Flavour loaded potatoes. Hard-boiled eggs. Red onion. Spice. All wrapped up in a creamy mayo yoghurt dressing. Who doesn’t like a good potato salad? With grilled chicken? It’s a natural. Classic backyard BBQ menu. Real comfort food. But when it’s tandoori chicken? The potato salad needs to step up. Big time. And this one does. Like it was designed for it. Because it was. Literally. I sat down to come up with things to serve with tandoori chicken. And I came up with this.
East meets west – for real
This is a riff on western potato salad. I took my classic potato salad and re-imagined it through an Indian lens. That’s what Indianish is all about. Not fusion. Food re-imagined. Familiar food. WIth the kiss of Indian flavours. Potatoes. Eggs. Mayo. Red onion. All the classic ingredients. For awesome potato salad. Yoghurt replaces sour cream. Lemon and tamarind instead of pickle juice. Curry powder. Or mix powder. If you like. But spice either way. And chaat masala. That’s a big one.
Chaat masala pushes curried potato salad deeper into Indian territory
Not all potato salads are created equal. And not all curried potato salads are either. There are lots of recipes out there. Mostly it’s about adding some curry powder. That isn’t bad. Truth be told that’s actually pretty good. Curry powder and mayonnaise are good solid Indianish flavours. But this is glebekitchen. So it has to be better. There has to be a twist. And that twist is chaat masala. Never heard of chaat masala? Not really surprising. That’s digging pretty deep into Indian flavours. It’s a spice blend. That’s what masala means. A masala is a mix of spices. It’s the first word that defines what. Tandoori masala. Garam masala. Chaat masala. See where this is going? Chaat masala is made for curried potato salad. Because it has a secret ingredient. I love secret ingredients.
Kala namak makes this one special
Kala namak. If you haven’t heard of chaat masala I’m guessing that’s a new one too. Black salt. Super distinctive. It’s salt. But with impurities. And those impurities make it what it is. Food science time. The impurity is sodium sulphate. There may be others. But that’s the one at work here. And sulphates have that smell. You know it. Hard boiled eggs is the nice way of putting it. There are less flattering descriptions. Doesn’t sound great. I know. Fish sauce doesn’t sound great either. And it’s amazing. Take a leap with me. Kala namak amplifies the egg flavours in this potato salad. Brings it together. It just works. Not a very good sales job. I know. All I can tell you is I like this. A lot. If you like eggs. The smell of eggs. Then this is an ingredient you need to try. Look for a masala that includes kala namak. Read the ingredients on the box. Because if it doesn’t have kala namak it isn’t chaat masala. For me anyway. Full disclosure. I love fish sauce too. That stuff is magic in a bottle. Just so you know who you are dealing with here…
On the matter of mayonnaise
Mayonnaise is not an Indian ingredient. But it is an Indianish ingredient. Totally an Indianish ingredient. It took me a long time to figure that out. There are funky Indian restaurants where I am. Pushing things a bit. I really like those restaurants. So I go. And I ask questions. Because I’m nosy. One place has this dip. A red chili dip. For pakoras. Creamy. Spicy. Crazy delicious. I tried to recreate it at home. For a long time. I knew the flavours but I fell into the yoghurt trap. Creamy must be yoghurt right? It’s Indian after all. Turns out it is not. It’s a mix. Yoghurt and mayonnaise. Those two ingredients together unlock the most amazing dips. And the most amazing Indianish curried potato salad. If I do say so myself.
Curried potato salad is… about potatoes
Shocker. I know. Nobody saw that one coming. But it’s more important than you think. The potatoes matter. A lot. You want a medium starchy potato. Waxy potatoes are not good here. New potatoes are OK. Different. But OK. Yukon gold are my ideal here. A mashing potato. Not quite as floury as a russet. And just a little bit waxy. So they hold their shape. You want to season those potatoes. Not with salt and pepper. With a tangy mix of vinegar, lemon juice and yellow mustard. Infused potato goodness. That may seem a little different. But it’s the backbone of really good potato salad. Layering flavours. It’s always about layering flavours. Around here anyway.
Up your barbecue game?
This is a match I think is made in heaven. Or in Ottawa anyway. Tandoori chicken and curried potato salad. Maybe a kachumber or Indianish slaw to round it out. That’s an impressive backyard BBQ. One that will impress. Maybe not as much as a full blown Texas brisket. But a whole lot less time consuming. Spicy tandoori chicken. A seriously tasty potato salad. And a tomato cucumber salad or slaw. That’s a great menu. And there’s nothing difficult here. You can enjoy the party. Instead of worrying. And running around. I call that a win win. Curried potato salad. A little bit southern. A little bit Indian. A whole lot delicious.
