Potato Salad Deliciousness

 Potato Salad is such a staple, but it can be a bit boring.   I like to make my potato salad a little fancy and add in other items, as well as some herbs and a couple of spices.   

So - here is my potato salad recipe!

Ingredients

4 washed potatoes - skin on (choose a potato that is good for boiling)

2 green onions

3 celery stalks

1 stalk of lemongrass  *

3 radishes

1 large or 2 small apples (whatever variety you like)

Walnuts, or your favourite nut (Pecans are great, as are cashews, Brazil Nuts, Macadamias  - actually why not add a mixture!) **

1 Tablespoon Seeded Mustard ***

Cracked Pepper (black, gren, multi - whatever you have)

Potato Salad Dressing or Caesar Dressing ****

Sour Cream

Mixed Herbs

Method

1.  Dice the potatoes into bite-size pieces - don't peel.  Steam them over boiling water until tender (you can do this over a slow heat as well over a longer period of time).  

2.  Drain the potatoes and let sit in a colander until they have cooled

3,  Whilst doing that, dice your apples, and thinly slice the other ingredients  (except nuts - either leave them whole or roughly chop them).  Add to a salad bowl, or large container to store.  

4.  Add the potatoes, the herbs, pepper and seeded mustard and toss or mix together.  

5.  When serving, mix together the dressing and a tablespoon of sour cream and some pepper so that people can add it themselves (or not). Addin the sour cream gives the dressing a wonderfully decadent richness, without sweetness.   I like to add a flavoured pepper (lemon pepper is my favourite) to give the dressing more flavour.  

  You can also make a non-creamy dressing of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar and Dijon Mustard.

Notes

*  Lemongrass ads a lovely lemony tang to the salad.  You can also use Lemon Thyme or Lemon Myrtle

**  You can leave out the nuts if you want, but I find they add a lovely crunch  and flavour to the salad.

***  The seeded mustard ads a wonderful burst of flavour and means that you don't actually need any dressing if you don't want to.

**** Both of these dressings are creamy, but Caesar dressing has extra garlic in it, which some people prefer.   You can also use Ranch Dressing or any other creamy dressing for this.  

Adventures in Gardening

 So - in August I moved to a new place.  It's a disabled unit, so is ground floor, easy access and has a wet room instead of a shower - all of which is great for me.   AND it has a proper kitchen - instead of a hallway pretending to be a kitchen.  

Best of all, it has an outside courtyard that is almost as big as my living area!   

I have been inspired to try gardening.   It will all be in pots, as there are no garden beds as such (all paved) and I'm goingn to concentrate on making it an edible garden - herbs, veggies, fruits, etc.  I've started with some Australian Native bush tucker plants which have now been planted out.   

They had a rough start, taking 2 weeks to get here from Victoria and I've been trying to nurture them along until I can plant them in the toughs.  Now I need to water and fertilise them (I've been told to use Seasol on them - which sadly I won't have until next week).

Let's see how I go!

I also plan to plant Rozellas, beans, peas, potatoes, cucumbers, garlic, onions, warrigul greens, pepperberry, geraldton wax, bok choi and tatsoi, and herbs.  And as many other native edible plants as I can - there are so many that are so interesting! 

I am also going to do some companion plantings of things like nasturshum, lavender, marigolds, maybe dahlias.   My ambition is to also have a small rose garden (I adore roses- they are my favourite flower).

Planning it to be a mixture of a native edible and a medieval edible garden!   That should be intereting!

I have a friend who has said they will give me some cherry tomato seedlings, and another offering me aloe vera.

Quite excited about this - if I can make sure they all live!!!