Fabulous salad for the Fourth - potato salad - Brief Article - Recipe

* Going on a picnic? Barbecuing in the backyard? Hot dogs? Hamburgers? Steaks? Salmon? Regardless of how you celebrate our nation's birthday potato salad belongs in the picture. This particular recipe has roots (pun intended). My great-aunt Nora, the last of the family on the Kansas homestead, made the world's best bread-and-butter pickles, and they were the magical ingredient in her potato salad. By July, she'd already had time to make a batch of the pickles using cucumbers from her garden. Sometimes the potatoes in the garden were big enough to dig for the salad, too. That was long ago, but my appetite for a really great potato salad is still keen. Now, it's bread-and-butter pickles from the store and buttery yellow Yukon gold potatoes that satisfy my taste buds and nourish memories too.

Bread-and-Butter Pickle Potato Salad

PREP AND COOK TIME: About 1 hour

NOTES: Pour the pickle juice out of the jar through a fine strainer into a bowl and save the mustard seed for the salad, or use dried mustard seed soaked in hot water for 5 minutes, then drained. If making salad up to 1 day ahead, cover and chill; mix before serving.

MAKES: 6 servings

2 pounds Yukon gold potatoes (about 2 1/4 in. wide), scrubbed

1 tablespoon mustard seed (see notes)

1/2 cup bread-and-butter pickle juice (see notes)

1/2 cup finely chopped bread-and-butter pickles

1/2 cup reduced-fat or regular mayonnaise

2 tablespoons cider or white wine vinegar

1 red bell pepper (1/2 lb.), rinsed, stemmed, seeded, and diced

6 tablespoons minced parsley

Salt and pepper

1. In a 4- to 5-quart pan, combine potatoes and 1 1/2 quarts water. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender when pierced, 25 to 30 minutes. Drain and let stand until cool enough to touch, about 10 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, mix mustard seed, pickle juice, pickles, mayonnaise, and vinegar. Peel warm potatoes, cut into about 3/4-inch cubes, and drop into dressing. Add bell pepper; mix gently. Let cool to room temperature, at least 15 minutes. Add 4 tablespoons parsley and salt and pepper to taste; mix. Scrape into a serving bowl and sprinkle with remaining parsley

Per serving: 207 cal., 21% (44 cal.) from fat; 4 g protein; 4.9 g fat (0.7 g sat.); 37 g carbo (3.4 g fiber); 428 mg sodium; 0 mg chol.

COPYRIGHT 2000 Sunset Publishing Corp.
COPYRIGHT 2000 Gale Group