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Magda’s Czech Style Potato Salad

Posted By Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom On July 13, 2011 @ 6:11 pm In Guest Posts,Potatoes,Side Dish | 4 Comments

While I’m out of town this week, Magda’s sharing her Czech Style Potato Salad…
Last month, I was in the Prague with my mom, visiting my hometown after an absence of over 42 years. It was wonderful! What a beautiful city and beautiful country.
One of the best things about visiting was all the wonderful food — foods my mom made as we were growing up.  Every restaurant and deli I went to, had these deliciously familiar foods and I did indulge. Many of the foods are quite heavy and best eaten in the deep cold of winter (though I could not resist even in the beautiful weather that we has), but there are some wonderful dishes for warm weather as well. Today, I share a recipe for Czech Style Potato Salad that I have been making since I was a little girl. My trip to Prague confirmed that it is indeed Czech style and not unique to my mother’s kitchen.

Czech Style Potato Salad

Serving Size: 6

Ingredients

5 medium potatoes
1 small onion, finely chopped (optional)
125 grams ham kolbassa, finely diced
1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables, cooked
1 dill pickle, finely chopped
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup Miracle Whip light
1 tablespoon mustard

Directions

1. Place the potatoes into a large pot, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, and cook for about 20 minutes, or until easily pierced with a fork. Drain.  Peel, cool and chop into 1/4″ (or about half a centimetre).

2. Transfer to a large bowl, and toss with the onion, vegetables, and pickle. Stir gently.

3. Add the mayonnaise, mustard, salt and pepper and stir gently until evenly coated. Chill several hours or overnight before serving for best flavour.

I peel my cooked potatoes by scraping a knife along the skin.  The boiled skin just slides right off. Don’t try this with a raw potato — it does not work.
You want to cut your potato into fairly thin slices, about a 1/4″ (6mm) or less.
Separate the potato into two halves and lay them cut side down. Slice along the length of the potato again.
Cut across the halves to make small cubes.
Slide the potato cubes into a bowl, add the mayonnaise, mustard and stir gently until combined.
Slice the kolbassa and then cut into small squares.

It is better to peel the casing off the kolbassa before you cut it as in this photo.

Do the same for the pickles.

Chop up any large pieces in the cooked and cooled mixed vegetables (usually just the green beans).

Add the chopped kolbassa, pickles, mixed vegetables and optional diced onions to the potato mixture. Add salt and pepper. Gently mix all the ingredients thoroughly. Chill thoroughly, preferably overnight. This allows the flavours to develop and blend, making the whole thing even more delicious!
Taste and adjust seasoning just before serving.
This potato salad is a great lunch on its own, with a Schnitzel, barbecued anything  or with a sandwich. Enjoy!

Frugal Idea

Frugal tip: Don’t shop as an entertainment! When you go into stores (including Internet stores), even if you are only going in to browse, you will most likely spend money. If you stay away from stores, you will most likely not spend money. Try to find other forms of entertainment that do not involve going into or near stores.

Even if you are in a store or mall to go buy something specific, only go into the sections that you have to to get your shopping done and then leave before you start to browse and spend money.

Just last week I went to a local mall to get a father’s day gift and an ingredient that I had forgotten to put on my list during my last grocery trip.  As I was going from the electronics store at one end of the mall to the grocery store at the other end of the mall,  I slowed down by the display of a new clothing store. They had a nice dress in the front window and I was drawn in. Before I knew it I had tried on and bought a new dress: very pretty, great price (and actually within my budget), but not strictly necessary.  If I had just focussed on getting to the grocery store instead of window shopping as I walked, I could have saved the money on the dress that I really did not need and had no intention of buying when I walked in.

Magda Stryk Therrien is a wife, mother and daughter who tries (and sometimes even succeeds) to be frugal.  She also loves to make things: dinner, artwork, books, crafts, etc. She is starting to blog about these efforts at magdamakes.wordpress.com [5] and at magdamakeswithkids.wordpress.com [6].

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