From Mr. X – a totally worthy and delicious start to our seminar.
Mom’s Recipe Hall of Fame v.5: Top Secret Potato Salad
This is mom’s closely-guarded personal recipe, disclosing it here is a major security breach!
1 medium red onion finely chopped
Enough apple cider vinegar to cover onions
4 hard boiled eggs chopped
2 large russet potatoes diced and boiled until tender
1/4 cup butter melted
1 tsp pink salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup green or red pepper diced
1/4 cup celery chopped
1/4 cup black olives sliced
1 small tomato seeded and chopped
About 1 cup mayonnaise (make your own it’s cheap and easy, far superior to the hazardous glop at the grocery.
use decent oil like olive or grapeseed, no toxic canola, soybean, corn or other sketchy stuff allowed!)
https://www.inspiredtaste.net/25943/homemade-mayonnaise-recipe/
Place chopped onion in a bowl and cover with cider
vinegar. Let it soak for at least an hour, preferably overnight. Place cooked potato in large bowl, pour in the melted butter, salt and pepper and toss well.
Drain onion and add to potatoes along with green pepper, celery, olives, tomato and eggs. Add enough mayo to attain proper consistency. Stir and refrigerate.
Friends don’t let friends eat grocery store potato salad. Consider this recipe an intervention for those who seek to defile the temple of the soul with dubious corporate pseudo-foods. We know who you are! 8)
I love potato salad . Must say that recipe sounds good
Dam.. that potato salad DC sounds awesome.. it is going into my recipe archive..
Mom’s Recipe Hall of Fame: Cioppino
With some possible snow next week it’s time to break out the cast iron pot again.
From the now-defunct premiersytems.com recipe archive:
Cioppino is another of those recipes that are made in more than one part and then the parts are added together and cooked a bit more to finish off the dish just before serving. Cioppino consists of a light herbal tomato sauce, a nice fish fumet, and a couple handfuls of the catch of the day. Add all together in a pot, preferably cast iron, and bring the whole thing gently up to a simmer for a couple of minutes, drop in the last bit of abalone or squid, and maybe a last dash of tabasco (crystal hot sauce is the only brand allowed in chez x!), then put in big flat bowls and serve with a loaf of good bread (sourdough from acme or la brea if you can get it), a clean sharp salad, and a big bottle of red wine. This is one of those dishes you can spend a lot of very pleasant time eating.
To do cioppino:
First we do the light tomato sauce base. To begin warm a good sized skillet over medium heat and add:
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
when butter sizzles add:
4 clove garlic crushed and chopped
1/2 medium yellow onion chopped
2 carrot thin sliced, 1/2 green pepper diced
1 stalk celery chopped
saute a bit until onion is transparent then add:
fair bit basil, bit of oregano, wad of parsley (all preferably fresh), one bay leaf, 1/4 tsp fennel seed, one whole clove, a grind of black pepper, one tsp ground red chili. saute until you smell spices then add:
a good splash white wine, a good dash tabasco, and a good shot of both red wine vinegar and worcestershire sauce (Lea & Perrins only!).
Toss this around for a bit then add:
40 oz of San Marino tomato sauce
Simmer for an hour or two and set aside.
Fish stock (fumet)
The second part of cioppino is the stock. Wash a couple pounds of fish bones, a couple of fish heads, and a few shrimp, lobster or langostino shells if you have them. put them in a stew pot, add a couple quarts of water, a chunk of onion, stalk of celery, carrot chopped up, maybe a grind of pepper or chopped turnip. simmer for a couple hours, strain and set aside.
The Seafood
For a nice serving of cioppino you should have a good selection of seafood types. The only good seafood is absolutely fresh so let what is available be your guide. You do want a mix of fish, a few shellfish, some shrimp or a nice fat langostino, and a bit of squid, abalone or octopus thrown in at the last moment. the shrimp will get overdone if added too early. For each serving a typical seafood mix might include 3 or 4 of these:
2 one oz pieces of white fish like rock bass or halibut
2 medium sized shrimp or a medium langostino or 3 crayfish
4 mussels
3 clams
6-8 limpets
2 thumbsized pieces of well-pounded octopus
a couple nice chunks of lobster or monkfish
a few small scallops
2 halibut cheeks
a couple nice pieces of crab
To do the cioppino in a large pan for each serving add:
one ladle tomato base
one ladle fish stock
one handful of seafood
splash of white wine
Simmer gently until shellfish open, discard any that won’t open. Turn off heat and add finely sliced squid or abalone. the residual heat will cook them sufficiently. Bon appétit!
Bit Sicilian. We put a couple of potatoes to thicken a bit . Chunks . Mountains of parsley