You Say Potato, I Say...

When Noble Pig decides to host a potato Ho-Down, and I have potatoes in the kitchen and herbs coming out my ears, all begging to be made into herby, tangy potato salad, I can't help but climb on the potato Ho wagon, even though my Ho name is so not a good Ho name. Whatever. This is the best potato salad ever.

The thing is, you can use whatever fresh herbs you have, and whatever onion/garlic family member floats your boat. I had parsley, basil and scallions from the CSA (on the right), a bag of freshly dug new potatoes from a farm stand, and thyme, sage, tarragon and oregano in my garden (on the left). I also had some cilantro from the CSA - but I was making this to eat with my mother, who is in the cilantro-tastes-like-soap camp, so I left it out.

I washed enough potatoes for two people, and cut them in half, mostly so they'd cook a little quicker. I dropped them into nicely salted boiling water. When they were done (stick 'em with a fork), I drained them and dumped a bowl of ice cubes on top of the cooling potatoes, still in the colander. Then I sliced the scallions and minced up all the herbs together. All the greenery went into a bowl. I then whacked the now room-temperature potatoes up into cubes and dumped them in the bowl. Everything got dressed with salt, pepper, a couple of tablespoons of olive oil and a couple of tablespoons of red wine vinegar. Bang zoom, you're done.

Yes, Virginia, there is no mayonnaise. If you wanted to be fancy, you could whip up a nice emulsified vinaigrette instead of just splashing in the oil and vinegar. If you have no tarragon, so what? If you have red onion in lieu of scallions, sure - use some. Really, it's the easiest thing ever, and probably the most forgiving. And, did I mention that it has no mayonnaise?

I keep mentioning the mayonnaise because I loathe mayonnaise (even though I think I should like it, and I keep trying it because I think I should like it). But mainly because the lack of mayonnaise means that it's a good potato salad to make in enormous quantities for a big summer party, like W. and I did for our wedding thirteen years ago.

Do you really want to know my (first pet/middle name) Ho name? Schwartz Catherine. It's a good thing I'm not walking the streets.

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There'll be a Potato Ho-Down round-up at Noble Pig on July 16th...plan to go visit!