It was time to branch out in the interest of international relations and make something other than French food. Warmer Bayerischer Kartoffelsalat (Hot Bavarian Potato Salad) seemed like the perfect dish for me to try something different and bring back some memories for when I lived in Germany. Besides, instead of another French dish loaded with tons of butter I could make a healthy German dish that used no butter at all! Nope, instead of butter the German's have found what must be a much healthier option -- bacon grease!
Just as Americans do, Germans have many varieties of potato salad and, as I recall, most are not a mayonnaise based dressing. I spent my two years in Germany living mostly in Keil, Berlin, Hannover, and Bremen and never made it to the south (Bayern) where this salad originates but I have had it before and it certainly did remind me of the wonderful meals I had there -- many of which included potato dishes of some sort.
Preparation of this potato salad was actually pretty straightforward and quick. First, I cut up a pound of bacon into 1/4" wide strips and cooked it until nice and crispy. I left them the width of a slice of bacon but they could have been cut up even smaller since they were being turned into fresh bacon bits. Your choice -- I just liked having a little bit bigger pieces of bacon. After cooking, the bacon was removed from the skillet using a slotted spoon and then the bacon drippings were poured into a small saucepan on very low heat to be used a little bit later.
One large onion was diced up to be added to the potatoes in a little bit. I've never mentioned it before so let me tell you about a pretty slick trick for quickly dicing up an onion in case you don't already know about this. First, you cut of the top and peel off the outer skin of the onion to get down to the part of the onion you'll use. Be sure to leave the root end of the onion intact. Then, carefully slice down through the onion with parallel cuts while making sure the tip slices close to the root end but not all the way through the bottom of the onion. Space your cuts out to the width you want the diced pieces to be. Then, roll the onion 90 degrees and do the same slicing process again. You'll end up with something that looks like an uncooked version of one of those "Blooming Onion" type of appetizers. Finally, turn the onion horizontally 90 degrees and cut across the slices you've just made. Like magic, little diced onion pieces end up on your cutting board!
While all of the bacon frying and onion slicing was going on, I had about 3-4 pounds of potatoes boiling. When tender enough to be pierced with a fork, the potatoes were drained and covered with some cold water for a few minutes to stop the cooking process. While still warm, the potatoes were peeled and sliced into 1/4" slices.
Peeling these things while hot is truly a real life game of hot potato. I've never developed "Mom hands" that enable me to hold molten potatoes, dip my fingers into boiling water, and things like that. Holding the potato in a double layer of paper towel, however, provided a nice layer of insulation and made it a lot easier to hold those slippery buggers. My only regret while making this was that I'd used some fairly small red potatoes. The potatoes themselves were fine but because they were small it ended up being about two thousand potatoes to peel. Next time I'll use a couple of monster one-pound potatoes and only have to peel three or four of them.
As the peeling progressed, with about each 1/4 of the potatoes in a large mixing bowl I would add about 1/4 of the diced onions and fresh bacon bits. Those layers just made it easier to evenly mix everything together without breaking up the potatoes too much. After all of the layers were finished, 2 tablespoons of basalmic vinegar plus the warm bacon drippings were drizzled over the potatoes/onions/bacon as they were being gently mixed together with some chopped parsley.
That's it! This salad an be eaten nice and warm or cool. If it has been in the fridge, however, it is best served after sitting out for a bit so that it is at least at room temperature. I love the salad but thought the leftover salad was even better the next day since the flavors had soaked in a bit more. I even tried microwaving it (yeah, pretty un-traditional) for about 20 seconds just to warm it a bit and it was great.
One nice feature of this salad is that, since it has no mayonnaise, it can be taken on a picnic without the same concerns of spoilage like you'd have with mayonnaise based dressings. I, personally, reallllllly loved this salad. Elizabeth, having not had this type of salad before, ate it and said it was "alright." I was okay with that -- it left more for me. If you've never had this salad before you should try it, you might really like it!
Bon Appetit! Or, as we'd say in Germany, Guten Appetit!
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