[upbeat music]
- Hi, I'm Emily and I'm a level one chef.
- Hi, I'm Julie.
I'm a level two chef.
- I'm Joe and I'm a
professional instructor
at the Institute of Culinary Education
and I've been cooking for over 30 years.
[upbeat music]
- I have made potato salad
one to two times in my life.
This recipe is basically just
a variation on my egg salad recipe,
because I actually make
egg salad fairly regularly.
- We are going to make
my mom's potato salad.
She was a phenomenal cook,
as a matter of fact, she
was in the New York Times
for her curry goat recipe.
She was terrific.
- Today, I'm gonna make for you
a potato and Brussels sprout salad
with green apples, bacon and dill.
There's no mayonnaise,
this one's served warm,
the preparation is totally different.
[upbeat music]
- So, the very first thing
I'm gonna do is I'm going
to peel my potatoes.
I have here two russet potatoes
and I chose this because I
saw it online as an option.
I trust the internet.
- We've got some lovely red skin potatoes
and we are not going to peel.
I don't like a mushy potato salad,
so the skin kinda helps
hold the potato together
when we're folding in the dressing.
- With the russet potato, I
think it's important to peel.
It's not good in a salad,
like, it's just, it's like
chewy and it's like solid.
- This is the ultimate
potato for potato salad.
I always use fingerling potatoes
for this kind of presentation.
They hold their shape better,
they have better taste,
they're denser.
You'd be a fool to use another potato.
- Look at me, such a professional.
Peeling potatoes.
There's a lot of comments
online that are like,
"These level ones must be actors,
"no one would be that dumb!"
Joke's on you, yes they can be.
Okay, all right, 'kay, oh, 'kay, nope.
I'm gonna finish this.
- The first thing I do
to cook these potatoes
is I put them into cold water,
making sure I only use potatoes
that are the same size,
so they all cook evenly.
- Rather than cooking the potatoes whole,
I prefer to slice 'em in quarters
to get them to cook a little bit faster.
- And I'm done.
Now, I'm going to pop these
potatoes into my cold water.
- In any cooking process,
it's better to start in cold water.
- And then bring it up to the boil.
- So everything cooks at the same time.
- All right, I'm just
going to bring this up.
[laughs] I love it when it serenades me.
- And then, we're just gonna add,
let's be really scientific here,
a skosh of salt.
- We salt the water.
Salting doesn't increase
the speed the water boils,
it increases the temperature
that the water boils at.
- I mean, you know, it's
not brain surgery, but.
- It will probably take
about 15 to 20 minutes
at 212 degrees or 200 degrees.
- And I'm gonna let it simmer at that...
Simmering.
- So, my potatoes have been
cooking for about 15 minutes now
and I'm gonna test one
to see if it's done.
- And I wanna be able to lift
the potato out of the water.
I don't want it to kind of slide off
'cause that means it's a little mushy.
- All right.
- Spread 'em on
a little sheet pan.
- Just a colander, a bowl.
- I'll let the potatoes
come to room temperature,
just like that.
- I've gotta hustle and get
these into the refrigerator
to cool them down.
- Cool, cool, cool, cool,
cool, cool, cool, cool, cool.
All right, these are my potatoes,
the next thing I'm gonna
do is get all the stuff
I'm gonna mix 'em with.
- So, we've got our potatoes
under control and cooling.
Now, it's time to boil up some eggs.
- I start the eggs in cold water.
So, the eggs cook very gradually,
they don't become rubbery.
- Don't hate me, but
I like well done eggs.
So, we're just gonna let these babies boil
to 430 for like eight to 10 minutes.
- Now that my eggs have
cooked for about 12 minutes,
I'm gonna put them into iced water.
- And really, what that does is
make it easier for them to handle.
- Get a little water in
between the shell and the egg,
it makes it a lot easier to peel
and this peel, you'll see,
comes off like a winter coat.
- Gee willikers!
- So, I've been using this method.
