Slap Yo Momma Potato Salad!!!

Food in the south is fantastic, period, and one of the things I love the most about our food during the summer is that there are a variety of "salads" to be found in almost every home and restaurant you walk into. They are such a refreshing change of pace and so easy to make, and let's be honest; we like things to be easy around these parts when it gets hot. It's oppressively warm and humid and not really the environment one wants to slave over a hot stove in thank you very much! So how do we solve that problem? Yep. You've got it. We make everything into a salad! Think about it! How many dishes with the word "salad" in it can you name? Just off the top of my head there's: potato salad, egg salad, chicken salad, ham salad, congealed salad (This is that amazing, creamy gelatin based desert that you can still find at any church fellowship dinner. I will post a recipe for that later.) crab salad, tuna salad, and the list could go on and on but I will get back to the original point of this post. Potato salad.

Yummy :)

I got this recipe from Emeril Lagasse's page on foodnetwork.com and oh my goodness, it is wonderful. You even get to make your very own, home-made dijon mayonnaise! So cool! Granted this recipe might seem a bit fancy to some folks as most potato salads consist of four, maybe five ingredients, but goodness is it worth it! This is also gluten free (Yay!) and for my kosher friends and neighbors you can simply opt out on the bacon. So now that you have the recipe for it, get to cooking and enjoy!

ROASTED POTATO SALAD

Ingredients:

2 lb. new potatoes, quartered
1 cup plus 2 tbsp olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 egg
Juice of 3 lemons
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp creole mustard
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/2 lb. bacon, chopped and browned until crispy
1 cup chopped red onions
4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley leaves
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh dill

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and then in a mixing bowl, toss the potatoes with the 2 tbsp of olive oil, season them with salt and pepper and place potatoes on a baking sheet to roast for 35-40 minutes. When finished, remove the potatoes from the oven and cool completely.

2. In a food processor add the egg, juice form one lemon, mustard, garlic, and green onions. Puree until smooth. Season the mixture with salt pepper. With the machine running, slowly add the remaining olive oil until all the oil is used and the mixture is thick. Re-season the mayonnaise with salt and pepper.

3. In a large mixing bowl, toss the potatoes with the bacon, red onions, sliced eggs, parsley and dill. Season the mixture with salt and pepper. Stir in the mayonnaise and the remaining lemon juice. Mix thoroughly. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.