Traditional Potato Salad
Fried carp and potato salad are inseparable from a true Europian Christmas.
Potato salad is a side dish that is prepared in various versions in many countries around the world. Each region and family has its own traditional recipe.
Potato salads, which are prepared in Austria or southern Germany, are often eaten warm, sometimes even hot. In northern Germany and the USA, salads are served chilled..
To make a bowl of potato salad look festive at the Christmas table, you can decorate it with a spruce branch and a slice of lemon or orange.
Potato salad is a simple, inexpensive and tasty dish that can be prepared in advance and then refrigerated.
Ingredients:
- 6 larger potatoes
- 3 parsley
- 2 carrots
- 2 onions
- 1/2 celery
- 3 eggs
- 1 can of sterilised peas
- a few sterilised sweet and sour cucumbers
- mayonnaise
- vinegar
- mustard
- salt
- pepper
- sugar
- green parsley
Procedure:
- Wash and boil the potatoes in their skins. Hard boil the eggs. Clean the root vegetables and boil them in salted water until tender. Cut the onion into small cubes and boil briefly in hot water with a little vinegar and sugar – adjust the acidity to your taste. Leave everything to cool.
- Peel the potatoes and eggs and either push them and the vegetables into a bowl through a metal sieve or chop finely with a knife. Add the peas, grated cucumbers, season with salt and pepper, pour in the steamed sweet and sour onion, brighten with finely chopped parsley and finally add the mayonnaise.
- Stir the salad well and leave it to rest until the next day to allow the flavours to combine. Serve with fried carp or schnitzel and garnish each portion with a sprig of parsley and a slice of lemon.
Viennese potato salad
A Viennese potato salad refers to salads that are prepared without mayonnaise but still have a creamy consistency.
Even if only broth, vinegar and oil are used in the dressing, you can achieve a thick dressing due to the fact that hot potatoes can absorb a lot of liquid and release a lot of starch.
The basic principle of the Viennese salad is therefore to pour a lot of dressing over the still hot sliced potatoes, so that some of it is absorbed into the potatoes and the rest is thickened by the starch and coats the potatoes with the dressing.
Seasoning the potatoes
The liquid absorbed by the potatoes should be sufficiently flavoured to give the potatoes the right taste. After you pour the vinaigrette over the warm, sliced potatoes, it will be absorbed into the potatoes, giving them flavour, zing, juiciness and suppleness. And they won’t let water out, even after they’ve sat in the fridge.
Steamed potatoes absorb the dressing best, giving them a more pronounced flavour. A simple steamer insert for steaming dumplings is sufficient.
How the dressing is made
If you add more topping to the potatoes than the potatoes can absorb, the potatoes will float in the remaining topping. That’s when the starch comes in, which, when it has liquid and heat available, thickens and, as you gently stir the potatoes, thickens the dressing that didn’t fit into the potatoes. It is during the stirring that the starch is released from the potatoes and dispersed in it.
So don’t forget to give the salad a good stir!
Flavouring the Viennese potato salad
For the dressing, use stock (preferably homemade beef, but it’s a matter of taste), white wine or your favourite flavoured vinegar and olive, sunflower or rapeseed oil. You can also add red onion, finely chopped or sliced onion, sweet and sour cucumber, baby spinach, field greens and egg to the salad. If you want to achieve an unusual colour, use pumpkin seed oil to turn the salad a deep green.
If you want an even creamier texture, add a few potatoes mashed in a garlic press and mashed in the stock.
The Viennese salad is easier to prepare than the classic potato salad, because of the smaller amount of ingredients that have to be cut.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg type A boiling potatoes
- 250 ml broth (preferably homemade beef)
- 40 ml vegetable oil
- 20 ml white wine vinegar or your favourite vinegar
- pepper
- salt
- to taste you can add 1 red onion, 2 cucumbers, spinach or
- hard-boiled eggs
Procedure:
- Wash the potatoes thoroughly and boil in salted water or steam in the skin. Cook potatoes of the same size so that the smaller ones do not boil and the larger ones are not hard. Let the cooked potatoes rest uncovered for about 10 minutes to allow the remaining water to evaporate and cool a little so that they can be picked up and peeled. Then cut them into slices less than half a centimetre thick with a knife.
- Heat the stock to almost boiling, add the oil and vinegar, salt and pepper. Pour this hot broth over the still warm potatoes and stir gently several times so as not to soften the potatoes. The dressing will be absorbed into the potatoes in a moment and the rest will thicken.
- Now add the finely chopped onions, cucumbers or other ingredients, stir again and leave to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
- Taste the salad and season with salt before serving.
Light (diet) potato salad without mayonnaise
For those who do not like heavy and calorie-heavy mayonnaise versions of potato salad, there are many healthier light and very tasty alternatives.
Ingredients:
- 1 kg type A boiling potatoes
- 1,5 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ½ red onion
- 5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- 4 tablespoons oil
- 1 handful of fresh herbs – for example green parsley
- salt
- pepper
- a pinch of cumin
- You can add garlic or fresh dill to taste.
Procedure:
- Wash the potatoes thoroughly and boil in salted water with a pinch of cumin.
Meanwhile, mix mustard, vinegar, salt and freshly ground pepper. - Cut the onion into thin strips.
- Slice the cooked potatoes or press them through a metal grid and mix them with the vinegar mixture while still hot.
- Let the salad cool and then mix with vegetable oil and herbs to taste.
- Let the salad rest until the next day to allow the flavours to combine well.