Grilled Potato Salad with Bacon
Serves 6 to 8
This salad takes us back to being kids, Nick in Michigan. Cortney in Chicago. It’s summer and there are fireflies, humidity that you can cut with a knife, and sparklers. Someone’s dad has the grill going, there’s leftover bacon from breakfast, and a potato salad is born. A lot of our inspiration comes from a desire to re-create flavors from a more innocent time. Sure, we improvise – make everything spicier, deeper, stronger – but the base is the same. We’re looking to capture the past to tell a story of where we came from and where we are now.
2 lb/910 g Yukon gold potatoes
1 tbsp lard, or filtered grapeseed oil
12 oz/340 g bacon, cut into 1/4-to 1/2-in/6- to 12-mm dice
1 sweet white onion, sliced paper-thin
2 yellow Hungarian wax peppers,
or 1 green bell pepper, stemmed, seeded,
and cut into 1/2-in/12-mm dice
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp sweet paprika
1/4 cup/60 ml apple cider vinegar
3 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp chopped fresh marjoram
1 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1/2 tsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup/55g capers, elderberry capers, or fennel capers
Prepare a medium-low fire for direct-heat cooking in a charcoal or gas grill. Put the potatoes on the grate directly over the fire, cover the grill, and cook the potatoes until almost tender (a skewer inserted into a potato will meet some resistance), about 1 hour, turning halfway through. Remove the potatoes from the grill and stoke the fire if needed to maintain the heat.
Place the large sauté pan on the grate directly over the fire and heat until a drop of water flicked on the pan sizzles on contact. Add the lard and bacon and cook until the bacon begins to render its fat, about 5 minutes. Add the onion and wax peppers and cook, stirring, until the vegetables begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add the paprika and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat and add the vinegar, 2 tbsp of the parsley, 1 tbsp of the marjoram, 1 tsp of the dill, the brown sugar, and the salt to the pan. Season with pepper and stir to dissolve the brown sugar.
Transfer the bacon mixture to a serving bowl. Cut the still-warm potatoes into quarters, add to the bowl, add capers, and toss to mix everything evenly. Garnish with the remaining parsley, marjoram, and dill and serve warm. Leftover salad will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. |
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