Grandma's Potato Salad

Rem grew up eating his grandma's famous potato salad, which is a traditional take on potato salad and absolutely the best version I have ever had!  His grandma passed the recipe down to his mom, who passed it to Rem when he moved out and wanted to make it himself.  We make it frequently in the summer when cold salads just hit the spot!  

The original version calls for all-purpose flour and granulated sugar, both of which we typically exclude from our diet, but I was able to make some simple substitutions that do not change the taste or texture from the original at all (gluten-free all purpose flour for regular flour, and raw honey for granulated sugar)!

So without further ado... our take on Rem's grandma's potato salad

Grandma's Potato Salad

Potato Salad Base:
3-4 lb. Russet potatoes
4 hardboiled eggs
1 bunch green onions, diced
4 ribs celery, diced small
1 jar dill pickles (*You will need 1 cup of the pickle juice for the sauce.  Take the pickles and puree them in the food processor to create a homemade relish.  You will need 1/2 cup of the relish for the potato salad)
celery seed
black pepper
salt

Potato Salad Dressing:
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
1/2 c bob's red mill gluten free all-purpose flour
1 huge squirt of yellow mustard (about 3 T)
1/4 c raw honey

1. POTATOES: Cut potatoes into bite sized pieces.  The actual size doesn't matter a whole lot, as long as the pieces are roughly the same size.  Dump the potatoes into a large pot, fill the pot with enough water to cover the potatoes, and boil them on medium high until the potatoes are soft.  You can test them by smashing a potato against the side of the pot with a fork.  If the potato easily "gives" and falls apart, it's done.  Or you can remove a potato and just eat it to test for doneness!  Just wait a minute or so to eat it after removing it from the pot do you don't burn your mouth!  Once the potatoes are done, drain them (don't rinse!) and let them cool off a bit.  I usually just leave them in the colander I drained them in!

2. EGGS: While the potatoes are boiling, hard boil your eggs.  Place them in a small pot and fill the pot with water until it just covers the eggs.  Place the pot over high heat until the water starts to boil.  Let the water boil for 1 minute, then turn off the heat, remove the pot from the stove, cover the pot, and let it sit (off the heat) for 10 minutes.  After 10 minutes, rinse the eggs with cold water.  Then peel them, dice them up, and put them in a LARGE bowl. (We usually skip this step because I make a mass amount of hardboiled eggs at the beginning of each week to have on hand for breakfasts, snacks, and dishes like this!)

3. CELERY AND GREEN ONIONS: While the eggs and potatoes are cooking (this dish requires lots of multi-tasking!), dice up the celery and green onions.  Add them to the large bowl that you are putting the eggs in.  

4. SAUCE: Now it's time to make the sauce!  In a small saucepan, combine: 1 cup of dill pickle juice, 1 whole egg, 1 egg yolk, 1/2 c gluten-free all purpose flour, 1 huge squirt yellow mustard, and 1/4 c raw honey.  Cook this mixture over medium heat, whisking the whole time.  After a few minutes, the mixture will start to "come together" and really thicken up.  Keep whisking and cooking until the mixture is very thick and difficult to continue whisking.  Remove from heat.  Set this aside.

5. RELISH: After you've cooked the sauce, put the rest of the contents of your dill pickle jar in the food processor (or a magic bullet!) to make your own relish.  Process until mostly smooth.  Whisk about 1/2 cup of this into your sauce.  If you want a thinner sauce, add even more.  Store the rest of your relish in a jar in the fridge for up to 1 month.

6. MIX IT ALL TOGETHER: At this point the potatoes should be somewhat cool.  Add them to the large bowl (that already has the egg, celery, and green onions in it).  Pour the sauce on top of the potatoes, then sprinkle celery seed, salt, and pepper over the whole mixture (Sprinkle a generous amount of celery seed and pepper, and just a bit of salt.  You can always add more later!)  Mix everything together and refrigerate!  This stays good in the fridge for up to 5 days.  The recipe makes a lot!  So if you live alone, I would invite some friends over to help you eat it.  Or make half of the recipe.  Or plan on eating potato salad for every meal for the next 5 days.  It's entirely up to you! :) 

Tips and substitutions:  Instead of using the pickle juice and making your own relish, you can substitute 1 cup of water or vinegar for the pickle juice, and use store-bought relish instead of pureeing your own.