Aw Hell Yah Potato Salad

Last week, Chadwick Boseman hosted Saturday Night Live. While on it, he did a skit as his character, T'Challa, from the movie Black Panther. If you have not seen Black Panther yet, do yourself a favor and go see it while it's still in the theatre. It's worth seeing it on the big screen. In the skit, as you can watch for yourself in the above video link, he references potato salad in conjunction with the stereotype that white people generally under-season their food. "Aw hell naw, Karen!" has become the new viral catchphrase on social media platforms.

While I generally try to steer clear of stereotypes as much as possible, I have to admit to being a Karen at times. I have definitely been guilty of under-seasoning my food. And I went to culinary school! So, in order to not be a Karen, I decided to create my own potato salad recipe that would hopefully not be "bland-ass". And definitely wouldn't have any raisins...! And apologies in advance because this isn't a measuring type of recipe. You just go by what you have and what seems right. So I present to you, my recipe for:

Aw Hell Yah Potato Salad 
Salad:
Russet potatoes, scrubbed, poked with a fork like you would do for baked potatoes (I used 3 good-sized potatoes for this)
Eggs (I used three. Two for in the salad and one for the garnish)
Bacon (I used the very thick-cut regular bacon from the butcher's counter at my grocery store. Three slices. Two for in the salad and one for the garnish)
Dill pickles, chopped
Dill pickle juice (I used 3-4 Tbsp.)
Black olives, sliced
Green onions, sliced (I used the white and light green parts for in the salad, and the dark green for the garnish)
Dressing:
Mayonnaise (about 3/4 cup)
Sour Cream (about 1/3 cup)
Yellow Mustard (about 1-2 Tablespoons)
Hot Sauce of choice (to taste. I was going to use Tabasco but my bottle was really old so I used a bottle of habanero pepper sauce I had on hand instead. I used about a half teaspoon but it could have used a little more.)
Dried dill (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
Cayenne pepper (to taste)

Paprika for garnish (this is not optional)

Place the scrubbed, poked potatoes and eggs in a large pan of salted water, over high heat. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat a little to avoid boiling over onto the burner. My potatoes took about a half hour to cook, but remove the eggs after about ten minutes of boiling to avoid overcooking. Just use a spoon to remove them and place them in cold water and set in the fridge to cool down completely.

At the same time, cook the bacon. I usually do the thick-cut bacon like this in the oven. From the above picture, you can see that I put it on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper. I cooked it at 325 degrees for about a half hour, turning it over halfway through and draining off the oil before putting it back in the oven.

When the bacon is cooked, remove it from the pan and let it drain on paper towels. Place in the fridge to cool down.

When the potatoes are cooked through, turn off the stove and remove the potatoes to a large plate. Let them sit a few minutes to cool off a bit before placing in the fridge to cool even more. Don't cool them completely, just get them to the point where you can handle them with your hands without burning them. At that time, use a knife to peel the skin off and cut the potatoes into chunks. Place in a bowl that will be large enough to fit all the ingredients and be able to be stirred without dripping, as well. While the potatoes are still warm, pour the pickle juice over them and mix well, trying not to break up the potatoes too much. (I got the pickle juice idea from a coworker who likes to add pickle juice to her devilled eggs. I thought this might be a good way to season the potatoes themselves and really let flavor absorb into them.) Place the potatoes in the fridge and allow them to cool completely.

For the dressing, mix the mayonnaise, sour cream, mustard, dill, hot sauce, cayenne, and black pepper together in a smaller bowl. When the bacon is cool enough, chop up two of the slices and add them to the dressing. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to use. Note: In spite of T'Challa's disgust that Karen's potato salad was only seasoned with a little bit of salt, do not put salt in the dressing. Trust me on this one. There's enough salty elements in this salad that it's not needed.

When everything is chilled, you can assemble the salad. Peel the eggs, chop two of them and add to the potatoes. Add the chopped pickles, green onions, and sliced black olives. Mix well. Pour the dressing over and mix well. Adjust the dressing ingredients to make sure the potatoes are well-dressed. I ended up adding a little more mayonnaise and hot sauce. Mix just enough to blend everything, but not enough to break the potatoes down.

Slice the last egg, chop the last slice of bacon, and top the potato salad with them. Sprinkle with paprika. Top with the green onions. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours to allow the flavors to blend together properly.

This is what I ate with my dinner tonight and it was fantastic! I think the pickle juice on the potatoes really helps season the potatoes. You can dress potatoes with highly-seasoned dressing, and most of the time you can still taste the blandness of the potatoes underneath it. This helps combat that. Mixing the bacon into the dressing allowed the flavor to really permeate it. It would be less flavorful just to mix the bacon with the potatoes. I highly recommend doing it this way. And the sour cream adds a depth to the dressing that would otherwise be lacking if I'd just used mayonnaise. This is how I make devilled eggs, so I had a feeling it would work well in potato salad as well. I'm definitely sold on that.

I was really happy with this potato salad! I'm going to give some to my parents tomorrow and I'll probably share some with coworkers on Monday. Beside that, I'm going to eat it all myself!

I would like to think that T'Challa himself would enjoy this potato salad, but unless he comes to visit, or I get a chance to go to Wakanda, I'll just have to speculate! But you can try this out and let me know what you think. And if you come up with even better ideas, let me know!

