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This, my friends, is a first: the first-ever guest post here on Burghilicious. It’s fitting, of course, that I finally let the man speak for himself, after shamelessly pirating his secret family recipes for the past two years. Stephen wanted to tell you about this one himself. -LB
Pardon my old-fashioned traditions, but you must understand that the grill was always my father’s charge. This left an impression: Propane, firewood or charcoal (pick your poison) is a man’s happy burden and my inherited dominion. [Raise your beer and grill brush – Prost!] As the male host of a cookout, it is important to show everyone how well you can fire up the grill and toss your meat around.
Our friend Brad proved this point when he blew things up last week at the Team Peroney cookout with his grilled burgers, sausage and bratwurst (yes, there is a difference). I don’t mean “blew up” in the arson or terrorist sense; I mean helped myself to two tasty burgers and loosened my belt one and a half notches (which requires a leatherman, by the way).
We’re making a weekly tradition of the Monday night cookout, putting a new bloke in charge of carnivorous chow each week. But when you’re the guest, you have to bring side dishes and desserts like the rest of the ladies, hopefully inserting something healthy in between that hot dog and burger that everyone will want to have. Not everyone can bring a salad though, and some of us have to keep it real and provide an alternative way to raise cholesterol and blood pressure. I give you yet another modified Scheidt family recipe, my side dish contribution to the cookout this week at Ben and Kovac’s.
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Yes, I did add the frilly parsley in the center with a delicate ring of green olives. This is serious business fellas. Attention to detail shows that you can hold your own on all fronts, including making it look pretty. Think “style points."
There is nothing humble though about this potato salad’s size, richness or taste, despite the potato itself being a modest tuber. Being a geologist, I learned the practice of providing a scale for size in every field photo. Scales always ruin a pretty picture though and not everyone’s silver wear is the same size, so I will tell you now that the bowl above is 13” in diameter. Frankly, cookouts are not cookouts without a heaping inselberg of mayonnaise-coated potato in the middle of the picnic table.
Contrary to what you might be thinking, I am not actually promoting unhealthy eating or relaxed portion control for boa constrictors. Potato salad is served in massive quantity at picnics because it is relative cheap and usually no one will judge you for that massive “plop!” on your plate. This Greek potato salad is fortified with fresh herbs, rich buttermilk, tangy Greek feta cheese, salty olives and sautéed red onion. You don’t need much to satisfy, and our modest potato doesn’t have an ego to bruise as a vehicle for all that fresh goodness (and salt, which I love).
Take this big bad bowl of potato salad to your next cookout and assure all of your veggie friends that you can indeed cook without meat. For the moment we drop our guard and let the Miss and Mrs. start to skewer and flame the kabobs outside (see future post), we may quickly find ourselves out of a job and at a new one inside, doing the dishes.
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Meat probably doesn't look this good close up.
Greek Potato Salad
Yet Another Scheidt Family Recipe
For the ranch dressing
½ cup chopped fresh chives
½ cup chopped fresh dill
1 cup mayo
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
Salt (and pepper) to taste
For the potato salad
3 pounds red potatoes, washed
½ cup chopped red onion
2 cups chopped fresh curly parsley
12-16 ounces feta cheese, crumbled*
2 cups chopped and pitted kalamata olives
1 cup chopped and pitted green olives
To make the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together all of the dressing ingredients.** Refrigerate until ready to use.
Put potatoes in a large sauce pan and fill with cold water. Put the pan over high heat for 30 minutes, until the potatoes are cooked through but still firm and the skins slide right off. Remove from heat and rinse with cold water.
In a small skillet, sauté red onion with a little olive oil over medium-high heat for about 7 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.
Once the potatoes have cooled to the point that you can touch them, peel or rub the skins off and set aside. (They should come off fairly easily, but it is a sticky job!) Cut the peeled potatoes into ½ – ¾ inch cubes with a sharp knife, laying them out as a layer on your cutting board as you go. Sprinkle chopped parsley on layer of potatoes, then dump the layer into a large bowl. Repeat until all of the potatoes are cut. This trick keeps the potatoes from sticking together in the bowl, and in the end, it will help to coat them with dressing evenly with a minimum of stirring.
Remember the skins? We’re going to chop them up because we need all the vitamins we can get at this cookout! In a small bowl, thoroughly mix about a cup of the dressing with the chopped skins. Add the sauteed onions, the skin/dressing mixture, any remaining chopped parsley, the feta and the olives. Stir gently until dressing evenly coats all the ingredients. Add additional ranch dressing if desired and salt and pepper to your taste.
*I prefer the creamier real Greek feta, not the saltier American grocery store brands.
**Congratulations! You made delicious homemade ranch salad dressing, and you will surely have some left over. (You’ll thank me later.)
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