You take a glass, fill it
about halfway with water,
then you drop it in, put the lid on
and then you do the shake,
shake, shake, shake,
shake, shake, shake, shake.
And it gets the process started for you
and voila, my friends.
- Or we can cut 'em the avocado way.
We cut in and then we swirl the egg
like it was an avocado, and pop it open.
- Look at that, is that lovely?
It is.
Rather than quarters, I do sixths.
I do sixths because I like saying that
and also, I love fractions.
- Okay, I've separated
the yolks from the white
because I'm going to
garnish them separately
on the finished dish.
- Here we have our eggs and
we're gonna put them aside
because we're gonna fold
them into the salad.
Now, we're gonna move on to shallots
and our other accoutrements.
- All right, so my
potatoes are all set to go.
The next thing I have to do
is just chop up some things
that I'm gonna be putting
into the potato salad.
- I'm gonna move on to
pickling the onions,
which is a garnish for
the top of the dish.
I'll use white vinegar
and water in equal parts
and bring that up to a boil.
I've taken some raw beet sticks
and put 'em in this jar,
to make them a little earthy tasting
and a little bit sweeter,
I'm gonna cut my onions
to relatively thin.
Okay, I'll pack my jar pretty full.
It's called a quick cure
because the vinegar goes in hot
and actually cooks the
onions a little bit.
You see how the vinegar's already getting
very red from the beets?
I'm gonna leave these to
come to room temperature,
then put 'em in the
fridge for about a week
and remember to invert 'em
or shake 'em every day or so.
- So, shallots, they're my friend.
I prefer using shallots
to onion or scallion
because I find it has
a little bit more punch
than regular onions.
I wanna do big dice.
I like chunky potato salad,
I don't like it very smooth or too creamy.
- It's time to move on to the apple.
First, I'll need to peel 'em and cube 'em.
To keep them green, I'll
just put a little bit
of lemon juice on 'em.
- I have scallions and I have parsley,
and I'm just gonna chop them all up.
I'm gonna put them in a tiny bowl
'cause we live luxuriously
here at Epicurious.
- This is a triple-smoked
piece of slab bacon.
I'm going to cut these into lardons
so it's kind of like a carrot stick cut,
and I'm gonna crispen them up.
It's important that I don't move the bacon
because if I move it, I keep exposing
the cold side of the bacon to
the pan and they won't brown.
Okay, this is as about as
cooked as I want my bacon,
it's a little crispy yet a little chewy
and I wanna drain this bacon fat
because this is what I'm going to use
to cook the Brussels sprouts in.
- Parsley's all chopped,
scallion's all chopped,
next thing, I'm gonna
do my dill pickle, baby!
I choose a dill pickle
because all other pickles
are garbage, fight me.
I mean, I'm not saying that
if you like those pickles,
you're wrong, but you are
wrong, you know what I mean?
- I'll prep my Brussels sprouts.
I'm going to trim the outer leaves,
toss them in a little
bit of the bacon fat.
Of course, I'm gonna season
them with salt and pepper.
And then these'll go off
into the oven to roast
at about 450 for about 10 minutes
or until they're nice and
brown and not too soft.
- And now, we're gonna make the dressing.
The glue, if you will.
We're gonna start with
mayonnaise.
- Mayo.
- Good old accurate Julie is gonna tell ya
to use two globs.
Then, add a glob of Dijon mustard.
- Classic mustard.
I'm like the Pokemon master
but of collecting
condiments on this series.
- That gives it that little
extra grown up potato salad.
- I feel like a, what does this look like?
Oh, like a bug.
- Now, I'm gonna make a vinaigrette.
I'll start off with about a tablespoon
of a Pommery-style mustard,
which will bind the water,
vinegar and oil together.
- This is sweet paprika
and it gives just a
nice, savory little hint.
- Pinch of sugar.
I feel like this is maybe not
how pinches are supposed
to work, but. [laughs]
- And then, I'm just gonna use
a tiny bit of smoked paprika,
two very distinctive tastes.
- A whole bunch of pepper.
