Potato salad à la Sylvia

Ingredients for 6 servings:

• 2 kg potatoes, mostly waxy
• 2 onions
• 350 ml broth, about 300-400 ml
• e.g. celery salt or herb salt
• pepper
• 1 jar gherkins or cornichons (about 360 g drained weight)
• 2 jars of fish (Bismarck herring, each about 250 g drained weight)
• 2 apples, rosy-cheeked
• 1 bunch chives, alternatively 4 tbsp frozen
• 150 g remoulade, about 100-300 g
• 2 tbsp mustard, medium hot

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 6 hours; Total time approx. 7 hours

traditionally for Christmas Eve – but also for New Year’s Eve and Carnival or something like that

Boil the potatoes with their skins on for about 25 minutes, until just tender. Meanwhile, peel and dice the onion, and blanch it in the hot, strongly seasoned broth. Once the potatoes are cooked, peel them immediately and add them to the broth while still hot. Mix carefully so that all the potatoes are coated with the broth, then cover and let cool. Chop the gherkins, peel and dice the apples, and add them to the broth along with about 100-150 ml of the gherkin broth. Remove the skin from the herring and cut into strips. Mix the tartar sauce with the chives and mustard, and add to the potatoes along with the herring. Let it marinate for a few hours, preferably overnight. Stir everything again, season to taste, and add more tartar sauce and/or gherkin broth if desired. Serve with hot Vienna sausages, but meatballs, salt roast, or similar dishes also taste good. The amount of broth, pickle juice, and remoulade depends primarily on the absorbency of the potatoes and the soaking time—but also, of course, on personal taste. With 400 ml of broth and 100 g of remoulade, the salad is still quite light; with 300 ml of broth and 300 g of remoulade, it’s quite “mayonnaise-y.” We prefer to eat it with 350 ml of broth and 150 g of remoulade, as indicated in the recipe.