Happy Eating!
-Missfoodie2shoes

Dining-In: A Culinary Tour of America-Chicago, Illinois

 

The City: Chicago, Illinois

Christos Anesti! And then you say, Alithos Anesti! For those of you who don't know what I am saying, it means, "Christ is risen!" and "Truly He is risen!". Why am I saying this? Because it's Eastern/Greek Orthodox Easter today, of course! Today we travel to Chicago to celebrate Orthodox Easter in the third-most populous city, with the third-highest Greek American population.

As of the 2010 census, the city's population was 2,695,598. Greek Americans make up 93,624 of that total. The city is made up of about 45% white and 32.9% African Americans. The median(not average) income is $47,408/household, and 22.1% of the city's population lives below the poverty line. This is by far the largest city I have focused on so far with this project.

Chicago is a French derivation of the Miami-Illinois Native American word "shikaakwa", which means "wild onion". The city was founded on August 12, 1833, with an original population of about 200 people. Prior to the European invasion, the region was home to the Potawatomi, Ottawa, and Ojibwe peoples.

Chicago has a very long and illustrious history, far too big to delve into here, so I will keep it focused on the connection to Greek Americans. Greeks began to immigrate to the United States in 1821, mostly by people who had survived the Greek Revolution. By the 1880's and '90's, they were coming in larger numbers. In Chicago, Greeks began moving there in the 1840's. Most of them were men coming to seek their fortunes, or trying to escape being recruited into the Turkish army, a country that was occupying theirs at the time. Greek women began to come over starting in 1885, as "picture brides". A lot of these people returned to Greece, eventually, however. After the Second World War, though, even more came to the United States, as "displaced persons".

Chicago is also the settings for one of my favorite movies, one I just rewatched today: My Big Fat Greek Wedding. In the movie is a scene set during Easter. Easter is a very big deal for Greek Orthodox Christians. I was definitely reminded of this scene when deciding whether or not to feature the holiday in this blog series. Here is the scene:

The Food: Lambropsomo-Greek Easter Bread
I searched long and hard for a food to make for Greek Easter. One of the main foods eaten is lamb, but I don't eat lamb. And I didn't want to just do a side dish with something that didn't really fit it as an entree. Then I found this bread recipe online and remembered that I had a recipe card for it from forever ago and had never tried it yet. This was my chance, finally! It's pretty complicated, for a bread, but it was also a lot of fun.

The first step is to make Easter eggs. Easter eggs?? In bread? Yes! You'll see...I had some drama with the Easter eggs. They were supposed to be blood red, to represent Christ, and I tried pomegranate juice first, trying to be natural. That didn't work at all. So I had to use food coloring, but that also didn't really work and they were very pale pink, even though they'd been in the red water since early Saturday morning. Lame. But they had some color at least...Anyway, I'll write out the recipe card with the alterations I made.

Lambropsomo-Greek Easter Bread
5 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 pkg. active dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
2/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 Tbsp. lemon zest
1/2tsp. anise extract OR 2 tsp. ground anise seed(this is what I used because I was not spending almost $5 for a bottle of extract. To make ground anise, the best way it to use an electric coffee grinder. If you don't have one already, do yourself a favor and buy a cheap one solely for grinding spices. You will not regret it.)
4 eggs
5 hard-boiled eggs, dyed scarlet
1 egg white

Combine 2 cups flour, salt, and yeast in a mixing bowl. Heat milk, butter, and applesauce to about 125 degrees.(Don't let it get too much hotter than this or it'll kill the yeast. If it's too hot, stir it and let it sit until it cools down. Use a thermometer for this step.) Pour over the dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Add zest, anise extract or seed, and eggs, one at a time. Beat well. Gradually add enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Turn out on a floured board and knead lightly. Place in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down. Turn dough out on a floured board and knead lightly. Cut off 1/6th of the dough to use for decoration. Shape remaining dough into a large round loaf, about 10" in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet.(I found that a pizza pan worked best.)

Place one dyed egg in the center of the dough. Lay the other four eggs around the edge, forming a cross. Roll remaining dough into pencil-thin strips. Place a cross on top of each egg with the strips, pressing the ends of the strips into the bread to secure the eggs. (I placed them with the round end in the bread and the pointy end sticking up. This seemed to be too heavy to maintain as you can see in the picture. Next time I think I'd place them on their sides. I think they'd stay in place better that way.) Cover and let rise until doubled in size. Brush with lightly beaten egg white.

Bake in a 325 degree oven for 50-55 minutes, or until the loaf sounds hollow when thumped. Serve hot or let cool on a wire rack. Makes 1 large loaf.

 They weren't kidding when they said it made one large loaf. You can see how it fills up the entire pizza pan. This shot was taken while standing on the top step of a step-stool in order to properly capture the enormity. The flavor is not unlike a traditional Pan de Muerto bread that is eaten during El Dia de Los Muertos, if you've ever had that before. The texture was perfect. I was highly impressed with this, not only the flavor and texture, but just the look of it is so cool. I wish the eggs had been redder, but the bread turned out and that's the important thing. I will taste test the eggs once they're cooled, but I suspect they will probably end up in the compost. The bread, however, will be taken to work to share with my coworkers!

Christos Anesti, Everybody!

Sources:

Map

City Pic

Chicago Greek American history

Greek American history

Greek Orthodox Easter