PICTURE IT: a steaming hot summer’s day.
PERFECT, you think, for tossing something on teh grill, and mebbe a nice, cool salad on teh side.
POTATO salad? No… who wants to steam up teh kitchen boiling potatoes when it is already so darned hot?
Have a ‘wave?
PROBLEM SOLVED!
INGREDIENTS
Salad:
•1-1/2 lb yellow potatoes, washed and quartered
•1/2 cup onion, diced
•1 kosher dill pickle spear, diced
•Fresh parsley, minced
•Paprika (optional)
Dressing:
•1/2 buttermilk* (no buttermilk? see below)
•1/2 sour cream
•1/2-cup mayonnaise
•1 tbsp Dijon mustard
•1 tbsp yellow mustard
•1 tsp celery seed
•1/2 tsp Tellicherry pepper
•1 tsp salt
•1 tsp Cajun Power Spicy Garlic Sauce
(or your favorite hot sauce)
•1 tsp sugar
*First, the buttermilk:
If you don’t happen to keep buttermilk in the house, all you need is some regular milk – skim, 2%, whole, it’s all good – a bit of 
lemon juice or white vinegar, and about five minutes.
For each cup of buttermilk called for, add one tablespoon of fresh lemon juice or white vinegar to a measuring cup.
Add milk to fill out the measure, give it a quick stir, then set aside for five minutes.
Voilà, buttermilk!
OK, back to our salad.
Place the washed and quartered (or halved, depending on the size of your potatoes, you want the pieces to be fairly uniform in size) potatoes in a ‘wave-safe, covered bowl and cover with water.
Let rest for 15 minutes, then drain and rinse. This is an old trick for getting rid of extra starch in the potatoes.
Drain and rinse the potatoes, but don’t try to get them too dry – you’ll want a bit of that moisture.
Season with a bit of salt (I used my own seasoned salt), give the potatoes a toss to coat, then cover the bowl and pop it in the ‘wave.
Select ‘Potato’ on the keypad, push ‘Start’ and go about your business.
When the ‘wave is done, your potatoes should be just about perfect for salad. If you want to smash ’em, you may need another cycle.
Tumble the potatoes out of the bowl to drain any excess water, then turn into a bowl and stash in the firdge until well chilled.
While the potatoes are chilling, make the dressing by combining the buttermilk, sour cream, mayonnaise, mustards, and all the seasonings in a container. I used my immersion blender.
Once the potatoes are nicely cooled, toss with the onion and pickle in a large bowl to combine, then drizzle in the dressing to your preference. Some folk like a lot of dressing, others prefer a drier salad, it’s your call.
Toss the dressed salad with the chopped fresh parsley, sprinkle it all with paprika, if you like, and let rest for about an hour in the fridge for the flavors to blend.
We had ours with some nicely grilled linguiça (yes, I put ‘sup! on my sausages – mayonnaise too – deal with it).
Cool dinner. Cooler kitchen.
Looks yummy & sounds easy. What’s a Tellicherry pepper?
Tellicherry is a specific (and my personal FAVORITE) type of black peppercorn – I think it has a fresher flavor with a hint of lemon in with the general peppery-ness. You can buy it (ground or whole at my fave The Spice House, but also at Penzey’s – and they have a store across from Woodman’s in Keno). If you buy it from either of them, you’ll be amazed at how reasonable the cost is, BUT, you will never want plain old black pepper again.