Potato Salad with horseradish and herbs

I love potatoes.

I do not, however, love potato salad because too often the potatoes are undercooked and I'm sorry but potatoes are not supposed to crunch when you bite into them. Because of these two issues, I have been obsessing over potato salad lately. Like most things, I find that cooking it myself is the key to the kingdom. Also, it's getting close to July 4th and everyone is posting potato salad recipes so why not jump on the parade float?

Here is what this potato salad has going for it that makes me really happy:

The potatoes are tender

The flavor is more tart than creamy

My German-American husband smiled when he took a bite. Then he moaned in ecstasy.

Regardless of my feelings about undercooked potatoes, I am rather fond of a few crunchy bits in potato salad. Now that we're clear on what's important, let's get on with the recipe for this slightly spicy, slightly tart, completely yummy potato salad.

For the salad:

8-10 med to large potatoes. I used organic russets.

3 green onions. I picked mine from the garden.

2 stalks of celery. I like leaves on the celery, it's nice in the salad. My celery was just...celery.

salt

pepper

hot paprika-just a pinch or two.

dill. I used dried, organic but you could use fresh and it would be even more delicious. I use a lot of dill. You can try 1 tsp dried or about 1 Tbsp fresh but add more if you want to. Potato salad just isn't the same without it.

For the dressing:

1 egg yolk.* Ours was plucked out from under a chicken just before we used it.

2 Tbsp lemon juice. Sorry to admit but I used Real Lemon.

1/4 cup EVOO

1/4 cup basil leaves Fresh from the garden.

salt

pepper

1 Tbsp horseradish. I got mine out in the yard. Try to get a good, spicy prepared version. NOT horseradish sauce.

Boil the potatoes whole until they are fork-tender, remove them from the pot and let them cool. Once they have cooled off peel them, or don't. Maybe you like potato peels in your potato salad. I don't care for it, so I peel the taters. Cube the potatoes and toss them into a bowl. They should be soft, starchy and firm. They will also likely be sticky.

Dice up the celery and green onions. Toss them into the bowl on top of the potatoes.

Now for the sauce.

Put the yolk, lemon juice and about 1/2 of the EVOO into the bowl of a blender and pulse it to mix. Add a good pinch of salt, a few grinds of pepper, the horseradish and basil and blend. While this is going drizzle in the remaining oil and let it all mix together. Not too long, though.

Pour this over your potato mixture in the bowl and sprinkle the paprika and dill on top then mix everything together. The potatoes will disintegrate if you mix them too long, so be gentle and don't get carried away mixing and mixing. Just toss it all together and you're done.

You can serve this immediately or refrigerate and serve later. I don't recommend letting it sit out because of the egg yolk.

*If the thought of raw eggs freaks you out just omit the oil and yolk and half of the lemon juice and go on with things using mayonnaise instead of the omitted ingredients. It will change the flavor a bit, but will still taste great.