My German Potato Salad recipe or Kartoffelsalat is the style of potato salad you find in the southern part of Germany and is made with lots of bacon, herbs and a coarse grain mustard vinaigrette. Since I was a kid, this has been one of my favorite potato recipes and I love making it for cookouts. The bacon, mustard, and vinegar give these potatoes a really bold flavor, perfect for roasted meats and barbeque. Technically, I believe the potatoes in a more traditional German Potato Salad recipe are boiled, but I like to brown mine in the bacon fat. I prefer the color and the flavor of the browned sauteed potatoes to boiled potatoes. I always get the good bacon from the deli or meat counter at the grocery store, the packaged bacon just doesn’t have enough flavor and shrinks down to nothing when you fry it. Since the bacon at the deli and the prepackaged stuff is pretty close to the same price anyway, why not get the good stuff?

Here’s my German Potato Salad recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 lbs Red Potatoes, leave the skin on, sliced or cubed
• ½ lbs Bacon, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 1 Small Red Onion, sliced
• ½ cup White Wine Vinegar
• 3 Tablespoons Course Ground Mustard
• 1 Teaspoon Salt
• ½ Teaspoon Black Pepper
• 2 Scallions, chopped
• ½ cup Dill or Parsley, chopped

PROCEDURE:

-Place sliced red onion, vinegar, mustard, salt, and pepper in a bowl, mix to combine. Do this first to give the vinegar time to slightly pickle the raw onion

-Sauté the bacon in a large skillet, when browned, transfer the bacon to paper towels to drain, save 3 tablespoons of fat and discard the rest

-Put the 1 inch cubed or sliced potatoes into the skillet over medium-high heat, cover, brown on all sides

-Remove from heat, add onion mixture, stir to coat the potatoes evenly

-Taste, adjust seasonings if necessary

-Add dill or parsley and chopped scallions, stir to incorporate

-Serve warm