Potato Salad with Spiced Yogurt Dressing
And an ode to Madhur Jaffrey, iconic author and rapper
Hello and welcome to this blessed Thursday recipe drop for a VERY GOOD POTATO SALAD for all your barbecue, picnic, and miscellaneous summer gathering needs. As a reminder, a new recipe drops every Thursday—they’re currently all free/all the time/for all subscribers, but in a couple of weeks some of them will go behind a paywall and will be accessible to paid subscribers only.
Let’s start with two truths and a lie:
I’ve karaoked with Japanese Breakfast (a.k.a. Korean icon Michelle Zauner)
I’ve had dinner with Madhur Jaffrey
I’ve been to Ina Garten’s Hamptons compound
Honestly, I’m manifesting the third one and I believe it can happen someday, even though I am not a wealthy gay man. But yes, #1 and 2 are TRUE, and honestly it’s hard to pick which experience achieves more *core* status in my core memories.
A few months back, my friend Rachel Gurjar hosted an incredible dinner at her home for Madhur Jaffrey and her husband. The occasion was simply that MJ wanted to experience Rachel’s version of the regional food of Madhya Pradesh, and I was so inspired by MJ’s curiosity about every component of the menu. She wanted to know every little thing about the sourcing, the techniques, and the flavors behind the meal. It was a humble reminder that even if you’ve been publishing cookbooks for half a century like MJ, you can always be learning. I hope to be as inquisitive when I’m 89(!!!!)
MJ’s Vegetarian India is among my top 10 cookbooks (I have more than 120, this is a big deal), but it’s actually her book Madhur Jaffrey’s Cookbook: Easy East/West Menus for Family that inspired this decidedly-not-Indian-but-Indian-influenced potato salad. Her “The Best, Lightest Potato Salad” from that book serves as the base for this recipe and features yogurt flavored with a tadka of cumin and mustard seeds sizzled in hot oil, which infuses the dressing with those delicious, deeply savory flavors.