French-Style Potato Salad
French-Style potato salad as opposed to one that’s dressed in mayonnaise or soured cream. I did play about with calling it ‘Herby Potato Salad’ because there are a lot of herbs, but the vinaigrette dressing swung it. In my house, this is just called ‘Potato Salad’. It’s my default setting for any summertime barbecue and I love it – not least because it’ll sit in the sunshine without coming to any harm.
You know how chefs say they go to the market and look for what’s fresh and their imaginations start buzzing with ideas of what they’ll create .. well, it wasn’t quite like that. I went to the supermarket and there was a trolley full of reduced Jersey Royal potatoes .. and I immediately thought, ‘Good, potato salad’.
Does that count??? It’s certainly the way I cook.
Jersey Royals are usually expensive and have EU protected status. The reason is not the type of potato but the growing conditions. They’re been grown on the island of Jersey since 1880 and are planted on the steep south facing coastal slopes in well-drained and nutrient-rich soil. Vraic, which is the dialect word for the locally collected seaweed, is used as a fertiliser and the steep slopes mean much of the crop has to be harvested by hand.
99% of the harvest ends up on the UK mainland, the rest the islanders eat themselves. This late in their season they’re getting larger than the ones that appear in May. Best are the ones with mud clinging to them – but I’m grateful for my bargain.
With a Jersey Royal it’s skin-on. Always. The skins are paper thin and all the nutrients are just beneath it. I’m inclined to do that with all small waxy potatoes. I’m going to sell it on the grounds of health, but I hate scraping potatoes. Give them a good wash and, for preference, steam rather than boil. Conventionally, it takes about 20 minutes. Aga – bring to the boil in cold salted water. Give it a couple of minutes on the boiling plate and then drain completely of water. Replace the lid and pop into the simmering oven for 30 minutes.
You are looking for ‘tender at the point of a knife’.
Then cover the saucepan with a clean tea-towel, replace the lid and let it steam dry for a further five minutes.
Hopefully, they’re now dry and cool enough to handle. Cut into bite sized pieces. Smaller ones I cut in half, the larger potatoes into four.
Place them in a bowl and pour over a glug of white wine. Most recipes that call for that will tell you to use what’s left in a bottle. Who are these people? Nigel and I would finish the bottle! So, whenever I open a bottle, I take a little bit off the top and freeze it. Useful for making a risotto, too, and probably better for us to consume a little less alcohol. If you don’t drink alcohol, you could miss this stage out completely or use a little bit of chicken stock.
Give it all a stir and then cover with plastic wrap. The potatoes will soak up the wine.
Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. It can be as simple or as complicated as you like. Considering the quantity of fresh herbs I’m about to include, I keep it really simple. One part good quality white wine vinegar with three parts good olive oil. I do spend money on the ingredients for a dressing because they have nowhere to hide. In this case I actually didn’t use olive oil but a cold pressed rapeseed oil.
Then, I added a blob of Dijon Mustard, salt and pepper. Give everything a shake and taste. Now’s the time to make any adjustments. If you don’t use all of it in this potato salad it’s a lovely dressing on a green salad and will keep happily in the fridge for a few days.
The herbs are the stars of the salad. Parsley – flat leaf or curly. I can’t see that it matters.
Basil.
The easiest way to chop basil is to pile the basil leaves up and roll into a cigar. Then chop with the sharp knife. If you have any green sludge on your board it’s because your knife is too blunt and you are bruising the herbs rather than chopping them.
And that’s a chiffonade.
I served this potato salad with salmon which made dill an obvious choice. In fact, any ‘soft’ herb is lovely and when my herb bed is really flourishing I have fun.
I like the tang of spring onions and chop both the white and green parts. When Seb is home from uni I often omit them and use chives in their place. Of course, in the interests of honesty, I should mention I get fed up with accommodating his preferences and will revert to spring onions when he’s been home a few weeks. (You might like to remind yourself of my problem when making cottage pie.) Finely chopped shallots are also lovely.
By now the potatoes will have sucked up the alcohol. Add as much of the vinaigrette as you need to coat everything, but not so much as you have a pool of it at the bottom of the serving dish. Then add the herbs and the spring onions.
If you want to keep this in the fridge, do bring it to room temperature again before you serve it.
Eat.
French-Style Potato Salad
Serves 8 generously
- 1.5kg/3lb waxy potatoes
- 50ml/2 fl oz white wine
- 50ml/2 fl oz white wine vinegar
- 150ml/6 fl oz good olive oil or cold pressed rapeseed oil
- 1 tsp Dijon Mustard
- 1 tsp of salt
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 8 spring onions, both the white and green parts, chopped
- 3 generous tablespoons of chopped fresh parsley
- 3 generous tablespoons of chopped basil
- 3 generous tablespoons of chopped fresh dill
Thoroughly scrub the potatoes to get rid of any dirt and steam until they are ‘tender at the point of a knife’. Cover with a clean tea-towel, replace the lid, and allow to steam for 5-10 minutes longer.
Cut into bite sized pieces and place in a shallow bowl. Add the white wine and give everything a gentle stir. Cover with plastic wrap and allow the potato to absorb the wine.
Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette. I like to use a parfait jar or empty jam jar. It’s one part white wine vinegar to three parts oil if you like to do it by eye. Otherwise, 50ml/2fl oz of white wine vinegar in the bottom of the jar. Add 150ml/6 fl oz of good quality olive oil or cold pressed rapeseed oil. Add 1 tsp of Dijon Mustard. A teaspoon of sea salt and ½ teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper. Replace the lid on your jar and give everything a shake. Taste. You can add more seasoning, more vinegar …
Chop your choice of soft herbs. Parsley, basil and dill are easy to buy and are my default selection.
Remove the plastic wrap and add enough of the dressing to coat the potatoes. Then the herbs. 3 generous tablespoons of each. Give everything a gentle stir and serve at room temperature.
Eat.