Recipe CXXXVI - Summer Food: Potato Salad with Pickled Red Onions

This year's weather so far has been... well... forgettable at the best of times. Last year, by the end of March, we had already spent several days outside, lunches in the garden, walks by the river, socks put firmly in the drawers until October. Not so this year. Today was the first time we had breakfast outside, although it was still slightly chilly, but I didn't care. So by the time lunch came around, it was a pretty decent early summer afternoon. It reminded me of the summers of my youth, back before our current parlous state, when we would all be able to mow the grass without ending up with sunstroke and a severe case of dehydration. So to celebrate this gorgeous day of fluffy white clouds, a gentle breeze and the chirrup of birds, I made two salads to go with a lovely piece of duroc pork. This is a real crowd-pleasing recipe and one that you can easily take with you to picnics or BYOF gatherings.

Ingredients: 

1kg floury potatoes

A handful of chopped chives (optional)

Some olive oil

Some mayonnaise

3 medium-sized red onions

150ml+ apple cider vinegar

Sugar and salt to taste

Instructions:

Pre-boil the potatoes and leave them to cool. Floury potatoes are good for this recipe because they give off a creamy texture and go very well with the combination. Put in a small amount of olive oil as the potatoes will be sticky and this will let you separate them on the plate more easily. Once they are cool, add some mayonnaise and chopped chives. Not much mayonnaise, just enough to coat.

While the potatoes are cooling, you can make your red onion pickle. Heat some apple cider vinegar in a small saucepan on a low flame - you don't want to evaporate it, as it will be used later in the jar. Cut up the onions as small as possible and add them to the hot vinegar. Add sugar and salt to the pan until you get the right balance of sweet, salty and sour. The onions should be sweet more than the other two, as it will complement your potato salad very well.

Once you have the balance, pour the liquid and the onions into a jar and leave to cool. Add to the potato salad and serve cold.

I served ours with a piece of Spanish duroc pork and a crispy salad with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and mustard.

I shall be making this once more very soon.

Recipe CIV - Rocket Salad

A few days ago, I read something from a Mr Lobstermuncher of Beckenham, Kent, along the lines of "Rocket Salad is rubbish", or words to that effect. Anyhow, I beg to disagree, Mr Lobstermuncher. Rocket salad is really tasty, but that means doing something with it. I have often wondered why kids don't want to eat veggies and salad - if they're so dull and lifeless, I wouldn't want to eat them either. I mean, you wouldn't have ever drunk tonic on its own unless you had spent some time convalescing in the 19th century, so that's why people add vodka or gin. The same goes for salads. Most leaf salads are quite bitter if you do nothing to them. Here's a little suggestion using ingredients nearly everyone has in their kitchens, or are easy to obtain.

Ingredients:

Some rocket salad

Some olive oil

Some balsamic vinegar

(Oil : Balsamic ratio = 3 : 2)

1-2 tsp brown sugar in a bowl

20-30 raisins or sultanas

4-5 hazelnuts

Some ground black pepper

2 cloves of garlic (cut into pieces)

Some grated slices of hard cheese like Cheddar, Parmesan, Manchego, Leicester, etc...

Instructions:

Take the olive oil, the balsamic vinegar, the pepper and garlic, and pour them in the bowl with the sugar. Give them a gentle swirl with a spoon until it's all mixed up.

Take your hazelnuts and crush them with your finger, sprinkling half into the bowl with the salad, and half into the oil and vinegar mix. Cut up half of the sultanas and put them in the oil and the whole ones in the salad. Mix up the salad, then taste the oil mixture and add more of what you think (maybe sugar, maybe oil or vinegar), then pour it all over the rocket salad and toss until all the leaves are saturated.

Finally, add the cheese on top and serve with your main course!

Cherry tomatoes go very well with this dish, as do Mozzarella, basil, chives and a lot of other ingredients. If someone says, "But I don't like .....," just remember that when it's mixed up with other ingredients, it probably tastes fine. But you're going to put people off for life if you serve certain things on their own!