Potato salad doesn’t remind me of picnics, or BBQs, it reminds me of pool parties. Perhaps this is an artifact of my suburban New England upbringing, but a backyard pool party was a much more common summer occurrence than a real BBQ (you know, the kind with smoked pig that I came to love in North Carolina) or a picnic. If we did go on a picnic, it was at the beach, and we were eating tortellini pesto and cold grapes, not potato salad. But pool parties – whether they were at a neighbor’s or a friend’s or even some random friend’s of your parents house – were the peak of a suburban summer.

Do you remember how exciting it used to be to get invited to a pool party? The lure of being able to immerse yourself in coolness on a hot day. The feeling of rough concrete under your feet as you tried so hard to “WALK don’t run.” The pleasant chlorine-scented exhaustion of a day spent swimming and running and screaming with your friends. Then, after splashing and fighting over the floaties, you could sit on a lounge chair, the ends of your hair dripping on your legs, and eat pool party food. Hot dogs in squishy buns. Bags of sea salt and vinegar potato chips. Ruby colored fruit punch in the squeeze packs your mother wouldn’t let you buy. Dirt cake. And potato salad.

This potato salad is not the gloppy mayo-covered salad of my pool party days. I certainly don’t turn up my nose at a classic potato salad, but at home, I’m making this version. It’s inspired by two separate, but similar recipes. First, a Broccoli and Potato Gribiche I made ages ago, originally from Heidi’s Super Natural Every Day. Second, Bon Appetit’s Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles. Same general concept – a lighter, brighter potato salad with lots of hard-boiled egg and pickled things to give it zip. I love both mustard and capers, so having them both on top of my favorite vegetable is a win. A large amount of roasted broccoli makes me feel a little bit better about how much of this I can eat in one sitting. Of course then there’s the crispy crumbled bacon, which makes me feel a little worse.

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Potato Salad with Bacon, Broccoli, Egg and Mustard Dressing

Not your average potato salad, this one is packed with zippy flavor from the mustard, caper and shallot dressing. It takes its cues from French gribiche sauce, but then gets all American with bacon and broccoli and hard-boiled egg. 

Inspired by Super Natural Every Day.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door
• Yield: 4-6

Ingredients

• 1 head broccoli, washed and chopped into very small florets (1/4 inch pieces)
• 4 TBS olive oil, divided
• sea salt to taste
• 1 lb. small Yukon gold potatoes, washed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 6 slices bacon
• 4 large eggs, hard-boiled
• 2 TBS capers
• 2 TBS dijon mustard
• 1 large shallot, peeled and finely minced
• 1 TBS white wine vinegar
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh tarragon leaves, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh chives, finely chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp fresh parsley, finely chopped
• cracked black pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Toss the broccoli florets with 1 TBS of the olive oil and a bit of sea salt. Spread out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast in the oven until tender and browned, about 20-25 minutes. Use a spatula to flip the broccoli once during cooking. Remove from the oven and set aside.
2. Place the cubed potatoes into a large pot and cover with cold water. Salt the water generously. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the potatoes are just tender when poked with a fork but not falling apart, about 10-15 minutes after the water comes to a boil. When the potatoes are done, drain and set aside.
3. Cook the bacon using your preferred method until it is golden brown all over. Drain off the fat into a tin can and place the cooked bacon on a paper-towel lined plate to absorb the excess grease. Once bacon is cool, chop into small pieces.
4. Peel the hard boiled eggs and roughly chop. Place the chopped egg in a large mixing bowl and add the capers, mustard, minced shallot, white wine vinegar, and chopped herbs to the bowl. Slowly add the remaining 3 TBS of olive oil to the bowl, whisking vigorously to incorporate after every teaspoon-sized addition. Using this technique you should emulsify the oil with the eggs, building up a thick dressing with the consistency of a loose mayo or aioli. Once all of the oil is incorporated you will have a creamy sauce. Season to taste with black pepper.
5. Add the cooked potatoes, roasted broccoli, and chopped bacon to the bowl with the dressing and stir to thoroughly coat the potatoes in the dressing. Serve immediately or refrigerate until ready to serve.

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Well, summer is officially over, with Labor Day come and gone. I have to admit, though, that it doesn’t feel like it yet (and I’m still hoping to get one or two more beach days in, having been forced to cram all of my summery activities into the last few weeks). And grilling season, well that’s certainly not over. In fact, you could argue that we’re getting into one of the best times for grilling – it’s a little bit cooler and pleasant to spend time outside, there’s an incredible abundance of produce available that benefits from a slight charring (think peppers, corn, peaches, eggplant…), and when does a nice piece of steak or rack of ribs not sound appealing?

For the last installment of my summer Pork and Pinot collaboration with La Crema Wines, we headed out to the grill, for what is arguably America’s favorite form of pork – barbecue. One of Trevor’s favorite things to cook is big cuts of pork (ribs, Boston butt, etc.) long and slow over a smoky charcoal grill. And it just so happens, having spent my college years in North Carolina, a great pulled pork sandwich is one of my favorite things to eat. We’re a good match, no?

This particular version of the pulled pork uses a variation on our standard rub, which includes sweet and smoked paprika, brown sugar, salt, and a touch of cayenne. We grill it for about 3-4 hours in aluminum pans, and then serve it smothered with sauce on soft rolls. I made a homemade BBQ sauce too, with blackberries, Pinot Noir, and chipotle as the dominant flavors, to play up the smokiness in the pork and to make it pair even better with La Crema Pinot Noir.

