Sunday, December 23, 2012
Small Batch Potato Salad
Place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold
water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. When the water starts boiling,
cover with a lid. On my ceramic top stove I turn off the burner but leave the
pot on the hot surface. On my gas stove, I let the pot boil for almost a minute
after I cover it. Set a time for 20 minutes. I know, all the pundits say 15
minutes but I always have better luck peeling the eggs when I cook then the
extra five minutes. As soon as the time sounds, remove from heat and drain in
the sink. Fill the pan several times with cold running tap water. Add a cup of
ice and place in the refrigerator for half an hour. When it is time to peel,
tap on both ends to crack the shell then gently roll the egg under palm
pressure to crack the shell all around. Start peeling from the pointed end and
most of the shell will come off in large pieces. Rinse and dry with a paper
towel.
Prepare the mixing bowl: Place 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise,
1 tablespoon of mustard and 2 teaspoons of chicken base in the bottom of the
bowl (chicken base is paste used to make chicken broth, similar to bouillon but
in a paste form). Mix well. Add pepper, celery seed, bacon pieces and paprika
to taste. The chicken base will add a significant portion of salt.
This batch that I made filled the 1-quart deli potato salad
container to the top with about ½ cup left over for a taste test. Preparation
time was minimal and the results were excellent. The radishes in the garden
were not quite rip but they could have added nicely to the dish. My personal
preference is to add a bit of sweet pickle relish but the wife does not care
for that addition so it was left out of this batch. That’s not to say you
couldn’t add a bit of chopped dill pickle or even some capers if that is to
your liking. As well, a few sliced black olives would also have added to the overall
dish. There you have it; a quick and easy one-quart of potato salad that makes
all deli potato salads pale in comparison. I hope you enjoy.
This was about the potato salad but it did share the plate
with the chicken. These were fresh chicken boneless and skinless chicken
breasts so I put them in the freezer for about 40 minutes to firm up. After
forty minutes in the freezer, the chicken breasts were easy to butterfly.
Butterfly the breasts to even out the thickness which produces a nicer, evenly
cooked chicken, no overcooked edges while the center is still raw. I seasoned
with a slight bit of grated sea salt, finely ground white pepper and just the
slightest sprinkle of ground ginger. I then marinated them in lemon juice and
key lime juice from the trees in our back yard for about four hours. Use a plastic
bag with a zip-lock top. Squeeze most of the air out of the bag before closing;
that way you can use a small amount of juice to marinate the chicken. Turn a
few times to even out the contact with the juice. Preheat the grill. Over
medium to high grilling heat cook chicken for two minutes. Turn chicken and
cook for an additional two minutes. Turn chicken 90-degrees and cook for two
minutes. Flip chicken and cook for a final two minutes. (The time is a
guideline – it will vary slightly with your grill) You want to just cook it to
the 170 degrees recommended for white meat chicken The chicken will still be a
bit pale but the sugar in the juice will make nice ross-hatch grill marks on
both sides, cooked through but still be tender and juicy with a wonderful grill
and lemon-lime flavor . It is one of our favorite ways to prepare chicken. I
hope you will enjoy it too.
St Petersburg, Florida
December 21, 2012
It is just a fact of life. Even the best deli potato salad
isn’t very good. In most cases you would probably be better off ordering the
coleslaw. What brought this to mind was what I found when rummaging through the
refrigerator. It was a container of supermarket deli potato salad that still
had about one serving left. Last week, when we were going to run short of time
because of engagements, we planned on sandwiches and potato salad from the
deli. It just wasn’t that tasty and we purposely made our helpings small. There
was that dab left but no one was willing to finish it off. It had only been in
fridge a few days so it hadn’t turned bad – just no one was willing to eat any
more of it. Even though I was foraging through the fridge looking for something
to eat, I chose to feed the last bit of deli potato salad to the hungry little
microbes in the compost pile. While washing the container before putting it in
the recycle bin, I started thinking. I usually make my own potato salad
tailored to my tastes. I usually make it following the rule of ones – that one
ten-pound bag of potatoes, one pound of bacon, one dozen eggs, one bunch of
celery… Well, you get the idea. It makes a large batch, a very large batch that
is better suited to a large family gathering. As a result, it is a rare treat.
While I was washing that 1-quart deli container I decided
that I would work on a quick and easy potato salad recipe to just fill the
container (well, with a bit left over for a nice, leisurely taste test); enough
for the two of us for a couple of quickie meals. This is what I came up with. I
hope you will enjoy.
