Happy Father’s Day
Our Father’s Day get-together tonight featured traditional BBQ fare to take advantage of the lovely weather. It was also virtually all locally-grown. Just like Dad!
The menu featured:
- Organic tortilla chips & my mom’s salsa
- pickled radishes and cold asparagus spears in a grainy dijon mustard/basalmic dressing (Farmers’ Market)
- Pepper/mushroom shish kebabs (Farmers’ Market & Loveday Mushrooms [Manitoba])
- Pork shish kebabs (Pine View Farms)
- Potato salad (Farmers’ Market and my garden)
- Rhubarb crisp (free-range rhubarb from my great-grand-parents’ original homestead) & vanilla ice cream (Homestead Ice Cream)
- Paddock Wood beer (606 IPA, Czech Mate)
Shish kebabs
I cut up a boneless pork leg roast and marinated the chunks in garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, pepper, and dried oregano for a couple hours, then threaded them onto (pre-soaked in water) skewers. For the vegetable ones, I coated the red, green, and yellow pepper chunks (from one of each colour) and halved mushrooms (cut up about 8 or so) in olive oil, lemon juice, oregano and pepper and let them sit for half an hour or so before threading them onto their own skewers (doing them separately ensures you don’t end up with raw meat or undercooked vegetables). At the appointed time, salt them, then hand them to your father to grill (over charcoal, of course) so you can sit down and have a beer.
Served 6 adults and 2 children
The One True Potato Salad
I am highly unbending in my personal rules for potato salad:
- The potatoes must be slightly mashed, not cut into large chunks.
- They must not be mashed so vigorously that they turn into mashed potatoes.
- New potatoes may retain their skins; otherwise they must be peeled.
- There must not be too much mayonnaise. I cannot abide gloppy potato salad.
- Dill and chives are mandatory, although radishes are optional.
- Celery, cucumber, green onion, and hard-boiled egg are also essential.
Boil the potatoes in salted water. When tender, drain and crush them gently with the potato masher, finishing with a fork to re-fluff them. Salt & pepper the potatoes and add a few spoonfuls of Miracle Whip (I know, I know, but I’m afraid it’s just not potato salad without Miracle Whip) and gently blend (don’t overwork the potatoes). Add the chopped cucumber, celery, hard-boiled egg, chives, dill, and radishes. The quantities really depend on how big a batch you’re making, but you want the vegetables to feature fairly prominently. Make sure you make enough so that you have some for lunch tomorrow; it gets better overnight.
After gently mixing, taste again. You might need to add a bit more Miracle Whip at this point, but don’t go overboard, lest your lovely potato salad suddenly morphs into Mayonnaise Glop. You want just a slight tang in every bite. Add final salt and pepper to taste. I threw the remaining pickled radishes from our pre-dinner nibbles on top of ours before serving, and very nice they were too.