- And dissolve that into
my apple cider vinegar.
I wanna dilute it a little
bit, so I add the water
and then I add grapeseed oil
a little bit at the time.
- The last ingredient that
we use is some sweet relish.
I am making a mess here, aren't I?
- Well, that smells normal.
So, my dressing is done
and next, we're just gonna start
putting everything together.
- Okay, now for final assembly.
- The very first thing I'm gonna do
is I'm actually gonna
squeeze my lemon juice,
instead of putting it in here,
I like to put it directly on the potatoes.
- I have my cooked potatoes here,
I need to cut them into fork size pieces.
- The next thing I'm gonna do is
I'm just gonna dump my scallions
and my pickles into here
and I'm gonna do half my parsley now,
'cause I'm gonna do the
other half on top after
to make it look pretty.
'Cause I'm an artist, god dammit.
- Dump in our eggs.
Now, I'm not putting in all these shallots
'cause remember, I told
you, they're very flavorful
and a little sharp.
- I'll add in my Brussels sprouts,
I'll add in a little
bit of my bacon, apples,
I put a tiny bit of dill.
- And then the next thing,
I'm gonna take my dressing
and I'm gonna put it on my potatoes.
- I'm gonna add a little bit
more dill, a few more chives.
I'm having a love affair
with chives this month.
And we're gonna begin to fold.
- Oh yeah, that's what
potato salad looks like.
There is nothing wrong with this.
All right, I would
describe that as combined.
- I kinda find balsamic to be maybe
a little too strong for this.
I prefer a little red wine vinegar.
It takes the edge off the
sweetness of the mayonnaise.
- Now that I have my potato salad mixed,
it's time to plate and garnish it.
I'm right over the plate I'm working on,
I'm going to take a little
dressing to go around the plate.
- I'm just gonna garnish these suckers
with parsley.
- Parsley.
- Bacon bits.
It probably looks like I'm
crying right now. [laughs]
My eyes are really welling up with pride.
- A little more dill, sweet pap, ooh!
- Remember these, pickled onions,
they've been in the back
of your fridge for a week?
Scatter a few here and there.
Then, my egg whites and my egg yolks.
- And this is my potato salad.
- This is my potato salad.
- And there you go, my potato salad.
[playful music]
All that's left to do is enjoy it!
- Mm, mmm, mmm.
- Yeah!
- Okay.
- Mmhmm, you're gonna like this one.
- I am pleasantly surprised.
I like that it's spicy.
If I got this at a picnic,
I would be not angry.
- It's really good!
That little hint of
sweetness from the relish,
the dill and the paprika
take this over the top.
- Everything just works together,
kinda like this harmonious
orchestra of flavors
and I also love the visual impact
that all the different colors have.
It's bubble and squeak with a tweak,
I hope you guys make it
and this to your repertoire.
- Potato salad is a delicious side dish.
Let's see how our three chefs made theirs
the star of the show.
[dramatic music]
When making potato salad,
you wanna use waxy potatoes,
which are low in starch
and high in moisture.
Waxy potatoes have a firmer
flesh and a thinner skin
and hold their shape well when diced
or cut into bite size
pieces after cooking,
because the starchy
cells stick together more
than in the mealy types of potatoes.
Emily used russets, which
are type of mealy potato
that are oblong in shape with white flesh.
Because they're a mealy variety,
when cooked, the starch separates
into fluffy, dry particles.
- It's not good in a
salad, like it's just,
it's like chewy and it's like solid.
- Emily minimized this flaking
by pre-cutting her potatoes
before she boiled them.
She started her cooking by
covering the diced potatoes
with cold, salted water.
The cold water also helps to
make cell walls more firm,
which reduces the chance
that her potatoes will become flaky.
Sometimes, cooked
potatoes turn dark grayish
due to pigments formed
after chlorogenic acid,
iron and oxygen react together.
You minimize this reaction by lowering pH,
which is what Emily did
when she added lemon juice
directly to her potatoes after boiling.