Ingredients:
5 or 6 small russet potatoes
2 large stalks of celery
3 or 4 scallions
1 cup frozen pepper strips (I always have a bag of these in
the freezer in case I run out of fresh Bell peppers)
2 hard-boiled eggs
¼ cup prepared bacon pieces (more or less to taste)
¼ cup yellow mustard
½ cup mayonnaise
Seasonings: ground black pepper, celery seed, paprika and
chicken base
Place the eggs in a small saucepan and cover with cold
water. Place over high heat and bring to a boil. When the water starts boiling,
cover with a lid. On my ceramic top stove I turn off the burner but leave the
pot on the hot surface. On my gas stove, I let the pot boil for almost a minute
after I cover it. Set a time for 20 minutes. I know, all the pundits say 15
minutes but I always have better luck peeling the eggs when I cook then the
extra five minutes. As soon as the time sounds, remove from heat and drain in
the sink. Fill the pan several times with cold running tap water. Add a cup of
ice and place in the refrigerator for half an hour. When it is time to peel,
tap on both ends to crack the shell then gently roll the egg under palm
pressure to crack the shell all around. Start peeling from the pointed end and
most of the shell will come off in large pieces. Rinse and dry with a paper
towel.
Instead of boiling, use the microwave to cook the potatoes.
Select similar sized potatoes and microwave until a fork just pierces the
potatoes easily, about five to six minutes depending on your machine. Set the
potatoes aside to cool enough to handle. One the potatoes have cooled, they can
easily be peeled by hand using gentile pinching motions with an occasional
fingernail scrape for the stubborn peel. Set aside.
Prepare the mixing bowl: Place 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise,
1 tablespoon of mustard and 2 teaspoons of chicken base in the bottom of the
bowl (chicken base is paste used to make chicken broth, similar to bouillon but
in a paste form). Mix well. Add pepper, celery seed, bacon pieces and paprika
to taste. The chicken base will add a significant portion of salt.
Dice the previously peeled potatoes and add to the mixing
bowl. Stir the potatoes to coat them with the seasoning mixture.
Slice the scallions including the green stems. Add to the
potatoes in the bowl. Dice the celery and add to the bowl. Dice or chop the
peeled hard-boiled eggs and add to the bowl. Add the remaining mustard and
mayonnaise (more or less to personal taste), folding to mix well and distribute
the flavoring mixture with the later mayo addition. The first taste will be
slightly salty until the potatoes absorb some of the chicken base. Taste and
add celery seed, pepper, paprika, mustard or mayo as needed to personal taste
remembering the salt will change over a couple of hours.
This batch that I made filled the 1-quart deli potato salad
container to the top with about ½ cup left over for a taste test. Preparation
time was minimal and the results were excellent. The radishes in the garden
were not quite rip but they could have added nicely to the dish. My personal
preference is to add a bit of sweet pickle relish but the wife does not care
for that addition so it was left out of this batch. That’s not to say you
couldn’t add a bit of chopped dill pickle or even some capers if that is to
your liking. As well, a few sliced black olives would also have added to the overall
dish. There you have it; a quick and easy one-quart of potato salad that makes
all deli potato salads pale in comparison. I hope you enjoy. 
This was about the potato salad but it did share the plate
with the chicken. These were fresh chicken boneless and skinless chicken
breasts so I put them in the freezer for about 40 minutes to firm up. After
forty minutes in the freezer, the chicken breasts were easy to butterfly.
Butterfly the breasts to even out the thickness which produces a nicer, evenly
cooked chicken, no overcooked edges while the center is still raw. I seasoned
with a slight bit of grated sea salt, finely ground white pepper and just the
slightest sprinkle of ground ginger. I then marinated them in lemon juice and
key lime juice from the trees in our back yard for about four hours. Use a plastic
bag with a zip-lock top. Squeeze most of the air out of the bag before closing;
that way you can use a small amount of juice to marinate the chicken. Turn a
few times to even out the contact with the juice. Preheat the grill. Over
medium to high grilling heat cook chicken for two minutes. Turn chicken and
cook for an additional two minutes. Turn chicken 90-degrees and cook for two
minutes. Flip chicken and cook for a final two minutes. (The time is a
guideline – it will vary slightly with your grill) You want to just cook it to
the 170 degrees recommended for white meat chicken The chicken will still be a
bit pale but the sugar in the juice will make nice ross-hatch grill marks on
both sides, cooked through but still be tender and juicy with a wonderful grill
and lemon-lime flavor . It is one of our favorite ways to prepare chicken. I
hope you will enjoy it too.Labels: bacon bits, celery, chicken, chicken base, ginger, lemon, lime, marinate, mayonnaise, mustard, potato salad, scallions, sea salt, white pepper
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