Being lunchtime, but willing to follow my vision, I decide to take out a little early and dash over to the grocery store. I didn't have time to dice and boil red potatoes, as I would have preferred, but, amazingly, Ore-Ida of all companies has a product called Steam-n-mash potatoes, which consists of nothing but diced cooked potato. remembering this from a former dinner emergency that demanded mashed potatoes in the blink of an eye, I hypothesized that this product would work equally well for pan-fried potatoes. Now, some people call pan-fried diced potatoes "hash browns," including Martha Stewart, from whom I learned the exact method used here, which is why around our house we call it "Martha 'Taters." Personally I consider hash browns the byproduct of browning shredded potatoes on a diner grill, and sometimes in my nonstick skillet. Which one is correct? Who knows. Let's not get bogged down by semantics.
I also picked up some precooked bacon- lately it seems like all the pre-made breakfast product I buy that's made by Jimmy Dean has been golden. They make the best precooked turkey breakfast sausage on the planet. (At least of the kinds that can found in grocery stores in the midwestern US.) I also grabbed a new dozen eggs, as we were in need. And would nearly be again, after this meal.
I put some oil in an iron skillet, brought it to temp, put in some of the frozen spud cubes and covered it, cooking them on medium. Meanwhile, I hard boiled some eggs. We use a method that either comes from Julia Child, or James Beard. Neither Abbey nor I can remember anymore. It's devastatingly simple- and I say "devastatingly" because for a long time I couldn't make a properly boiled egg to save my life. Since Abbey turned me on to this method, I haven't messed up one boiled egg, not one. Suffice to say the first perfect egg was devastating enough, but it always knocks me out how foolproof this is. Simply place the eggs (six, in this case, as Olivia likes hard boiled eggs), cold, in a sauce pan with maybe five inches of water and turn on the heat. Bring it just to a boil, turn off the heat, lid it and take it off the burner. Do something else for a while. If I recall correctly, wait three minutes for soft boiled, five to seven for hard boiled. Is that right? I waited about seven and it was perfect.
As you know, my initial vision of this salad was a mixed green salad with warm potatoes. While describing my project to Abbey, she was forming a vision of a take on German potato salad. That seemed better to me, and a bit more comforting. October 2009 is about to go in the history books as the soggiest and coldest October in Missouri history. Today, it's raining and a little nippy- no surprise at all. So something warmer than a green salad was sounding good. We decided to use up our fresh baby spinach for this meal, and I made a sweet apple cider vinegar vinaigrette to help everything meld.
So, for your pleasure, our potato-egg-spinach salad, which is half farmer salad, half warm German potato salad.
Ingredients
One standard grocery store container of baby spinach
Two bacon strips, thinly shredded or minced
half of a red onion, sliced very thin, in half rings
2 cups cooked and cubed potato
2-4 eggs, hard-boiled
1/3 cup canola or other light oil
3-6 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 tsp dijon mustard (not country style)
3 to 5 tablespoons sugar (I used normal granulated, but I bet brown or demerara would be good)
a piece or two of homemade or artisanal whole wheat bread (I used La Brea's Organic Wheat loaf- yummy)
salt to taste
Wash and dry the spinach and place in a salad bowl.
put a tablespoon or two of canola oil in an iron or nonstick skillet on medium heat. When warm, put the potatoes in there, more or less in one layer, and lid it.
Meanwhile, start your eggs- cold from the fridge, in cold water at least 5" deep, on high temp, and thin slice onions.
Doublecheck the potatoes. When the bottoms are browning, daub potatoes with a little butter, put a plate that is wider than the skillet on top of the skillet, and carefully flip it all over, being careful not to burn yourself. Pick up the skillet, put it back on the burner, and slide the potatoes in one gesture into the pan, so they stay browned side up. Takes a little practice but it is totally doable. re-lid, unless you need to cook bacon- here's a great place for it. Chop it finely and toss it in with the half-finished potatoes. Don't re-lid in this case.
take the eggs off the heat when it's just coming to a boil. put the lid on and take off the burner. Make a note of the time- they should sit there three minutes for soft boiled, five to seven for hard.
Meanwhile start the dressing. Add three tablespoons of cider vinegar to the third cup canola oil, add three tablespoons sugar, the mustard and a dash of salt. whisk. test for sweetness and acidity. I usually use twice the amount of vinegar and another tablespoon of sugar, you may not like it that strong though. Whisk until smooth and thickened.
when the potatoes are almost done, put in the onions and let them cook a little. Also add the precooked bacon, if you are using that. After a couple of minutes of sauteeing, dump it all into the salad bowl. Follow with the dressing and toss.
Toast the bread. Peel and chop the eggs into quarters. add as many as you like (we used three). toss them in the salad lightly, taking care not to tear them up too much. Cut the toast into cubes and toss on top.
That's it! Hearty, warm, sweet, sour, filling, green-y... Perfect for a gray, wet day. We followed up with a nice cup of black Assam tea. Feeling pretty good right now.
No comments:
Post a Comment