thebigfatnoodle

Barbecue buddies: my ultimate potato salad

Posted by thebigfatnoodle on October 2, 2011 · 4 Comments 

The bigfatnoodle’s ultimate potato salad

Waxy new potatoes work best - I used belle de fontenay potatoes

Potato salad recipes can be a sensitive subject.

My not-so-secret ingredients - deseeded cherry tomatoes, fried onion, bacon, spring onions and toasted cumin

Everyone has their own favourite recipe which they naturally think is the best and I’m not one to argue with them.

With so many types of potato and thousands of ways to make a potato salad, every one of them’s a winner as far as I’m concerned. There’s actually never been a potato salad I haven’t liked eating, hehehe! 🙂

I’ve called my version my ultimate potato salad but that’s only because it’s one that  my husband, my family and all my friends seem to love. It’s like a meal in one!

We made the potato salad to go with these baby back ribs

Now, I normally always tweak or play around with my dishes every time I cook a dish but this potato salad is one I’ve never messed with since I created it. It just works!

I made this potato salad yesterday when we decided to make baby back ribs on the barbecue – a real treat as no one in the UK thought we’d end up having such brilliant hot weather (29 degrees celcius!) in October!?!

I've cooled everything down (in the fridge) for an hour before I mix in the mayo - this keeps everything nice and cold and there's nothing worse than a warm potato salad

I used belle de fontenay potatoes because I prefer making potato salad with waxy, firmer potatoes but I normally make them with red anya potatoes. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get hold of any yesterday so these beauties will have to do.

my ultimate potato salad

We made and ate this yesterday night and I’m extra pleased because we made enough to have leftovers today (everything always tastes better the day after too!) so I can spend today thinking of new recipes for the weeks to come. Here’s the recipe if you’d like some for yourself. Enjoy.

Up close and personal with my ingredient-packed ultimate potato salad

My ultimate potato salad assembly line

thebigfatnoodle’s ultimate potato salad

(Approx) 1 kilogram of waxy baby/new potatoes (eg belle de fontenay)

Juice of ½ lemon

15-20 cherry tomatoes, de-seeded, quartered/chopped

5 rashes of streaky bacon, sliced thinly then fried until crispy and then drained well on kitchen paper

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted

2 small red onions, finely chopped and fried in 1 teaspoon of oil

4-5 medium spring onions, finely sliced in rounds

5-7 heaped tablespoons of mayonnaise

(optional) chopped parsley to garnish

Salt and pepper to taste

Cook your potatoes in a generous pot of salted water and the juice from ½ lemon. Drain and allow to cool completely. If time permits, I always put my cooled potatoes in the fridge for at least an hour before I mix in all the other ingredients.

Fry your bacon bits until all the oil’s been released and use a slotted spoon to remove the crispy bacon to drain on a kitchen paper. Allow to cool on the kitchen paper and it’ll stay crispy and crunchy.

Fry your chopped onions gently at first until they turn translucent (about 5-6 minutes) before turning up the heat and getting them nicely browned (but not burnt!).

I like my potato salad COLD so I also normally put all these ingredients – the chopped tomatoes, fried onion, bacon, spring onions – into the fridge so that everything’s cold and at the same temperature when you’re ready to mix it together.

When you’re ready to make your potato salad, put everything together in a large mixing bowl and add mayonnaise, black pepper and salt to taste.

Ribs and potato salad - unbeatable combination 🙂

Enjoy the week ahead!

Lots of love

thebigfatnoodle