The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern_ Knockout Dishes With Down-Home Flavor - Matt Lee [39]
True, you have to invest a few extra minutes to cut the potatoes small, but you can bet your sack of potatoes it’s worth it.
5 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
2½ pounds small red potatoes, cut into ½-inch dice
½ cup high-quality store-bought mayonnaise, such as Hellmann’s or Duke’s
¼ cup whole or lowfat buttermilk
¼ cup pickle relish or finely diced pickles
Juice of 1 large lemon
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar or distilled white vinegar
1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala, plus more to taste
2 ribs celery, peeled and finely diced (1 cup)
1 cup thinly sliced scallions (white and green parts)
Freshly ground black pepper
1 Put 6 cups water, 4½ teaspoons of the salt, and the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover, and bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until the potatoes are just fork-tender, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit in the hot water for 10 minutes while you prepare the dressing.
2 In a large salad bowl, whisk the mayonnaise with the buttermilk, pickle relish, lemon juice, vinegar, curry powder, and ½ teaspoon of the salt.
3 Drain the potatoes in a colander and run them under cold running water to cool. Shake off the excess water, and transfer the potatoes to the bowl containing the dressing. Add the celery and scallions, and toss until evenly coated with the dressing. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve (but not more than 2 days).
4 Before serving, season to taste with salt, curry powder, and black pepper.
FIELD PEA SALAD WITH GINGERED BEETS AND LEMON
serves 4 • TIME: 20 minutes preparation, 20 minutes to 1 hour simmering
Fresh field peas are an indulgence of high summer, when farmers markets throughout the South are brimming with bags of shelled peas. Since field peas are removed by hand from their slender pods, they tend to be costly. If you’ve ever tasted a fresh field pea’s lively bean flavor, you’ll know they’re worth it. But since their season is so short, and because we crave field peas year-round, we often turn to the dried varieties, which are a slightly different experience but every bit as valuable, with deep, soulful flavor, mellower and less sweet than the fresh. They are also dirt cheap and widely available. They do take a little longer to cook, but that’s no hurdle for us.
This is a super-hearty salad that you can eat on the go as a complete meal, or with a simple two-egg omelet for a satisfying lunch. We temper the earthy sweetness of the beets and peas with lemon, ginger, and a generous handful of chopped scallions.
4 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 pound fresh or 8 ounces dried shelled field peas, such as red cowpeas, lady peas, pink-eyes, black-eyes, purple hulls, crowders, or zippers
1 pound fresh red beets, peeled, trimmed, and cut into small dice (2½ to 3 cups)
One 3-ounce piece of fresh ginger (about 4 inches long), peeled
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
⅓ cup grapeseed, peanut, vegetable, or mild olive oil
1 bunch scallions (white and green parts), chopped (¾ cup)
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 Pour 2½ quarts water into a heavy-bottomed 4-quart stockpot, add 2½ teaspoons of the salt, and bring to a boil. Rinse the field peas in a strainer or colander, and add them to the boiling water. Cook until the peas are tender, maintaining the level of the cooking water just above the peas, about 20 minutes if you’re using fresh field peas and 1 hour if using dried.
2 While the peas cook, pour 1 quart water into a small saucepan, add 1 teaspoon of the salt, and bring to a boil. Add the beets and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain, and run them under cold tap water to cool. Then arrange the beets in a single layer on paper towels spread across a cutting board, and let them dry while the peas finish cooking.