Recipes & Food Styling

Memorial Day Picnic- Hefeweizen-soaked Brats with Kraut and Mustard Potato Salad

Poked ’em and soaked ’em this year with a beer from the old neighborhood in Chicago- Dovetail’s Hefeweizen! SO good. Mayfest is this weekend, and I see they’ve created some “Kriek Slushies” that look amazing!

I love Merlene Krohn’s wonderful “Must be Hellman’s” Creamy Potato Salad, but every once in a while I crave a good mustard potato salad.

How do you make your potato salad? Potato skins on or off? Cucumbers? More mustard or more mayo? Sugar? (I throw in a little!) There are so many different recipes!

I love the nutritional benefits of potato skins, so I leave them on. English cucumbers are perfect, because they have less water content than other types of cukes. When it comes to the dressing, there has to be at least even parts mustard and mayo. The mayo gives potato salad its little bit of brineyness. Always have some on hand!

If you can, it helps to plan on two days for making potato salad. It’s much more manageble to start the steps the day before and allow the ingredients to settle and combine together at least overnight in the fridge. Potato salad is one of those things that tastes better each day!

For dessert: One more rhubarb treat for the season! Made my mom’s Rhubarb Custard Pie!

Mustard Potato Salad

5 large russet potatoes, cleaned and trimmed

5 large eggs

5 celery sticks, cleaned and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/2 English cucumber, sliced and cut into quarters

2 shallots, diced

2 cups mayonaise

2 tablespoons yellow mustard 

1 tablespoon confectioner’s sugar

1 teaspoon pink Himalayan sea salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground peppercorns (black or multi-colored)

1/2 teaspoon hot Hungarian paprika

Fill a Dutch oven 2/3 full of water, and bring the water to a boil on the stovetop. Add potatoes and boil until a fork can be easily inserted into each potato and glides back out, about 30-40 minutes. Remove the potatoes and replace the hot water with cold water so the potatoes stop cooking. 

Fill a medium kettle 3/4 full of water, and bring the water to a boil on the stovetop. Add the eggs and boil until they feel hard-boiled, approximately 15-20 minutes. 

When the potatoes are cool, chop them into 1-inch square pieces and place them in a large mixing bowl. dice the eggs and add them, along with the other ingredients. Mix all of the ingredients together thoroughly. Cover the bowl and set in the fridge for a few hours, time permitting.