My mom and Robbie joined us for the somewhat impromptu cook-out. They’ve just come home after spending all summer in Maine (something I’m going to do again one of these years) and it’s nice to have them back within “you wanna have dinner?” distance, especially since it’s Robbie’s last year at home before heading off to college. The pork was the star of the meal, but we also had grilled corn, chicken wings, cole slaw, plenty of La Crema Monterey Pinot Noir, and burgundy pie with the last of the goat cheese and blackberry ice cream. It was a good meal – and it turned out to be the first of several over the course of the long weekend, including an extravagant dinner out in Newburyport and steak tips and peach sangria at my cousin’s BBQ on Monday. But what’s Labor Day for if not for a final hurrah of summer eating and drinking?

P.S. Several of these Pork and Pinot recipes I’ve been developing for La Crema were recently featured on Food and Wine (as was this Oyster Shooter picture I took for one of my restaurant clients earlier this year). Go check it out!

For full instructions and the recipe for Pulled Pork with Blackberry Pinot BBQ Sauce, head over to the La Crema Blog!

More Pork and Pinot posts…

• Prosciutto, Mozzarella, and Sage Pesto Stuffed Pork Tenderloin
• Red Wine Caramelized Pork Belly
• Pork Belly Banh Mi Sandwiches
• The Perfect Charcuterie Board

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This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of La Crema. The opinions and text are all mine.

The post La Crema Pork and Pinot #5: Pulled Pork with Blackberry Pinot BBQ Sauce appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I’m back home! Only for 10 days, but I’m going to pretend it’s longer, so that I don’t start freaking out about leaving again prematurely. I got back yesterday around noon, and even though I’d been awake for almost 18 hours, I was determined to enjoy the beautiful summer Saturday, so Trevor and I went on a park picnic date, and ate crackers and cheese and did some serious people-watching. The group yoga people hanging out there were especially entertaining – think three people balancing one on top of the other in weird, acrobatic poses, but with yoga hands (and decidedly yoga-centric mentalities, from what we could overhear). Out of curiosity, we tried it out for ourselves this morning on the lawn – we weren’t very successful, but it was highly amusing.

When we came back from the park, I was pretty much a zombie, but I managed to stay awake long enough to eat a big plate of the dry-rub pork ribs Trevor made for dinner. (How could I not have? The whole house smelled amazing.) The meat was pulling off the bone so easily that I immediately knew I would have to make sandwiches with the leftovers. So today, after our weekly trip to the garden, I chopped up some cabbage to make coleslaw and sliced some of our homemade pickles while Trevor toasted hamburger buns and reheated the pork in the pan, just long enough to crisp up the edges. Sandwiches were assembled and promptly devoured. Since this was a two-for-one meal (with the ribs for dinner the night before) and all the components were easy, I knew I had to share it here – it makes a pretty killer lunch. Plus, I’m very into pickles right now, (which is good, since we have about 10 mammoth cucumbers in the fridge with the threat of more being ready next week), so anything I can put them on is an instant favorite. So here’s to summer weekends, boyfriends with culinary skills, and delicious sandwiches.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Serves 4.

• 2/3 recipe of oven-roasted dry-rub ribs, recipe below
• 1 c. purple coleslaw, recipe below
• 2 chopped spicy dill quick pickles
• 4 hamburger buns, toasted

1. Remove the rib meat from the bones with a fork and shred into bite-sized pieces. Reheat over medium-low heat in a frying pan, until warm and the edges are beginning to crisp. Remove from heat.
2. Divide the pork evenly between the four bottom hamburger buns. Top each serving with 1/4 cup of coleslaw and a few chopped pickles. Place the top bun on the sandwich and serve immediately.

Oven-Roasted Dry-Rub Ribs

Adapted from this Instructables Recipe. Serves 6, or 2 with enough for 4 leftover sandwiches.

• 1 full rack of country-style pork ribs
• 1 TBS + 1 tsp chili powder
• 1 TBS ground cumin
• 1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 1/2 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1/4 tsp mustard
• 6 whole cloves garlic, peeled
• 2 jalapenos, sliced lengthwise into quarters and seeds removed

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F. Prep the ribs by patting them dry and removing the silverskin membrane from the ribs.
2. Mix all of the dry rub ingredients (chili powder through mustard) together in a small bowl until evenly mixed. Rub half of this mixture on each side of the ribs. Then place the rack bone-side down on a baking sheet.  Add the garlic cloves and the jalapenos to the baking sheet, and roast for one hour. After the first hour, remove the ribs and filp over, and drain the fat from the pan. Then roast them for two more hours, flipping every thirty minutes. After the full three hours of cooking time, remove the ribs from the oven and let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Purple Coleslaw

Makes 3-4 cups coleslaw.

• 1/3 c. mayonnaise
• 1 TBS sugar
• 2 TBS apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp celery seed
• 1 small head of purple cabbage, shredded or thinly sliced
• 1 Anaheim pepper, seeds removed, finely diced
• 1/2 medium onion, finely diced

1. In a large bowl, whisk together mayonnaise, sugar, vinegar, salt, and celery seed until smooth. Add the shredded cabbage, diced pepper, and diced onion, and toss to coat thoroughly with the dressing. Let sit, covered and in the fridge, for at least one hour before serving.

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