Potato salad

A homemade potato salad is infinitely preferable to anything you can buy in a shop, although you should feel no guilt about using ready-made mayonnaise, as you might for this dish’s close relative, tartare sauce. The main difference between the latter and this recipe is that I use spring onions here to bump up the green colour. Granny adds grated carrot to her potato salads – feel free to sling those in too. This makes an ideal accompaniment to Wiener schnitzel or to a summer barbecue. I am publishing it today in the (vain?) hope of nudging the British weather gods into action.

Serves 6 as a side

Ingredients

1kg small new potatoes
100g mayonnaise
2 spring onions, trimmed and chopped
2 gherkins or 4-6 cornichons
1 tbsp capers (whole if small, roughly chopped if large)
1 tbsp dill, finely chopped
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley and/or chives, finely chopped
Salt and pepper

Method

Put the potatoes in a large saucepan, cover with cold water, add a teaspoon salt, cover and bring to the boil. Once boiling, cook for 15-20 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool completely. Once cool, cut each potato in half, leaving any particularly tiny ones whole.

Mix together all the rest of the ingredients in a serving bowl large enough to accommodate the potatoes, and with elbow room to stir. Taste and adjust seasoning. Finally, stir in the potatoes so that they are thoroughly coated in the not-quite-tartare-sauce, clean the edge of the bowl with a quick wipe and serve.