I have a house full of people. I’ve sent them off to the movies to cool down. It is uncharacteristically hot here this week. I’m having a whole-house attic fan installed, but it wasn’t a rush because I wasn’t expecting an unprecedented number of 95-100 degree days. So we sweat.
Luckily, I did buy the new grill/smoker, so meals have been a breeze. Yesterday I decided since I dug up potatoes, we needed potato salad. And since I have a Multi-pot electric pressure cooker I could do it without heating up the house. For something I was so skeptical about originally, I’ve found I use it multiple times a week.
Photo of course by JeffreyW. Yum
Here’s the recipe I used, but you could easily adapt it to your favorite potato salad recipe if you have an instant pot style cooker.
At the last-minute yesterday, I decided we needed potato salad at our cookout. Luckily, electric pressure cooker to the rescue. Four minutes cooking time, about 10 minutes prep. I left potatoes and eggs in the fridge to cool while we ran around. Added mayo, mustard, some dill pickle juice just before dinner and served with grilled hamburgers and corn. Yum.
Perfect Picnic Potato Salad
- 6 large potatoes, peeled, cubed
- 4 large eggs
- 1/2 small yellow onion, finely diced
- mayo and yellow mustard to taste – I used less than a cup of mayo and about 1/4 cup mustard – but I know some people like a lot more. I added a 1/4 cup of dill pickle juice
- salt and pepper to taste
Add the steaming basket to the pressure cooker. Add cubed potatoes (and you don’t need to be too fancy with cutting the pieces – just relatively same size for uniform cooking). Place washed eggs on top of the potatoes. Close the unit, set to steam for 4 minutes. When finished, use the rapid release method to ensure eggs don’t over cook and potatoes stay firm.
Add eggs to a cold water ice bath. Remove potatoes and drain excess water. Add to large serving bowl. Peel eggs, wash and cube. Add to potatoes. Let cool completely before mixing so as not to turn the potatoes into mush.
Once cooled, add remaining ingredients and fold until well mixed. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving.
Serves 6 easily
Open thread!
raven
Sure looks like the instant pot that has brown basamati in it as we speak.
raven
Last week I used the quick release method on hard steamed eggs and their yolks were runny. I let it release naturally yesterday and they were hard.
Miss Bianca
Oh, I’ve been wondering what to do with all those potatoes I’ve got left in the fridge! No pressure cooker, guess I’ll have to use the rice steamer.
NotMax
It’s like you knew one of the (mercifully) few things I went all in for on Prime Day is an Instant Pot steaming basket have been lusting after, usually priced higher than am willing to shell out. Not a lot of choices for basket steamers which fit the 3 qt. pot, and IIRC it was 1/3 off what the listed price is today.
Yarrow
Thank you for the suggestion. Sounds delicious.
smintheus
We dug the first potatoes from the garden yesterday and oven fried them. Just heavenly. Right out of the ground, they’re almost nothing like what you think a potato is.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
My Instant Pot is out of warranty, and 3 of the four pads holding the gasket ring have detached from the lid. It seals well enough but I am sure the last pad will fail sometime when I need it most.
Instant Pot is sold out of replacement lids and has been for some time. I have been looking for used lids online but haven’t found a good source. I suppose I need to scavenge garage sales and thrift shops for one to use for spare parts. I should do a trouble report to see if they will scrounge up a new lid for me.
Alternately I was looking for spot welding repairs, or food safe epoxy or silicone as a DIY fix. So any Instant Pot reliability issues out there?
waratah
@smintheus: I love potatoes fresh out of the ground. My favorite way to eat them is boil them in their jackets and melt real butter on them. You can almost taste the earth sometimes.
raven
@NotMax: I bought a high powered cuisinart to replace the La Machine I bought 40 years ago!
NotMax
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
You *might* be able to find an entire unit at a Salvation Army or similar thrift store at a bargain basement price and use the lid from that one.
raven
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): Did you mash the Email When Available button?
Shell
Bought a Fire Tablet and am quite fond of it.
With all the reports of the site crashing I was starting to think I was the only one who bought anything.
NotMax
@raven
Coolness. Ain’t new toys fun?
raven
@NotMax: It’s sooooo quiet!
NotMax
@Shell
Envious of all you people who have already received your swag. My order didn’t even ship out until yesterday and is supposed to arrive on Tuesday, UPS willing..
raven
@NotMax: Walk outside and tell me how envious you are.
Yarrow
@NotMax: The price you pay for living in paradise….
J R in WV
My family always did white potato salad, onions, pickles, mayo, maybe come chopped celery. I later learned it was PennsyDutch style from my maternal grandpa’s family.
