliced

This is what happens when I forget to turn off the flash first, too.

Sausage stock, boiled eggs still in the shell, bacon, onions, polish kielbasa sausage links sliced - flash turned on, so the broth is greasy

Mmmm, greasy stock. :P

Stock, which I might add, that I made fresh from cooking the sausage first, using the water/fat off that, and cooking in down with the normal carrots/celery/onions/spices that you would expect from a stock.

And because I’m not one to let any food go to waste, I used the bacon grease to fry up some croutons instead of serving in a bread bowl, too.

Pepper being added to a bowl full of potatoes, sausage, bacon, boiled eggs and croutons Fry croutons in a skillet with bacon grease

That was probably one of the best parts. I really enjoyed having the egg on top, too, oddly enough. It added a different texture to the gravy soup/potato/pork base.

And it was surprisingly good the next day, cold right out of the fridge, because the potatoes still held their shape nicely. A lot of the recipes called for them to be pureed completely, but I’m glad I left it sort of chunky instead.

White borscht - Ukrainian Polish recipe for rye sour soup zurek with eggs, potatoes, green onions, bacon, sausage 

Here’s more or less the recipe I ended up with, give or take:

The broth:

  • 1 bay leave
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • Various herbs you like in your stock…salt, pepper would be sufficient even
  • 1 medium carrot, cut how ever you feel like
  • 1 stalk of celery , cut how ever you feel like
  • 1 link of kielbasa/Polish sausage
  • 1/2 package of bacon
  • 1/2 diced onion

    Sautee onion, garlic, and bacon in a skillet, while bringing water with sliced sausage to a boil in another pan. Cook the first until they’re all nice and brown, while the other cooks for about 20-30 minutes tops. You can also cook the eggs directly in this pot, too, so you don’t have to boil them separate. Just remember to remove them on time.

    Scoop out the sausage into a bowl. Scoop out bacon/onions into a bowl. Toss all the veggies and spices into your sausage water (add more water if necessary) and let cook for an hour or two…or until you remember it’s still on the burner.

    I tossed some of my onions and bacon in there, too, to help along the flavor. When it’s done, strain out all the chunks so you have a nice brothy goodness leftover to use for your soup.

  • The soup:

    • The makings from all of the above, including 4-6 soft-boiled eggs
    • 2-3 potatoes
    • Any number of things like rye bread, sour cream, horseradish, etc

    Dice and cook the potatoes. I did it separate for fear of them falling apart in the broth complete, but you could do it directly in the soup pot, too. I pulled out about a single potato’s worth and pureed/mashed it, to make the soup nice and thick. You could puree all of it, if you want. If you’re leaving it chunky, don’t stir it too much at this point or they’ll all start to denigrate. Add some flour if things are too thin for your liking.

    Add in the rest of your bacon, sausage, etc. Heat a few minutes until everything is nice and toasty.

    I saved some of my bacon to add to the top of mine because, well, I like having extra bacon where I can see it. :P Slice an egg or two per serving and add to the top as well.

    Green onions weren’t called for in any of the recipes I saw, but it sounded good, so those went on, too. What can I say? It’s not authentic, but it was DELICIOUS. And as for the croutons, rye bread is obviously preferred for authenticity and a bread bowl would work awesome, but for mine specifically, I chopped up some day old bread, fried it directly in the bacon grease pan, and voila….yumminess.

    And as for the recipes I loosely (very loosely) referred to, here are some of them:

    http://www.food.com/recipe/polish-white-borscht-bialy-barszcz-456809 (mostly for technique of cooking the various parts)
    http://www.grouprecipes.com/104350/polish-white-borscht.html (very, very simple recipe with only 5 ingredients)
    http://www.tastingpoland.com/food/recipes/white_borscht_recipe.html (sour dough recipe & stock spice suggestions)

    Turducken Week – Turdunkin doughnuts with coffee gravy

    Turducken using dunkin donut doughnuts, hashbrowns, munchkins, tim hortons, coffee gravy, sprinkles

    That, ladies and gentlemen, is a turkey brined in Dunkin Donuts coolattas, filled with munchkin doughnut holes, and covered with a syrup and sprinkles.

    Turducken using dunkin donut doughnuts, hashbrowns, munchkins, tim hortons, coffee gravy, sprinkles....served as drumstick with mashed potatoes and gravy and munchkin stuffing

    And what do you serve with a strangely sweet turducken? Mashed hashbrowns and the munchkin stuffing covered in a special coffee gravy obviously. You knew it couldn’t be a Dunkin’ Donut turducken without the coffee being thrown in there somewhere, too, right?

    As usual, someone was nice (proud?) enough to share all the pictures, ingredients, and reviews of the whole process so we can indulge vicariously through their efforts. Do you think you would eat this?