Potato Salad

Potato Salad

One of our summer salad favourites.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings: 4
Course: Salads & Vegetables
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 4-6 Potatoes
  • 1/4 Cup Peas
  • 3 Eggs
  • 3 Bacon rashers
  • 1/2 Onion
  • 12 Fresh Mint leaves
  • 1/4 Cup Mayonaise
  • 2 - 3 Tablespoons Milk
  • Cracked pepper

Method
 

  1. Cut potatoes into a large dice and boil or steam. Drain and cool.
  2. Hard boil your eggs and cook your fresh or frozen peas. Drain, cool and peel eggs. Dice 2 of your eggs and 1/4 the other (goes on top).
  3. Dice and fry off your bacon to a light crisp (keep aside a bit to go on top). Add your onion. This lets your onion absorb your bacon flavours. Cool.
  4. My dressing is as I like it, roughly the 1/4 cup of mayo thinned down with a tablespoon or 2 of milk until I'm happy with the consistency, you can add a little seeded mustard for flavour. You can use bottled potato salad dressing if you prefer.
  5. In your bowl mix your potatoes, peas, bacon and onion, some torn mint leaves, pepper and your 2 diced eggs. Add as much dressing as you need. Chill.
  6. Spoon into your serving dish placing egg segments on top. Sprinkle with bacon and torn mint leaves on top.

Notes

I grow mint so I just grab it as I need it, I've not tried this with dried mint leaves. My Nanas original recipe called for parsley, I only changed my recipe in the last few years. If you don't have one try the other. She also used just plain mayo, I find plain mayo to thick for a dressing so I thin it out, because I can.
I also grow shallots so I switch between onion and shallots for this recipe. If I use shallots I don't panfry with the bacon.
I use Desiree potatoes or purple skinned potatoes, I just like them. They hold their shape well for this when cooked and don't break down to make it mush especially when many people are dipping in a serving spoon. But it's not a necessity, as long as you keep an eye on your potatoes and don't over cook.

Vinegar

* Vinegar I’ve found takes the boys’/men’s horrible summer sweat smell out of their shirts when washing.  Just fill your machine’s softener dispenser with white vinegar (I use home brand – $1.05 for 2L). You may get a slight vinegar smell when you hang clothes out on the line but it does disperse over the line drying time. Now for me it’s just a matter of course; vinegar is also a disinfectant, so what can it hurt?  No ill effects on any clothes so far. The hint I read for vinegar originally  was more to do with keeping the pipes clean while washing as softener over time tends to clog it.

* Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar to your pancake mix for lighter pancakes.

* Add 1 tablespoon of vinegar to 1 cup of milk  to sour it instead of buttermilk.

* Wipe down bench tops and glass.

There are many more uses but these are my favourites.

Hints

My hints are a collection of ideas learnt from people I’ve spoken to, magazines, forums, many sources.  I’ve put here the hints I still use regularly or have used at some stage over the years.  As we know life and circumstance change.

Basic White Sauce

Basic White Sauce

My Nana made hers this way, I started microwaving it due to time in dinner prep. For over vegetables, corned beef. You can double the recipe for a lasagne (bechamel sauce). This is not the French way with the roux, it's a quick simple microwave version.
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 minutes
Cook Time 3 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings: 4
Course: Mains
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • 1 tablespoons Corn flour (corn starch)
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon White pepper Black works just as well, it's just an aesthetics thing.
  • 1 1/4 cups Milk

Method
 

  1. In a small dish mix some of the measured milk with cornflour to make a thinnish paste.
  2. Add that paste to the rest of the milk and mix well. Make sure that the jug or bowl is able to take the volume of the thickening sauce as it will rise.
  3. For the first time microwave on High for 2 minutes, take out and stir/whisk. You will need to then nuke for 1min, stir, nuke 1 min and stir, 2 or 3 times. You want to stop it's cooking as the sauce starts rise, about 1-2 cm higher than it was in the bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste and stir. Your plain sauce is done.
  4. I do mine in a large 4 cup Pyrex jug. For a cheesy white sauce add 1/4 cup of your favourite grated cheese when done, the heat should melt cheese in. For a parsley white sauce add some fresh or dried parsley, when done. Use both in the one sauce.

Notes

This can be made in a saucepan on the stove top, just keep stirring so the sauce does not stick to the bottom, keep low to med heat.
Make a double mix for your lasagne adding basil and oregano. My preference is to make this first, it can sit aside in fridge until I'm ready for it.
To thin the sauce add more milk, to thicken add less milk.
My preference is to make sauce while dinner is cooking eg: corned beef.  If sauce is finished first cover with a plate to keep warm, stir before use..

Noodle seasoning sachet

Do you ever buy 2 minute noodles but never use the seasoning sachets for them? Try the seasoning mixed with a tablespoon of plain flour, coat chicken pieces and bake or fry.  OR you can sprinkle over potatoes and bake.

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