Kartoffelsalat is popular all over Germany, but the recipes are many, various and different depending on region, there are cold and warm ones as well (the latter I dislike, but that's just me). Mine has no claim to any German regional roots, the more as I come from Westphalia, lived for 11 years in Bavaria and am living now for more 12 years in Saxony, so I've come to know and appreciate a lot of regional German cooking.
This simple recipe is based on 6 middle-sized waxy potatoes (and on trial and error). The other quantities are more or less to taste.
Ingredients
6 waxy potatoes
Pork belly and fatback
Mayonnaise, preferably home made
1 1/2 Bockwursts or the equivalent amount of boiled ham
4 hard boiled eggs
Pickled gherkins (I prefer those with a tad of sweet)
1 large onion
Salt and pepper
Mustard
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| Bockwurst (CC BY-SA 3.0 from Wikimedia Commons) |
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| Pork Belly |
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| Fatback |
Boil the potatoes in the skin, peel and cut into slim, but not too slim slices.
Render small dices of pork belly and fatback in the pan to the point where they are shrivelled to tiny crispy bits. I use about an eighth of the pork belly and fatback each pictured above. Add the crispy bits and the fat to the potatoes.
Add the mayonnaise. (I'm too stupid to make my own mayonnaise but there are excellent products from smaller regional food companies here in Saxony. I never use one of the big brands - disgusting.) The amount is up to taste, but use enough because the mayonnaise will otherwise "vanish" in the process of "permeation" (can't think of a better word).
Cut the Bockwurst into not too small dices and add. Same goes for the ham. (I prefer Bockwurst to ham, even though Kartoffelsalat is mainly eaten with Bockwurst.)
Cut the eggs in thick slices and add. They will lose shape anyway.
Cut the pickled gherkins into small dices and add.
Do the same with the onion.
Add salt, pepper and a little bit mustard to taste.
Mix well and let stand overnight covered in the fridge for "permeation".
Should the result be too solid, you can add a bit of cream instead of more mayonnaise.
Mix again well before serving.
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| This is how it will approximately look. As I said before, I take my illustrations from cookbooks or the Internet, because amateur snapshots of food tend to be offputting. This recipe uses cucumber instead of pickled gherkins. I tried it. Not to my taste but surely an alternative if one doesn't like gherkins. |
Kartoffelsalat mit Würstchen ("Wiener" or Bockwurst) is the, in some regions of Germany, traditional Christmas Eve dish. Read my article about an Anglo-German Christmas Eve.
