Excerpted from Raghavan Iyer’s Smashed, Mashed, Boiled, and Baked. 

Scott Edwin Givot, a soulmate (a past president of the International Association of Culinary Professionals) and traveling companion, originally from Chicago, then Minneapolis, and now settled in Norway, reminisced about his grandmother Ida’s potato salad. The salad reflected her history and background, and what an interesting one at that. Married at the age of seventeen, she was swept into her husband’s underground world of smuggling diamonds (in Scott’s father’s diaper when he was a baby!), drugs, guns, and more. Grandma Ida’s ancestral roots were a hodgepodge, ranging from Crimean to Catalan, Hungarian, and French. This Russian salad was special to her and to Scott, a summer tradition they shared in the kitchen as she gave him advice on all that life could throw at him. A spoonful of this gave me evidence of equilibrium in her tumultuous life—a true fine balance of taste, color, temperature, and texture.

“Even as a kid, I never minded the idea of the salty little fish [anchovies] being used in the dressing. It’s what gave the salad that undeniable umami flavor,” Scott mused, a love for the years-that-were in his voice. “She always served it next to her sweet ’n’ sour ‘Swedish’ meatballs, which had a mellifluous tomato sauce punctuated with whole allspice. I loved both dishes and still make them to this day.”

Russian Potato Salad

Serves 4

For the Salad

• 1½ pounds new red potatoes
• 6 medium-size to large red radishes, scrubbed, trimmed, and thinly sliced
• 4 ribs celery, leaves discarded, thinly sliced
• 1 large English cucumber, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, seeds discarded, and thinly sliced
• 4 scallions, beards trimmed, green tops and white bulbs thinly sliced
• ¼ cup baby capers, drained
• ¼ cup finely chopped fresh dill
• ½ cup finely chopped fresh chives

For the Dressing

• 6 anchovy fillets
• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 large cloves garlic, crushed
• ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
• ¼ cup canola oil
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon coarse sea or kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon coarsely cracked black peppercorns

Instructions

1. To make the salad, scrub the potatoes well under running water, cut them in half, and place them in a medium-size saucepan. Cover them with cold water and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Briskly boil the potatoes, uncovered, until they are just tender but still firm, 12 to 15 minutes. Take care not to overcook the potatoes.
2. Drain the potatoes in a colander and rinse them under cold running water to cool them down. Give the colander a few good shakes to rid the potatoes of excess water, and transfer them to a large bowl. Add the radishes, celery, cucumber, scallions, capers, dill, and chives to the potatoes.
3. To make the dressing, place the anchovy fillets, egg yolks, mustard, and garlic in a blender jar and puree, turning off the blender and scraping the inside of the jar as needed, until smooth. Combine the two oils together in a small bowl. With the blender on low speed, drizzle the oils through the hole in the cover in a steady stream. Once the oils are added, you will have a thick emulsion, which is your own homemade mayonnaise. Add the Worcestershire, lemon juice, cayenne, salt, and peppercorns and pulse the dressing to ensure a smooth mix.
4. Pour the dressing over the salad and give it all a good toss. Serve at room temperature, but because this is a mayonnaise-based salad, do not leave it at room temperature for long periods of time.

About the Book:

Who knew a potato could ever taste so good? Raghavan Iyer, that’s who! A master teacher and beloved, award-winning cookbook author, Raghavan pays tribute to his favorite ingredient in a continent-by-continent celebration of the amazing potato. Its recipes, inspired by a diversity of cuisines and accompanied by enticing full-color photographs, feature scrumptious starters, like Ecuadorean Llapingachos and Sweet Potato Samosas. Hearty mains: Canadian Lamb-Potato Tortiѐre, Moroccan Potato Stew with Saffron Biscuits, Potato Lasagna. Plus rich gratins, a boundary-defying Mojito Potato-Pomegranate Salad, luscious sauces and condiments, and even desserts, including a decadent Chocolate Sweet Potato Pound Cake. Includes a guide to potato varieties, uses, and storage, plus fascinating stories in potato history for the truly obsessed.

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