My strongest memories are the ones where food is involved. Fact. I have been fortunate to grow up around, what I think, are some of the best cooks and have been able to sample some of the best home cooking.
In South Africa, where I grew up, we live in a very social culture and at the hub of these social outings is usually a braai. A braai is a South African version of a BBQ. But better… way better.
The men all stand around the fire staring at the embers, drinking beer and shuffling round a chicken wing or a steak on the grid – ‘being manly’. Whereas the women, drink wine, gossip and make amazing salads, which the men hardly eat because South African men don’t eat ‘rabbit food’.
One of these amazing salads that stand out to me and that I get a sense of nostalgia for is the humble potato salad. Now my aunty Melinda makes the best potato salad I have ever had! My cousins and I could never wait until the meat was done, we had to grab a fork and get stuck in.
The other night, Charles and I decided to have salads for dinner and I thought of my lovely aunty Melinda for inspiration for this dish. I am not sure what her recipe is and I will admit that it wasn’t as good as hers but it tasted like home and that was good enough for me.
Ingredients:
1kg Potatoes, boiled and peeled
3 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
Handful of gherkins, chopped
4 spring onions, chopped
30g mayonnaise
15ml milk
Salt and pepper
Method:
Once the potatoes are boiled and peeled, chop them into chunks, however big or little you wish,
Chop the eggs (I like to give mine a rough chop – nothing fancy here) ad these together in a bowl along with the gherkins and spring onions.
Then mix the mayo and milk together so that the mayo is a bit loosened up and pour over the potato mixture.
Add your seasoning and then I would recommend letting it stand for a while so that all the flavours can integrate.
Charles+Chloe food&wine diary 