To many a historian California is the New World. It's the last frontier, the end of the continent. But to foodies there is so much to discover. It's the birthplace of many foods that people all over the world enjoy, such as the Cobb salad, Monte Cristo sandwich, and the California roll, of course. With influences from Mission cooking to New California Cuisine there is definitely a lot to discover. Clementine Paddleford did a wonderful job of uncovering California recipes that could have easily gone unnoticed. One of those was this Frosty Green Potato Salad (pg 772).
The recipe calls for you to make your own French dressing, which is very easy to make, but I just used bottled. This salad is a great alternative to the mayonnaise laden potato salad we are used to eating. While it's not quite summer across America, this is a refreshing summer BBQ side dish. Or even better, a California beach picnic.
The Ingredients:
4 lbs potatoes
1/2 c. chopped parsley
1/4 c. chopped green bell pepper
1/4 c. chopped celery tops
1/4 c. chopped green onion
1/4 c. chopped dill pickle
1 c. mayonnaise
1/4 c. French dressing
2 1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
Sprigs of watercress or celery tops for garnish
I also used store bought dill pickles, which are just fine, but I can only imagine how much more flavorful and crunchy homemade pickles would have been.
Because I didn't have a large enough stockpot at the time, (I do now!), I had to use two pots to boil my potatoes:
After they were boiled, cooled, peeled, and cut into cubes, I put them into a large bowl. In a smaller bowl I then combined the 1/4 cup of the parsley, the green pepper, celery tops, green onion, and pickle:
I then took 1/2 cup of this mixture and added 1/4 cup of the remaining parsley to it in a bowl. This was going to be sprinkled on top. So to the potatoes I added the remaining vegetable mixture:
In another small bowl I added the French dressing, salt, mustard, and black pepper. I then mixed this with the potato mixture:
I then packed this into a 2 qt baking dish and sprinkled the top with the reserve salad mixture. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours:
This was a great dish that was enjoyed by people who don't care for potato salad. So to me, that is success!
Enjoy!
Rachael
