Monday, August 15, 2011

Recipe #15 - Purple Potato Salad...that wasn't purple

We were invited over to the neighbors for some burgers they asked me to bring a side dish.  Being that I hadn't made a Tyler recipe since the infamous "Burning down the house chicken skewers," I decided it was time to see what simple side dishes were available. 

Option 1:  Shrimp Ceviche Served in Coconuts










While it looks pretty cool, I don't think it would have paired well with a burger.


Option 2: Wild Rice Pilaf with Nuts and Lemon










Interesting dish but I wasn't feeling wild.

Option 3:  Purple Potato Salad
(no picture available on foodnetwork.com)

Another one of those no picture recipes, but it seemed like the best choice to pair with the protein of choice.

So off to market to buy a fat pig.  Gotta buy a a pig.  Gotta have a pig.  

Sorry about that.  Been watching a lot of sesame street and there is a great skit where a weimeraner dog is dressed up like an old lady and goes to market to buy a fat a pig.  Just tried to find a video online to help with the visual but I couldn't so you'll just have to take my word for it that it's pretty awesome.  Now back to why I was really going to the market.

Here's the list of ingredients and recipe so you can follow along at home:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/purple-potato-salad-recipe/index.html 

The main ingredient in purple potato salad is purple potatoes of course.  Where does one buy a purple potato?  Probably at whole foods or some specialty market.  Where did I go to buy them?  Stop and Shop.  Who didn't have any purple potatoes.  Yep, you guessed it, Stop and Shop.  So instead of heading over to whole foods which is miles and miles away from my little town, I decided to improvise and use red potatoes.  I hesitate to say red bliss because I think they were just red, no bliss.  Anywho, buy whatever potatoes you can find and I'm sure it will turn out fine.  Won't be purple but not sure you could taste the difference.  I think we'll need to have a potato taste test in the future!

Ingrendientos!  Red skin potatoes, red onion (recipe calls for purple onion but I couldn't find that either), spices, grey poupon (anything less would be uncivilized), celery, dill, lemon, parsley.   

First thing to do is get a good size pot of salt water on the burner.  Turn that shizzle up nice and high so we can get a boil going. 

Whole bunch of potatoes taking a bath in the bubbly.
While the potatoes are doing there thing, chop up the onion, celery, and parsley.

I'm really enjoying the color profile in this picture.  (Parsley is not pictured.  Sorry parsley, I'll get you next time.)

Next you can mix up the liquid ingredients with the spices and you'll get something that looks like this.

Check the seasoning and add salt and or pepper if needed.  I don't think I added any extra.

Take out the potatoes when they are fork tender.  Don't overcook since you don't want mashed potato salad.  Unless you do want mashed potato salad, then cook those mofos until they mash up easily.  I wonder if mashed potato salad would be good.  I don't see why it wouldn't.  Just a different texture and consistency. 

Cut the potatoes into bite size chunks and toss it with the dry and wet ingredients.  And voila!


Red Potato Salad!

Pretty easy recipe and didn't take more than 45 minutes.  I suggest making it ahead of time and refrigerating it to cool for an hour or two.  I'm not a fan of hot potato salad. 

Tasted great.  Had a bit of a kick to it from the cayenne.  If you don't like it spicy then cut back a little on the cayenne.  If you like it hot hot hot, then shake shake shake that cayenne on in it. 

Paired very well with the burgers and I would highly recommend this as a bbq side dish for any type of meat. 

Back by request and or demand is the 4 Clean Plate award!



and a random picture of Ally getting her drink on somewhere in Boston just cause she's awesome.



Next up :  A Special Non-Tyler Dessert and a Pork Extravaganza!