Russian Tea Room Potato Salad

87.  When summer rolls around we get the taste for potato salad, grilled food, barbeque ribs and corn on the cob.  It just tastes like summer!  

My honey has the best potato salad recipe!  It comes from the "Russian Tea Room" Cookbook.  

We love this cookbook because it stirs up stories of my honey's job working at the Russian Tea Room many, many years ago.  He tells about the famous celebrities who would come in after events next door at the Carnegie Music Hall.  He boasts of the food...how every dish was delicious and so unique.  His favorite meal in the summer was "Piroshki" which were little baked meat-filled pies with sour cream dough.  And they always served it with cold "Borscht", which is beet soup.

I love how excited he gets talking about the different dishes.  The owner of the restaurant was Faith Stewart-Gordon.  He remembers her to be very stately and creative.  She would tailor make all of her clothing and it was impeccable.   Years ago the Russian Tea Room went out of business and the restaurant was vacant for several years.  We have heard that it has opened it's doors again.  My honey wants to go back someday to taste that delicious food once more.

Maybe that's why he fell in love with me!..This is the type of food I grew up with.  Borscht was a constant in our family meals and potatoes  or cabbage were served at just about every meal."  And I learned how to cook all of it.  Why does he need to go the the Russian Tea Room when he has "Lilly's Polish/Russian/German Tea Room" every day!

Anyway, you will enjoy this recipe and it is easy...with several steps involved.  The finished product is always worth the investment.

Potato Salad

Russian Tea Room Cookbook(pg 166)

6-8 medium potatoes (I use all types of potatoes, red skinned and yukon are my favorite)

⅔ cup mayonnaise

⅔ cup sour cream

1 Tblsp minced onion

1 Tblsp white vinegar or to taste

1 Tblsp fresh lemon juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

salt

¼ tsp freshly ground pepper

⅓ cup minced pimiento

2 Tblsp minced fresh parsley

(opt. 3 hard boiled eggs, chilled and cubed...our addition)

Boil the potatoes (in salted water) until just tender when pierced with the point of a knife.  Drain, and as soon as sufficiently cool to handle, peel and cut into small dice.  Turn the potatoes into a deep bowl.  While potatoes are cooking, make the dressing.  Combine mayonnaise and sour cream in a bowl and beat with a wire whisk until well mixed.  Add onion, vinegar lemon juice and mustard and blend throughly.  Add salt, but taste as you are adding it; the mayonnaise and mustard may be salty already.  Add pepper and pimiento and mix again.  Spoon over the potatoes and toss with a fork to coat them evenly.  Cover the bowl and chill until serving time.  Sprinkle with parsley and serve on salad greens.

I like to leave the skin on the red potatoes and mix the parsley in at the point of the pimiento.

So what will you make for dinner tonight?  Potato Salad perhaps?

"Summer afternoon - summer afternoon;

 to me those have always been

 the two most beautiful words in the English language."  

~Henry James