Julie used red and purple
skinned new potatoes,
which are waxy potatoes.
She boils them in their
jackets, or with the skins on.
- With a little bit of salt,
just to aid in the boiling process.
Could be an old wives'
tale, but works for me.
- This works well because
these are young potatoes
with thinner skins that have
a colorful pigmentation.
Joe used fingerling potatoes,
which is also a waxy variety.
Fingerlings are small
and tender, high in water
and have a slightly sweet flesh.
Instead of boiling, Joe
poached his potatoes
at 200 degrees in salted water.
When poaches, potatoes don't
move around in the water
or bump into each other, which
may damage the tender skin.
[dramatic music]
Emily made a simple
potato salad with parsley,
scallion and dill pickle for crunch
in place of the more commonly used celery.
- There's nothing wrong
with celery inherently,
except that it's gross.
I'm an adult, I pay taxes,
I can eat what I want.
I choose no celery.
- Julie adds boiled eggs,
which add some protein and richness.
Egg yolks are high in fat and pigments,
such as lutein and zeaxanthin,
both of which are xanthophylls,
which are yellow pigments
that occur widely in nature
and add a yellow color
to her potato salad.
She uses rough chopped herbs
including chives, dill and parsley.
The finer the herbs are cut,
the more flavor extraction.
- I wanna do big dice.
As far as I'm concerned,
there's no real wrong way
to do anything, except
making steak well done,
don't do it.
- Joe gives a full harvest
theme to his potato salad
by adding trimmed Brussels sprouts.
Brussels sprouts are members
of the cabbage family
and have a distinctive bitter flavor
from the combination
of sulfur and nitrogen
that they contain as isothiocyanates,
a chemical group formed by
substituting oxygen with sulfur.
Slight browning adds a crunchy texture
but be careful, over
roasting Brussels sprouts
will cause the sulfur
compounds to form trisulfides,
which give overcooked cabbage
that unappealing, distinctive flavor.
Joe mixes the salty, crispy bacon
with hard boiled eggs to bring a balance
of salty, bitter and sweetness.
- It's potatoes, bacon and eggs.
- Joe also made pickled red onions,
which he did by combining
sliced red onions and a red beet
and covered it with heated
vinegar, water and salt.
By heating this mixture
first, it ensures that
the salt is dissolved and
flavors are well combined.
[dramatic music]
Emily combines viscosity
from the mayonnaise
and color and tartness from the mustard.
Mayonnaise is an emulsion of egg yolks,
oil and acid like vinegar
and mustard is a natural emulsifier
because it contains mucilaginous compounds
in the outer coating of the seed.
Both of these ingredients help
to keep her dressing from breaking.
Julie made a tighter dressing,
which is thick and adheres
to her potatoes very well.
She also adds pickled relish,
which is based on India relish
and is made from
cucumbers, vinegar, spices,
peppers and sometimes turmeric.
Unlike Emily and Julie,
Joe doesn't use mayonnaise
as the base for his dressing.
Joe instead uses a vinaigrette
that's a small amount of mustard,
cider vinegar, water and canola oil.
Cider vinegar comes from apples
and is higher in malic acid
and darker in color than white vinegar.
[dramatic music]
Emily mixed her potatoes with everything,
carefully keeping the potatoes' shape
while covering them with her
tasty and zesty dressing.
Julie trimmed her
potatoes before assembling
to make them bite size.
- This is actually kind
of almost a melding
of German potato salad
and American potato salad.
- She also mixed her potatoes gently
so that they didn't break up too much.
Joe combined all of his ingredients
with half of his vinaigrette,
and then garnished his plate
with grated egg whites.
- And you notice, I'm adding everything
like the numbers on a clock
around the main ingredient
and that's so I can
gauge how many potatoes
there are to the other ingredients.
- When it comes to potato salad,
there's no shortage of varieties,
methods and preferences.
We hope you can take a
bit of creative license
from our chefs the next time
you wanna put your stamp
on this culinary classic.