Never really cared for mustard in my potato salad so have avoided it always. But when we started going to picnics and farm parties, I decided to do a less hazardous potato salad without mayo, just olive oil and vinegar, chopped onions, olives, celery, and if possible a side variety of potatoes, red, yellow, blue, etc. Sometimes parsley for more green.
I can’t really give a recipe with amounts of this and that. It always depends upon the volume of potatoes, and I don’t care if they mash up some, although I don’t deliberately mash them on purpose.
But it can sit on a picnic table all day without going bad as no eggs, no mayo, etc. Blue potatoes are a big addition to the potato world, as they are surprisingly blue all the way through!
When I do deviled eggs, I pickle the whites while I mix the yolks to be the filling. I usually do some with curry and some with capers.
NotMax
@raven
That would involve wrestling with pants, don’tcha now.
:)
Cheryl Rofer
You reminded me how good German potato salad, with vinegar and bacon, can be. I had a mental picture of adding mayonnaise to your cooker.
Just. No.
NotMax
@NotMax
know, not now
Mnemosyne
I got to the Denver airport so early that I’m sitting at the gate a full hour before boarding is supposed to start. Oh, well, it’s better than the alternative, especially since I ended up getting the full TSA pat-down since the hand swab brought back a false positive.
NotMax
Heh. Now that’s dedication.
Guy in a movie that’s running in the background, set in 1935 Sweden, has one of those metal milk buckets in his kitchen, only it is filled with gin.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@raven: Yes I pushed the email me button, I have not seen a email yet.
Yarrow
@Mnemosyne: Hate it when that happens. At least you have plenty of time. Did your knee hold up okay throughout the trip? Have a good flight.
HinTN
My tater salad recipe still relies on boiling so I can taste every so often to determine the al dente quality.
Cut up as many taters, washed but not peeled, as you think you need. Don’t worry about uniformity; make them the max size you want with ends and such smaller. Throw them in a big pot and bring to a rolling boil. Chop up a whole red onion and throw it in the bottom of the bowl you’ll use to mix the stuff up. Sample the large tater chunks to determine when the texture is what you want. Drain and rinse the froth off.
Throw them in the bowl on top of the onion. When they’re half way cooled mix them up. When completely cooled, I add chunk chopped home made dill pickle (two or three sliced quarters) and mayo and mustard to taste. Best served the next day. The smaller pieces of potato get cooked more and create a creamed tater element that I like in the mix.
ETA: Tater salad not mashed taters although I cook them the same way but more. I like lumpy mashed taters.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
I make a French potato salad from a recipe from the chocolate & zucchini website. Chop up a little onion or a few scallions, let them marinate in the lemon juice and mustard that will eventually be part of the vinegrette, peel the potatoes, put them in a pot of cold water & bring it to a boil, boil the potatoes until they’re done, cool them, mix with the marinated scallions, add olive oil to taste, and then add herring or smoked trout and/or chopped parsley. Does not need to be refrigerated & the savory trout blends well with the sweet potatoes. Spectacular if you can get good herring.
HinTN
@J R in WV:
YUM
A Ghost To Most
Mneme mentioned a blue cheese and bacon potato salad that sounds really good.
Shell
Hey, you never know when youll need an emergency martini.
jeffreyw
The recipe to go with that photo.
raven
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S): I don’t think you will until they get one. What exactly broke, the tabs that hold the gasket?
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: The hand swab? Qu’est-ce que c’est?
WaterGirl
@J R in WV: Excited to read this because I like the idea of potato salad but hate mayo and whatever the other white thing is called.
Bummed when I got to this:
WaterGirl
Off to a birthday party – seems like forever since I’ve been to a party.
Kelly
Just finished a nice walk down by the river. Ate my first wild blackberries of the summer.
Felony Govt
Thank you, I will try that! After a initial frenzy, my (fairly new) instant pot has been sitting unused. I’ve been hard pressed to find many interesting recipes for it.
jl
This is old school potato salad with some stealth pickle relish funny business sneaked in, in order to fool the unwary. So color me skeptical. But, it’s potato salad, so I would try it.
NotMax
May as well give the link to a non-mayo potato salad recipe based on one I found in an old 1920s booklet of recipes and offered here five (gasp, where did the time go?) years ago..
Mnemosyne
@Miss Bianca:
They check to see if you have explosives on your hands, but false positives are pretty common. I assume I touched something on the bus or train that caused the machine to light up.
Mnemosyne
@WaterGirl:
I can’t link to it now, but MyRecipes.com has a Caesar Potato Salad recipe that uses a vinaigrette instead of a creamy dressing. It’s always a hit when I make it. It looks prettiest when you make it with white balsamic vinegar.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Explosive test swab was put into overdrive by a writer of your…
…caliber.
