Greim Gasta - Warm Potato & Sausage Salad

Articles21/09/2011

Warm potato and sausage salad

This is a quite delicious salad that can be eaten all year round and has never failed to impress anyone I’ve served it to no matter how sophisticated their palate. Simple and rustic, it performs the double feat of offering a delicious first course but which could be very feasibly put together from leftovers. Could it be a main course? Yes, it could.

Ingredients

2 or 3 potatoes per person. (The potatoes can be cooked specifically for this salad or could be left over from the previous night’s meal. In any case – peel them).
2 shallots
Small bunch parsley
Groundnut or peanut oil
Dijon mustard
Salt, black pepper
White wine, cider or spirit vinegar.
Sausages (preferably Toulouse or an Italian coarse sausage. If not available, seek out the best coarse pure pork sausage you can find and can afford. Sorry, pale, anaemic, chemical-ridden travesties of sausages will simply not do).

Method

First, peel the potatoes and then cook them “just so”. Save on electricity, washing up, extra utensils and so on, by plunging the sausage of your choice into the same water for about 10 minutes to cook them through. Remove and brown under the grill. When the potatoes are cooked, remove, refresh and slice but keep that water in the pot. Tasty, tasty, very, very tasty.
Make the vinaigrette sauce –place 3 large tbsps of olive oil in a large mixing bowl.
Add 1 large tbsp of French Dijon Mustard (I stress French though it might seem obvious, but Dijon mustard made by other nationalities is just not the same as they simply haven’t grasped that you don’t put sugar in Dijon mustard). Whisk this in (using a fork if you don’t have a whisk) until fully incorporated, then add 1 tbsp of cider vinegar.
(Incidentally –if you buy quality jars of gherkins, onions, that sort of thing, you’ll find that they are usually preserved in spirit vinegar. When you’ve eaten the pickles, use it for sauces such as this.)
Add a generous helping of parsley, season with salt and pepper. Finely chop the shallots and add to this & mix well.
When ready to serve, slice your sausages and keep warm under a low grill or in the oven. Place the sliced potatoes in a wire sieve and dip into the hot water to heat them through again.
Remove the potatoes, shake off the excess water and drop immediately into the vinaigrette in the bowl. Stir immediately as the hot wet potatoes absorb so much more of the sauce which really is what makes it so special, despite the paucity of ingredients. The combination of shallot and vinegar goes right to the heart of each slice of potato rendering this dish unforgettable and unputdownable.
Arrange the potatoes on a plate and top with the slices of hot sausage. Serve with salad leaves & tomatoes.