Easy Potato Salad With Complete Instructions

"A potato salad which is universally enjoyed and really easy to prepare. The dressing is heated prior to blending but it goes really fast and turns out perfect every time. This is a great "beginner's recipe" because I have listed detailed instructions on both how to cook the potatoes and how to boil the eggs to ensure a no-fail experience. I wanted to remark that this makes one of the best potato salads for cold potato salad midnight snack sandwiches. Of course, this is also the perfect covered dish. For lots of smiles, serve this with my Southern Fried Chicken, posted here on Recipezaar. Finally, if you must have sweet pickles in your potato salad, just add 1/2 cup of drained sweet relish at the blending stage. I did not include the 4-hour refrigeration period at the end in the cooking time. Enjoy!"
 
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Ready In:
55mins
Ingredients:
14
Serves:
8
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ingredients

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directions

  • Wash the potatoes, (I don't like Yukon Gold potatoes for this particular recipe -- use Russets or Red Potatoes for best results), under cold water.
  • In a 6-quart cooking pot, add 4 quarts of the water and dissolve 1 teaspoon of the salt in it. Bring to a boil, uncovered, over high heat, and carefully add the unpeeled potatoes into the boiling water.
  • Boil the potatoes until a steak knife will slide into one fairly easily (about 12 - 15 minutes) -- do not overcook! Remove from the heat, carefully pour off the hot water right away, then allow cold tap water to run over the potatoes in the pot for 3-4 minutes. Pour off the cool water and allow the potatoes to dry on paper towels. Set aside.
  • Boil 8 of the eggs. (You might wish to boil a couple of extra ones in case some crack early in the process.) Here's how to perfectly boil the eggs: In a 6-quart cooking pot (not an aluminum one) add a gallon of hot tap water -- do NOT add any salt. Carefully place the eggs into the water right away. Bring the water to a boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, lower the heat to medium (or lower), set your timer for 13 minutes and continue at a low boil, uncovered, until the timer goes off. (Carefully move the eggs about with a wooden spoon occassionally during this process so that the yolks will remain centered.) As soon as the 13 minutes have elapsed, pour off the hot water and allow cold tap water to run over the eggs in the cooking pot for at least 3 minutes prior to peeling them.
  • If you have a stainless steel or porcelain sink, you can easily peel the eggs by giving each a light smack against the sink wall and then roll the egg along the sink wall for a few inches -- it should crunch the shell a little as you do so. Then carefully peel the eggs under cold running tap water. Allow the eggs to dry on paper towels and set aside.
  • Peel the potatoes over your sink by holding a paring knife blade perpindicular to the potato skin as you scrape the skin off -- the skins can be easily removed by this method. (I sometimes run a little cold tap water over the potato as I'm doing this with the more troublesome ones.) Cut away any imperfections with the paring knife and set the peeled and dried (with paper towels if necessary) potatoes aside in the refrigerator for a few minutes. After they are cooled, dice the potatoes into roughly 1/2-inch squares, (or whatever size you prefer.) Set aside.
  • Make the dressing: Beat two eggs in a medium mixing bowl. Add the sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, and milk. Hand whisk this for a few seconds and pour the blend into a 2-quart saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the dressing thickens (which it will do just as it begins a low boil) and then immediately add the soft or melted butter, mustard, and mayonaise. Remove from heat right away and whisk by hand until the dressing is well-blended. Allow the dressing to cool.
  • Place the diced potatoes in a large mixing bowl. Dice four of the boiled eggs and add them to the potatoes. Add in the diced celery, diced onion, the remaining teaspoon of salt, and the dressing. Carefully mix the potato salad with a large wooden spoon.
  • Transfer the potato salad to a large serving bowl. Slice the four remaining boiled eggs and garnish the top of the potato salad with the egg slices. Then sprinkle on the paprika. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours prior to serving.

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

<p>I am a retired State Park Resort Manager/Ranger. <br /><br />Anyway, as to my years in the State Park System (retired now), I was responsible for 4 restaurants/dining rooms on my park and my boss at Central Headquarters said I should spend less time in my kitchens and more time tending to my park budget. I spent 25 years in those kitchens and worked with some really great chefs over those years, (and some really awful ones too!) <br /><br />I spent THOUSANDS of hours on every inch of that park and adjacent state forest (60,000 acres) and sometimes I miss it. But mostly I miss being in that big beautiful resort lodge kitchen. I miss my little marina restaurant down on the Ohio River too. I served the best Reuben Sandwich (my own recipe -- posted on 'Zaar as The Shawnee Marina Reuben Sandwich) in both the State of Ohio and the Commonwealth of Kentucky down there and sold it for $2.95. Best deal on the river! <br /><br />They (friends and neighbors) call my kitchen The Ospidillo Cafe. Don't ask me why because it takes about a case of beer, time-wise, to explain the name. Anyway, it's a small galley kitchen with a Mexican motif (until my wife catches me gone for a week or so), and it's a very BUSY kitchen as well. We cook at all hours of the day and night. You are as likely to see one of my neighbors munching down over here as you are my wife or daughter. I do a lot of recipe experimentation and development. It has become a really fun post-retirement hobby -- and, yes, I wash my own dishes. <br /><br />Also, I'm the Cincinnati Chili Emperor around here, or so they say. (Check out my Ospidillo Cafe Cincinnati Chili recipe). SKYLINE CHILI is one of my four favorite chilis, and the others include: Gold Star Chili, Empress Chili and, my VERY favorite, Dixie. All in and around Cincinnati. Great stuff for cheap and I make it at home too. <br /><br />I also collect menus and keep them in my kitchen -- I have about a hundred or so. People go through them and when they see something that they want, I make it the next day. That presents some real challenges! <br /><br />http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/parks/parks/shawnee.htm</p>
 
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