German Potato Salad Archives - Good Food St. Louis

Potato Power

Unquestionably, my favorite comfort food is potatoes. When I was a kid, we ate them in some form or another every day. (It must have been an Irish thing). My mother would make a big bowl of mashed potatoes for Sunday dinner to go with the fried chicken or roast beef.

In the following days, the leftovers reappeared as potato pancakes, soup, or a casserole. To this day, I find it hard to pass up a potato dish of any kind.

A Backward Glance

Our ancestors tried to lay on extra fat during this time of the year. They knew from experience that plump bodies were better prepared to survive harsh winters. (Sometimes I think my body believes it’s still living in the 15th century and needs the extra calories to protect me in cold weather.)

Maybe that’s why they call carby foods comforting. They keep you going in hard times.

Potatoes in So Many Ways

Hasselback Potatoes

French Fries

Hashbrown Potatoes

When I lunched this week with my friends Sally and Wanda, Sally gave me this pin she was wearing from a recent convention. It’s a perfect entree into this blog post on German side dishes. For the visually impaired, such as my self, the button reads: “If you’re asking me to choose sides, I’ll always choose potato salad.”

German Potato Salad

German potato salad in one of my mother’s old, pressed glass bowls.

Do you ever get the urge for a dish you’ve not had for awhile? That’s how I was with this Germany Potato Salad recently. It reminds me of what my mother used to make. (Though the recipe I now use is from a German deli in New York.)

To begin with, boil, peel and chop the potatoes. Get out the cast-iron skillet and fry up some bacon. Remove bacon to paper towel and add chopped red onions and garlic to drippings. Combine the oil, vinegar, mustard, and seasonings. Lastly, pour the hot dripping mixture over the potatoes and sprinkled with chopped green onions.

In the process, my counter tops becomes covered with peelings and choppings. But, alas, I do it because the dish is so doggone good! Recipe here.

Begin by boiling potatoes with onion and salt.

Chop potatoes and add fried bacon

Top with dripping mixture and a sprinkle of green onions.

Want Red Cabbage with Your Potato Salad?

Of course, you want red cabbage with your potato salad. But you don’t find red cabbage on many menus. When I do, I go for it. Most often I’m at Schneithorst’s, the Bavarian-themed gastropub, where they do the German side dish with pizzazz.

The dish is easy to make at home, though it’s often hard to find family and friends, who enjoy it as much as I do. In defense of red cabbage, I remind them that the vegetable—besides being delicious—is high in fiber and packed with vitamins C and K. Even so, I wind up eating most of it myself.

Simple and Speedy

This simple one skillet dish comes together in ten minutes. This recipe is probably more than a hundred years old, since it was given to me by an elderly woman from Arkansas a long time ago. All you do is add the shredded red cabbage, a chopped Granny apple, a little lemon juice and brown sugar to a skillet along with a stick of butter. Add salt and pepper, cover and simmer 50-60 minutes. It starts off as a huge pan full, but it cooks down.

Serve with sausage or a pork roast. It’s even better the next day.

German Red Cabbage

Ingredients:

8 Tbs. butter (1 stick)
1 red cabbage (medium head), shredded
3 tart apples, diced
3 Tbs. lemon juice
3 tsp. brown sugar
Salt to taste

Directions:

Melt butter in skillet. Add all other ingredients and cover. Simmer 50 minutes or until cabbage is tender.

Hmm. . . Perhaps a Side of Apple Strudel

I’ve not made a strudel in some while, but I occasionally share one at Schneidhorst’s with someone of like mind and tastes. Their German strudel is considered a classic with its chunky apples, nuts, and raisins encased in a flaky pastry covering.