Thursday, November 6, 2008

Day 41: Scandinavian Flower Eggs with Sweet-Tart Mustard Dill Sauce

This was a great way to use up all of the potatoes, greens, and eggs that I have been getting in our farm share. This recipe has such a fancy name that I was halfway through before I realized it could have just been called "Fancy Potato Salad".

Scandinavian Flower Eggs with Sweet-Tart Mustard Dill Sauce

If you like eggs, mustard, and potatoes, this recipe is for you. Happily, I
love all three so it was win, win, win.

Start by hard-boiling 8 eggs.

While your eggs are cooking, boil one pound of small red potatoes for 15 minutes. Drain and rinse with cool water to stop the cooking. When cool, peel the potatoes and slice in 1/4" slices.

While the eggs and potatoes are cooking, start on the sauce. In a medium bowl, mix together
1/4 cup plain vinegar (or cider vinegar) with 1 clove of minced garlic and three tablespoons of minced onion. It is nice if you can sit this aside for 10 minutes to mellow while you prepare the rest. Then stir in 2 T of sugar, 3 T canola oil (NOT olive oil, too strong of flavor for this), 1/2 cup dark, grainy mustard, and 1/3 cup of fresh, chopped dill. Then add salt and pepper too taste. At this point, taste for sweet-sour balance. I actually used a little less mustard and another teaspoon of sugar, all said and done. The mustard I had was extremely strong flavored.

Now comes for the grand assembly of the salad.
Take your serving platter and spread out 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise to form a 9-10" circle.Cover the mayonnaise with your potato slices, overlapping them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and then pile 2-3 cups of thin-sliced lettuce on top of the potatoes, covering them. I used purple potatoes since that is what we had from our farm share and I like how they looked.
Peel and quarter your potatoes lengthwise and arrange on top of lettuce in a sunburst pattern, like a flower. Sprinkle with more salt and pepper, if you desire.

Before serving, zig zag dressing over the top of salad and top with diced, sweet onion and fresh chopped dill. I used a lot of onion and only a tiny bit of dill since there is so much dill in the dressing. Also, you will not need all of the dressing so you can serve the rest of it on the side at table or save it for another salad.

This salad looks lovely, but I have to say, it is a bit awkward to serve. The mustard sauce is delicious. Next time I might just chop everything up and assemble it like a more traditional salad and then I think you can just put a bit of mayo in the dressing instead.
Yum!

67 recipes down in How To Eat Supper.

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