;).
debbie
@raven:
I used an ordinary saucepan, a vegetable steamer, and 12 minutes later, I had perfectly hardboiled eggs.
chopper
wot, no raisins?
Cheryl Rofer
I started some salted cucumbers today. I enjoy the slightly acidy tang they acquire as they ferment.
John Revolta
An attic fan is the best thing ever. I had one in my last house and I really miss it.
debbie
I like tarragon in my potato salad. I think I like tarragon in almost anything.
karen marie
@J R in WV: Wait, what? You pickle the whites? How so? I like to think of myself as the Queen of Deviled Eggs but your suggestion of pickling the whites is one I have never heard of and find intriguing. I hope you come back and tell us specifically what you do!
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: I’ve died and gone to heaven.
NotMax
@debbie
Have a bottle of tarragon vinegar in the pantry which must be used extremely judiciously. It’s pretty intense stuff.
debbie
@chopper:
SNL rerun tonight is the show with that bit.
debbie
@NotMax:
I bet. Even red wine vinegar knocks me back.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
It took y’all entirely too long to ask about the raisins.
Miss Bianca
@Mnemosyne: Now *that* don’t remember. Of course, it’s been over three years since I flew anywhere. Have they always been doing this and I just blanked on that particular indignity? Or is this something new?
Miss Bianca
@Chacal Charles Calthrop: Ooh, would anchovies work, do you think? I could totally get behind putting anchovies or anchovy oil into a potato salad.
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
It’s done on “random” people, as I understand it.
Here’s some info.
Bonnie
Probably a dumb question; but, why would you “wash” peeled hardboiled eggs?
NotMax
@Bonnie
Dirty, dirty fingers?
:)
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: Oh, thanks for that! Obviously it’s never happened to me! Yet.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Bonnie: They’re not cooked yet when you put them into the pressure cooker.
satby
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: wouldn’t the steam in the pressure cooker kill any bacteria?
Otherwise have I got news for all those hospitals using autoclaves.
HinTN
@Cheryl Rofer: The dill pickles referenced in my tater salad recipe were long brine dills (recipe from The Joy of Cooking) made 17 years ago.
Ol'Froth
I know different people have different opinions of things, but I received a powerpot as a gift and I find it essentially useless, except for making soup. It does many different things, but doesn’t do any of them nearly as well as the appliances its supposed to replace. Also, despite its claims, its useless for canning anything other than high-acid foods, as it doesn’t develop sufficient pressure to ensure 100% bacterial kill.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@satby: You’d still want to wash off any straw or mud.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
Correct, but the recipe says to wash them again: “Peel eggs, wash and cube.”
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Did you happen to see the little bit of additional info about The Venture Brothers episodes on the late night open thread where you mentioned the show?
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Yes, I did. Thanks for that.
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@Steeplejack (phone): I tend to need to rinse eggs after peeling to remove little bits of shell.
Origuy
I broke down and bought an Instant Pot during Prime days. Any recommendations for cookbooks?
YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S)
@karen marie: I’ve done them with pickled eggs, and the pickling basically stays in the whites. I suppose you could pickle the whites after removing the yoke, but it would need to be a fairly quick pickle if you are going to use the same yolks. OTOH with more surface area inside and out of the white, they would probably pickle faster than whole eggs.
Steeplejack
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S):
Yeah, another quick rinse never hurts.
Mnemosyne
@YetAnotherJay formerly (Jay S):
The Southwest Airlines magazine tells me that there’s a restaurant in San Francisco called Biergarten that makes pickled deviled eggs. They make them with red vinegar so they look cooler.
randal m sexton
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: I read this recipe, and clicked on the comments, and ctrl f searched for raisins — it did take way too long for a raisin comments. I would have guessed first 5.
NotMax
@Origuy
Betty Cracker was asking Instant Pot recipes just this past week. That thread included some recommendations of web sites for recipes.
wkwv
Would substituting sour cream for the mayo be madness?
Bonnie
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Thank you for the explanation.
Bonnie
@Steeplejack: One more reason why I hate cooking.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Steeplejack (phone): Hah. That’s so automatic that my eye skipped right past it.
Of course you wash the peeled egg to make sure you have all the shell and membrane off. Every recipe should say that.
Sorry, Bonnie. I was answering the “city kid and new cook” question I thought you asked, not the real question you were asking. My bad. I can only plead being half-asleep at the keyboard.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Miss Bianca: I’ve tried it with anchovies and you have to use them very, very sparingly. Anchovies are so much more concentrated than smoked fish. Maybe use canned kippers instead?
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@karen marie: thank! Check out the website – google chocolate & zucchini & Clotilde. Run by an American expat in Paris who loves to cook.