Big Joe shares the best potato salad recipe you’ll ever taste

One of the food staples starting Memorial Day weekend and lasting through the summer is a great easy side dish to go to with your barbeque and summer meals. It is potato salad. I am highly biased when it comes to delivering a great potato salad on my lunch or dinner menu.

I have been enjoying my grandmother’s potato salad since I was a kid.

I have tasted potato salad across this great land of ours and except for one location, there is nobody that comes close to my grandmother’s recipe. For future sake if you are in the Long Branch, New Jersey area, Long Branch Poultry, one of my favorite places, has an excellent potato salad. It is remarkably close to my grandmother’s.

When I was a kid growing up in the Bronx, I would watch her make it for a family gathering, we had no air-conditioning and the small kitchen had to be 120 degrees with a huge pot of potatoes boiling and creating our own personal sauna and steam room.

She wanted it to sit and refrigerate overnight so that all the ingredients would blend, and the result was heaven on a plate. Well, I had to sneak in and grab a spoon full every time I went into the kitchen and of course I got yelled at because that was for the rest of the family, which I was part of but didn’t count when it came to potato salad.

Once at our family event I tried to hide the huge serving that I had put on my plate to not look like I was hoarding this wonderful side dish. She would catch me in the act and start shaking her head, give me a smile and whisper, “now that’s enough Joseph, save some for everyone else.”

This routine would go on every time she made her famous salad. I adored my grandmother; I had the pleasure of living with her as I grew up in the Bronx.

When I was kid, every night when my grandfather and my mom came home from work, on the table there was always a meal, a delicious meal prepared by my grandmother.

My nana made a great potato salad, just outstanding! When I was in college, she moved into our house, so she shared that recipe, and we made it together. I memorized the recipe because I loved it so much. I loved her so much as well.

Here is her recipe...

Ingredients:

• 3 pounds of Red Bliss potatoes, peeled and cubed (some of you may want to
  keep the peel on, that’s o.k. It works fine on or off.)
• 2 1⁄2 ribs of celery finely chopped( as small as you can)
• 1⁄2 large red onion, finely chopped (as small as you can)
• 3 hard-boiled eggs (discard two of the yolks and finely chop the egg whites and set aside cooked yolk)
• 1 1⁄4 cup Hellman’s mayonnaise (I only use Hellman’s mayonnaise in all of my dishes that call for mayo. There is no other brand.)
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil
• 1⁄4 cup of white vinegar
• salt and freshly ground pepper
• 1⁄4 cup of freshly chopped parsley for garnish

How to put it together:

Boil potatoes until they are fork tender. Drain and if you are peeling the potatoes, now is the time to peel them. Cube potatoes and add them to a large bowl. While they are still warm add the vinegar. Mix well, let cool, keep covered in refrigerator for 1 hour minimum.

Once potatoes are cool, in a separate mixing bowl, mix the mayonnaise, mustard, sugar and egg yolk finely chopped. In bowl with potatoes add oil, celery, onion, egg whites, and sugar.

Mix in mayonnaise mixture with potatoes. Add salt and pepper and stir well so that all the potatoes are covered with mayonnaise mixture.

Sprinkle with fresh parsley. Let the potato salad chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 1⁄2 hours, preferably overnight, to let all those ingredients blend in nicely.

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The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 weekend host Big Joe Henry. Any opinions expressed are Big Joe’s own.

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