Potato Salad
Patates Salatası
We didn’t have enough time to prepare a dish for dinner this evening. We were so hungry that we needed something quick, but of course it wouldn’t be a kind of prepackaged food. Do you have any guess what we do whenever we feel too tired to cook something suitable for “dinner” concept? In Turkish culture, a perfect dinner should include a kind of soup as a starter and as a main dish meat or chicken or vegetable stew should be on dinner table accompanied by a kind of salad or yogurt. No need to mention desserts for a wonderful ending. However, we don’t always have time for all these courses as we are working. Fortunately, our culture has a great solution for people in need of quick dishes. That is; Breakfast at Dinner Time!
The meaning of “breakfast” is broad in Turkish language. It doesn’t mean only the meal eaten in the morning. If you have tea, cheese, olives, sliced tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers on your table, it is called breakfast no matter when you eat them. These are the indispensable foods of breakfast. And of course it’s up to you to enrich your breakfast with some pastries or different versions of egg or other food “inventions”. The most common food of this untimely breakfast is potato salad. So this evening, we decided to have a breakfast style dinner and as a preperation, we just boiled potatoes and eggs, which means we didn’t spend so much time on it. I should add that Turkish people apply this type of breakfast whenever they don’t have enough time or ingredients for a demanding dish.
Ingredients
- 4 middle sized potatoes
- Half bunch of parsley
- 2 scallions
- 1 onion
- 1 green pepper
- 2 tsp sumac
- 2 tsp red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 eggs, hard boiled
- 1 tsp dry thyme
Boil the potatoes until soft. Meanwhile, you can prepare other ingredients.
Dice the onion into a bowl, cover it with sumac and crumble them together so that sumac and onion combine well.
Chop scallions, pepper, and parsley and add them in the bowl.
When potatoes cook, take them from the heat and wait them in cold water to peel them easily. When they are cold enough, peel and cut them in big cubes and toss them in the bowl. Add red pepper flakes and salt and combine them. Take the salad on a plate.
Slice the hard-boiled eggs and put them near the salad. Drizzle olive oil on the salad and egg slices. Sprinkle some pepper flakes and dry thyme on eggs. And your potato salad is ready to be the main character of your breakfast.
Note: Some people prefer slicing eggs into the salad and mixing them altogether, but I love to see egg slices seperately, that’s why I put them near the salad.
The Egg Pushing The Door
There is a Turkish expression; “when the egg pushes the door…” which means not fulfilling a work in a given time and trying to complete it when its deadline is so close, in a very limited time. I find it very funny to have a parallelism between an animal’s laying egg and an unplanned person.
If you want more juice from a lemon, pierce it once with a fork and then squeeze.
vanessa on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 3:19 pm
this looks amazing. I have never cooked with sumac, what is is like? I digg’d it and stumbled this. Yumm!
Zerrin on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 4:28 pm
Thank you Vanessa. Sumac is a kind of Asian spice which gives a savory taste to foods. For more information you can visit here: http://oysterculture.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/special-ingredients-sumac/
jenn on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 4:45 pm
Yum! Potato salad. Always great in the summer at picnics and gatherings. That looks delish!!
Leesie on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 5:36 pm
Your pictures are so pretty! What kind of camera do you use and what lense? I think I need to get myself a nice camera, because I’d love to take some beautiful pictures, for instance, when I travel! I’ve never seen such crystal clear, vibrant pictures since I started reading all kinds of food and travel blogs. Zerrin, your English writing is amazing (and I’m assuming you speak it beautifully just as well) – did you learn English while going to school in Turkey? Did you go to a university in Turkey?
Leesie on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 5:41 pm
P.S. I’ve never heard of sumac either. I did a quick search of it and it sounds interesting. The only sumac I know of here in the U.S. is poison sumac (http://www.apinchof.com/sumac1114.htm) – makes your skin break out in a rash and you itch like crazy!
Thank you for teaching me new things.
OysterCulture on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 5:52 pm
Oh my gosh, Zerrin, you’ve outdone yourself. This potato dish looks amazing. I am making some to serve with some leftover lamb, and now I want to start over and make what I see here.
I cannot wait to use the expression “The Egg Pushing the Door” in conversation. I love it, and the drawing to accompany it is wonderful!
Sophie on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 3:00 am
MMMMMM…Zerrin, this potato salad looks cute & so delicious!!
You & the love for eggs,….!!
Natasha - 5 Star Foodie on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 4:32 am
Wow, what a gorgeous potato salad! I love the sumac and pepper flakes here – how delicious!
Reeni on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 8:04 am
I love eating breakfast for dinner! Here in the U.S. that usually means eggs, pancakes or french toast. This potato salad looks delicious, I would be quite happy with it for breakfast, lunch, or dinner!
Zerrin on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 9:57 am
Jenn- Oh I forgot to say that this salad is an indispensable food for our picnics too. thank you for reminding.
Leesie- Thank you so much for your so kind words. My camera is Fuji Finepix S5600, I bought it last year as a start to take the photos of landscapes. I’m really interested in photography and try to learn it in detail. Since I started this blog, I’ve been using my camera for food photography as you see. And of course I still have a lot of things to learn.
You really made me feel so happy by complimenting my English. Well, I studied English literature at university and I’m now
teaching English at university.
OysterCulture- I’m sure your potato salad will be perfect with lamb. And I’d love to be there and see the reactions when you use that expression in a conversation.
Sophie- You know me
I’m just crazy about eggs.
Natasha- Sumac is a wonderful spice for boiled potatoes.
Reeni- Glad you love it. Maybe, we can start a new movement called “breakfast for dinner”. lol
Tangled Noodle on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 12:54 pm
I enjoyed your explanation of the concept of ‘breakfast’ in Turkey and how it refers more to the food rather than to the time of day. I would gladly have this ‘breakfast’ any time!
Christelle Vaillant on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 4:46 pm
Humm, simple enough and looks tasty, adopted!
lisaiscooking on Sat, 18th Apr 2009 5:40 am
Your breakfast for dinner looks great! The olive oil and red pepper flakes on the salad and eggs looks so delicious.
Lauren on Sat, 18th Apr 2009 5:46 am
I love that I learn so much about Turkish culture from your blog! So interesting about what makes a “breakfast.” I wouldn’t consider most of those foods to be typical breakfast food at all!
This potato salad looks nice- I’m always on the lookout for ones that don’t include mayo.
Mediterranean Turkish Cook on Sat, 18th Apr 2009 11:02 am
Zerrincim, super bir patates salatasi bu. Gercekten de kahvalti, gunun her saatinde cok guzel oluyor. Ozellikle vaktimiz olmadigi zamanlarda. Ellerine saglik.
Daily Spud on Tue, 21st Apr 2009 1:20 pm
Well, potato salad always gets my vote and now that I have managed to find some sumac, I will have to try it with spuds
I also love the idea that breakfast is not tied to the morning time – I could certainly eat this kind of breakfast at any time of day!
Kevin on Sun, 26th Apr 2009 12:34 pm
That potato salad looks good!
gastroanthropologist on Mon, 27th Apr 2009 1:47 am
No potato salad is complete without hard boiled eggs! I like how you added red pepper flakes to this – I’ve never added them to my potato salad for no other reason than I never thought to. Looks delicious!
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