Fingerling Potato Salad with Mustard Seeds and Leeks

We’re in full-on summer here in NYC and it’s blatantly obvious lately. It’s almost-brutally hot every day and night, extra-humid every time there’s a quick thunderstorm, and everyone and their brother is always throwing a BBQ for any (or no) reason.

On Monday, to celebrate Independence Day, my friend Kimberly threw a BBQ in her backyard. She’s got one of the most impressive outdoor spaces I’ve seen yet in the city, big enough to fit 30 people! We ate everything from staples like hot dogs and burgers to totally-not-traditional rice balls, and it was all really really good. My contribution? This Fingerling Potato Salad from the July 2011 issue for Bon Appetit. Step-by-step photos and the recipe after the jump!

Every time I get the itch to make potato salad I look for a new recipe to try. Maybe one day I’ll settle on “my” potato salad, but that hasn’t happened yet, I’m still auditioning potential candidates!

Like almost every potato salad recipe, this one calls for boiling the potatoes first. In the instructions it actually says to cut the potatoes and then boil them, but I always boil them whole and cut them later so I didn’t even realize the recipe said to do otherwise. The reason I always boil them whole is because I’ve found that boiling sliced (or peeled) potatoes makes the potato take up a bunch of water and leads to a soggy finished product. I’m not sure if that’s really true or if it’s all in my head, but I’m planning to do a semi-scientific test in the near future to see if my gut is right on this one . . .

But anyway, back to the potato salad.

I set the potatoes to boil and moved on to the rest of the prep work:

How beautiful are these freshly-washed leeks? I love them! The picture kind of takes my breath away, and really makes me thankful for the natural sunlight in my new apartment. Looking at these leeks again is making me want to go out and get some more to roast.

But again, I digress . . . these leeks were quickly broken down:

And while the potatoes kept working on the back burner, I started toasting the mustard seeds:

When you’re toasting spices in a pan, it’s important to take them off the heat as soon as they get aromatic. For mustard seeds, which don’t really have much of a scent, take them off the minute you see/hear the first one pop. They’ll keep popping even after you’ve taken the pan off the heat!

After moving the oil and seeds into a bowl, I added more oil and started sauteing the leeks:

If I had more patience, I would have done the leeks in batches as my frying pan was not large enough to accommodate all of them without crowding them, which leads to steaming rather than sauteing . . . but I decided that it was good enough for this salad and tried not to feel lazy about it as I stirred the leeks and kept checking on the potatoes, which still weren’t done by this point.

Once the leeks were just-soft, I turned the heat off and turned to the dishes while I waited for the potatoes to be done. When they finally were, I drained them, waited a few minutes for them to cool off a bit, and then started to break them down:

The secret to cutting cooked potatoes is little-to-no downward pressure. If you push down with the knife, the skin will pop off and the potato won’t slice neatly. If you use your knife the way you would to slice fish, you’ll get a nice smooth cut on the potatoes. Wiping the knife off reguarly (just like you would if you were breaking down fish!) helps too.

In the end, you have a bowl full of cut up potatoes:

And then it’s just toss toss toss, season season season, and you’re done!

The resulting potato salad was subtly-flavored yet interesting. Because it has no mayo, it’s a much drier potato salad than is traditional. Feel free to up the mustard/vinegar amount at the end to make it more tangy if that’s what you prefer! To be honest, that’s what I prefer, but I kept it as-is for the sake of following the recipe the first time (I usually don’t change too much the first time I make a recipe, otherwise I can’t trust the result to tell me whether to try the recipe again or not!). As written, the recipe produces a mellow potato salad that most people will love. Everyone who tried it at the BBQ said they loved it!

Fingerling Potato Salad
Modified from Fingerling Potato Salad, Bon Appetit July 2011

• 3. pounds fingerling potatoes, washed & unpeeled
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 9 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp mustard seeds
• 3 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only), halved lengthwise, cut crosswise into 1/4″ slices
• 1 tbsp (or more to taste) apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• Freshly ground black pepper

Place potatoes in a large pot and cover with water, making sure there is enough water to cover the potatoes by a few inches. Add 1 tbsp salt and bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are cooked through. (You can test if they’re ready by spearing one with a fork, it should be easy to spear)

While potatoes are working, heat 3 tbsp oil in pan and toast mustard seeds over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until you hear the first one pop. Remove from heat and transfer oil/mustard mix to a bowl to wait.

Add 2 tbsp oil and leeks to the pan. Add salt and cook over medium heat until just softened, about 10 minutes.

When potatoes are ready, drain them and let them cool off a bit. Then using a sharp knife, cut them into pieces about 3/4″ in size.

To assemble salad:

Add remaining oil plus the vinegar, Dijon mustard, and 1 tbsp water to the mustard seed mixture and wisk to combine. Toss potatoes and olives in the dressing to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve at room temperature.