Recipe
This recipe is so simple that I was hesitating whether to post it. Also the amounts given are really only suggestions and can be varied according to taste. Of course, you can make much smaller amount. The recipe yields a very large bowl of the salad, suitable for a big gathering rather than for a 2-4 person family. We usually prepare that much for a Christmas, Easter, or or other big party, and it used to require quite a bit of time and effort to dice all these ingredients using only knife. Gradually, we improved our efficiency, and what took well over two hours of work now only takes about half an hour.(not counting boiling and cooling potatoes and eggs). To achieve this, we use quite a few tools. So in the end I decided to share not just the recipe, but first of all results of several improvements we made over the years. If interested, scroll down to the bottom of the post to see what changes in preparation we made from original hand cutting to save preparation time.
Ingredients
| 650 g | Potatoes1, medium, cooked in skin. |
| 2-3 | Apples, Granny Smith or other sour apples. |
| 8 | Eggs, hard bolied, cooled. |
| 2 L jar or more | Marinated dill pickles (in vinegar). |
| ~250 g | Mayonnaise. |
| to taste | Ground black pepper, salt. |
Preparation
- Cook potatoes in skin in salted water, for 30 minutes (not more), drain and let them cool.
- Put eggs in a pot with cold water. Bring them to boil vigorously, then take the pot off the heat and cover with a lid. Let it stand for 10 minutes, then pour cold water into the pot allowing it to replace all hot water. Add 10-15 large ice cubes, and let stand for at least 15 minutes.
- Peel the apples, and cut each in half from stem to bottom. Using a melon baller, remove seeds. Cut out the stem as well as flower end and skin around them.
- Cut the apples into 1/4 inch cubes2.
- Cut the potatoes into 1/4 inch cubes.
- Peel the eggs. Using egg slicer, cut them in two directions: along then across3.
- Finely chop dill pickles4.
- If making the salad first time you can use less mayonnaise and pickles at first and add more if needed.
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Add freshly ground black pepper and mix again.
- Taste the salad and decide if it is missing any ingredients: We usually have to add a bit more mayo, some black pepper, and a lot more pickles. Sometimes we add some salt.
- The salad can be served right away, but it becomes smoother and better balanced, if allowed to rest for a couple of hours.
- Store in a closed jar in a fridge.
Footnotes
- I prefer Yukon Gold potatoes. We used to peel them after cooking, but discovered that the skins left on are all but invisible in the salad. Another time saver was using an attachment to a Cuisinart food processor that cuts a medium potato into cubes into cubes in about two seconds plus another two seconds to put each potato into a loading chute. So cutting 8 potatoes takes now about half a minute, ↩︎
- Cutting apples with the same food processor attachment is as fas as cutting potatoes. Now the slowest part is peeling and coring the apples. ↩︎
- Originally, we used to cut eggs in three directions, aiming to get small cubes. However, the egg yolks (cubed or not) do not keep that shape when the salad is mixed. Egg whites are already cut into small enough pieces after two perpendicular cuts. ↩︎
- Another food processor I have has continuous control of the speed from very, very slow, to quite fast, unlike most food processors that have only two speeds: high and low. Even at the low speed such food processors would turn pickles into mush. As you can see in the picture above, my pickles were chopped finely into pieces that are just the right size for this salad. A 2-L jar of pickles requires them to be chopped in three or four batches, but each chopping takes only about 20 seconds. See the video attached to get an idea of how slow this processor can run: it is set to speed 2 from the range of 1-10. ↩︎
You can watch the manufacturer’s video for this attachment at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhDnHRhccEE
Disclaimer: I have no relation with any of the manufacturers and I do not benefit from discussing their products here, nor do I endorse them. Any appliance that I mention is what I use, but I do not claim that this is the best on the market. I just find it useful for me.