There were so many great stuff last week at the farmers market that I sort of randomly grabbed a bunch of stuff. I bought some fingerling potatoes, tiny sweet peppers, 1 bunch of shiso leaves, 1 bunch of Thai basil, purple long beans, a box of shallots, and a garlic. While on the way home, riding the train, I was thinking what I should do with all the things I bought. Maybe a vegetarian version of the 3 cup chicken with the Thai basil? Or maybe a pasta with the sweet peppers and shiso leaves. Then I went online and posted the stuff I got and see if anyone had any new/fresh ideas. Then a friend suggested potato salad. I thought...YEAH! I had a bottle of Kewpie mayo, mayo is a must in potato salad for me.
I decided to keep things simple by just slicing and roughly chopping everything. To make it more simpler, I kept all the ingredients raw and just have the heat from the cooked potatoes sort of bring all the ingredients together.
I rarely make anything delicious but this was so darn good. I ate a whole pound of potatoes in one day. Then this past weekend, I made it again but this time I measured things out.
So here it is....
1 1/2 lb of fingerling potatoes 3 shallots 6 tiny sweet peppers (or more if you really love peppers) Handful of shiso leaves Handful of Thai basil 1 tablespoon plus a splash of mirin 2 tablespoon soy sauce 2 tablespoon of Japanese mayo Drizzle of sesame oil Pinches of salt + pepper
Clean the potatoes then put them in a pot. Add enough water to cover the potatoes and then add salt to the water. Put the pan on high heat. Cook the potatoes till tender which is about 10mins after the water starts to boil. Or you can check the doneness by sticking a knife into the fattest potato. There should be little resistance and should slide off the knife easily. When done, pour the potato and water through a colander and then pour the potato back into the pot to keep warm.
Thinly slice the shallots and put them into a bowl. Add the potatoes into the bowl with the shallots. Toss to mix.
Roughly chop the Thai basil and shiso leaves. Thinly slice the peppers. Add everything in with the potatoes and toss to mix.
Add the mirin, soy sauce, sesame oil, and Japanese myo. Mix well
Season to taste with salt and pepper
Optional After boiling, I used a knife to roughly cut the bigger potatoes in half. I like the look of the potatoes. If you cut them when raw, they look too clean for me. I wanted the "rustic" look with the rough edges.
Also, I added few dashes of Japanese chili powder cause I've been craving spicy foods. Obviously you don't need to.
