Kurt Gutenbrunner's Potato and Cucumber Salad

I won't blame you if you're asking yourselves whether I'm really serious with this potato salad post. After all, isn't potato salad usually just a bland dollop of something whitish on your plate - highly perishable, flatly greasy and innocuous, nothing special, really? Yes - potato salad, with cold pasta salad trailing it closely, has in my mind always been Food To Be Avoided Like The Plague. But when Kurt Gutenbrunner - of Wallse and Cafe Sabarsky fame, not to mention Thor and Blaue Gans) wrote a piece in the New York Times about his favorite potato salad with nary a smidge of mayonnaise, I started paying attention.

I had clipped all four recipes printed with the article - Fennel and Blood Orange, Wilted Red Cabbage, Celery Root and Apple, and the aforementioned Potato and Cucumber. The other salads looked luscious in their own right, but a bit more wintery than what I was craving. The soft breeze at the end of my workday heralded warmer weather and the need for lighter fare - and the potato salad sounded just right. With no fingerlings to be found at my local store (and it being an off-market day), I bought a sack of Yukon Gold potatoes and left out the dill (for a long time, dill was my cilantro and I'm still not really over it).

What I loved about the recipe were the small, easy touches that really made a difference. A pinch of caraway seeds in the potato water to flavor them subtly, briefly boiling chopped onion in chicken stock to take the harsh edge off, a spoonful of yogurt or cream to add the barest touch of body, salting and draining cucumbers to have their springy flavor pop. I'm not usually one to worship at a chef's altar, but in this case the privilege of having Kurt's knowledge of how to coax out the best possible flavor in a totally pedestrian dish was invaluable.

Further proving Ben to be a sweetheart and a darling, he came over for dinner bearing two soft-shell crabs (unbidden!) on ice. We floured and fried them up in a pan of browned butter and ate them with a generous squeeze of lemon juice, alongside the vinegar-brightened potato salad that had crunch from the onions, the cucumbers and the mustard seed. The stock poured over the warm potatoes gave it a welcome creamy texture. Along with the crispy, saline crabs, it was a pretty spectacular Tuesday night dinner. I'll never look at potato salad the same way again.

Potato and Cucumber Salad
Serves 4 to 6

1 English cucumber, sliced paper thin
Salt
2 pounds Austrian crescent or other fingerling potatoes
Pinch caraway seeds
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon canola or sunflower seed oil (I left this out)
2 tablespoons sour cream, crème fraîche or plain yogurt, optional (I just used one spoonful)

1. Put cucumber slices in bowl, toss with 2 teaspoons salt, and set aside.

2. Put potatoes in saucepan, cover with water, add generous pinch salt and caraway, bring to a boil, and cook until potatoes are just tender. Drain, peel, and slice into a bowl while still warm. Season with salt and pepper.

3. In a saucepan, bring stock and onion to a simmer. Add to potatoes, and toss gently until silky and lightly thickened. Fold in mustard, vinegar and oils.

4. Drain cucumbers well, squeezing out excess liquid. (Liquid can be used in soups or sauces.) Fold cucumbers into potato salad. Add more salt, pepper and vinegar if needed. Add sour cream, crème fraîche or yogurt if wanted. Serve as first course or side dish.

Comments

[radish]

Kurt Gutenbrunner is probably my favorite New York chef, with Wallse being among my top eating places. Everything he makes is incredible and delicious. If you go, be sure to try the braised rabbit appetizer!

[Kristin]

The salad looks great, but the soft shell crab is what really does it for me! I would love it if you did a post in the future on how to best prepare it!

[Julie]

No!! Potato salads aren't just bland whitish dollops on a plate. At least not a good one. I love potato salad, even those with mayonnaise.

This potato salad sounds delicious and unusual.

I can't imagine anything more perfect for a warm spring evening than a dinner of soft-shelled crabs and potato salad.

[Alanna]

I'm a big potato salad fan, too, with and without mayo. I love the idea of infusing flavor into the potatoes by adding the caraway to the cooking water, however. It's a concept that works whenever potatoes are being cooked in water ...

[Luisa]

Radish - I think Cafe Sabarsky takes the cake as the loveliest, most elegant place for Kaffee & Kuchen in New York. And yes, Wallse is goooood. But I haven't had the rabbit yet. Next time!

Kristin - and now I divulge a little secret: I had never before made soft-shell crabs at home! They were easier than easy. I literally dusted them with flour (no egg, no breadcrumbs, nothing) and fried them in hot pan with butter for a few minutes on each side (let them get brown and crispy before turning). Then I slid them onto plates and doused them with lemon juice. That's it! So good.

Julie - you're right - the dinner was so perfect, and unexpectedly so, I have to say. ;) As for good, mayonnaise-y potato salads? You'll have to show me the way.

Alanna - isn't that clever? Such a good truc.

[Jessika]

In Germany you can get the best warm potato sallads with a vinaigrette dressing without any creme fraiche and/or sour cream and mayonnaise. I'll try this one when it's more into the season.

[Lindy]

I am actually a long time fancier of and fooler-around with potato salads. I love all sorts, and went through a period of making them all the time with different ingredients, herbs, etc., some with mayo, some not.
But this one is very different from anything I thought up, and I will be trying it for sure. Those little touches sound good, and as if they might come in handy transposed to some other settings, too!

[Rebecca Pollak]

I'm never too old to learn some new tricks with the classics; I, too, am funny about mayonnaise--my heart just sinks if I go to a summer picnic and all the side dishes are mayonnaise-laden.
I am usually burning my fingers peeling the potatoes so I can pour the vinaigrette over them while they are still hot and can absorb it, and have typically used tarragon as the herb, but I'll have to try this recipe; it sounds wonderful.

[Adrienne]

I'm all for the mayo-less potato salad! Thanks for the recipe.

[thebizofknowledge]

I stumbled across your blog while I was doing some online research. Now this just isn't your mother's potato salad, is it? Rather, this recipe is sophisticated and geared to adult tastes!

[Next generation star trek]

I love your blog so much, and there are just some differences with others'. Hope there will be more wonderful things in your blog. Happy every day! http://www.star-trek-dvd.com/star_trek/The_Next_Generation/index.html

[Haley J.]

I recently ate at Wallse for the first time, and while the weisswurst and the pastries were amazing - I still remember the subtle crunch and delicate flavors of this salad. It was served as a simple side to my entree, but it was so delicious. And now I have the recipe! Thank you.

[VeggieCook]

Thanks for sharing this wonderful potato salad recipe. This is the first time I have tried it. My family loved it.

[Jimmy Cencersen]

It seems to be very tasty, despite the fact that it looks more like a cooked cereal, not a salad =)