potato salad with shrimp and bacon

Hay-yelp, I can't stop eating this. 

I have never been big on potato salad but that is because I never had anything this delicious.

Can you believe it, shrimp in potato salad? Impossible! This potato salad is a one-time thing in the course of human history, one that will never be matched or surpassed. Of that I am certain. 

There I was, ruminating ingredients that I knew to have on hand. Metaphorically, that is, not actually chewing them. Seeing images of them in my mind phasing in and phasing out, combining and recombining. Appearing suddenly then fading out overtaken by other ingredients and then thinking of something completely unrelated, as streams of consciousness go, then back  to the ingredients again, an indication that hunger was building.  So this went for hours as I put the finishing touches on this popup card intended for a friend. By the time I got around to fixing dinner I was quite hungry indeed. 

The potato salad will have shrimp. It will have Yukon potatoes. It will have roasted cauliflower. It will have bacon.  That is all I knew at the start. 

Mayonnaise must be abandoned. This will be served hot at first then cold later and mayonnaise will not hold up well for that. It is not necessary. No garlic either this time, I'm a little bit tired of garlic for right now, so leeks instead as the allium of choice. The leeks are in there holding to be something. They must be used somehow, now is good of a time as any.  Mmmmm, leeks, good choice.  Sage, because I like sage, and because I have a package of it fresh, so much different from dried, and I am going through a sage phase. That will certainly make a different sort of potato salad from every other potato salad ever devised. Chile pepper flakes in moderation for interest and for profile expansion, honey, to hit that spot usually left untouched in ordinary potato salad, and because I am admitting my taste buds have become jaded and demanding, and then celery because I would like to have some crunch in this and because those celery stalks do not last forever, you know. 

* Boiled Yukon potatoes in extra salty water

* Fried bacon to crispiness, made extra to munch separate from all this. 

* Roasted oiled cauliflower florets to singe. Cauliflower isn't boring as it its reputation would have it especially when it is roasted and jazzed up. 

* Soaked a handful of shrimp in brine, to plump 'em up a little bit and to buttress them for the oncoming heat.  [I dumped half a cup of kosher salt into a jar and shook it. Dumped in the shrimp completely frozen. They thawed and brined in the time the potatoes cooked.]

So there's that.

Here's what happened in order as I recall it:

* Removed the bacon to the cutting board. Ate some. Cut the rest into pieces. Reserved the bits on a separate saucer. 

* Removed the cauliflower from the oven when its edges turned brown. Reserved in the roasting pan. 

* Remove the potatoes when they finished. This is what controlled the timing of everything else. Tested for doneness by stabbing one with a knife. Stabbed a potato in its center at an angle I intended to slice it later. Judged the time remaining by the degree of resistance. They were not tested again.  

The idea is to cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch or so and add all the bacon grease augmented with whatever olive oil  would be necessary and 1 Tablespoon cider vinegar while the potatoes are still hot. This enables the potatoes to absorb the liquids more easily and more thoroughly as they cool down. It's scientific!

The shrimp were peeled rapidly as the celery and leek fried in the pan used for the bacon and with the remnant bacon fat augmented with olive oil. The potatoes continued to soak up their dressing.  The peeled shrimp were tossed into the pan with the celery and leek just one minute short of being finished. The whole thing cooked further another 90 seconds maximum. A splash of sake was added to steam it all to a very rapid finish and to deglaze the pan.  (It should have been white wine but I didn't want to open a bottle just for this, and sake is wine, after all, and it is white. So, what's the problem?)

All that, the leeks, the celery, shrimp, bacon, cauliflower went into the bowl with the potatoes that were flavored with bacon fat and cider vinegar. 

Taste tested.

Chile flakes added in moderation, honey dumped in with abandon. It's mild orange honey, had I used something else I would have used less. A full rounded tablespoon or so of Dijon-style mustard was added.

Taste tested.

Olive oil added. Another tablespoon cider vinegar added. This was surprising. The last time I used cider vinegar it was overly vinegary, but this time the potatoes really soaked it up and moderated its flavor. (Incidentally, I picked up this jug of cider vinegar for the housekeeper to clean windows. Using it for cooking seems strange, but it is actually very good. ) 

The plate up there ↑ was photographed. The pile on that plate was inhaled in 30 seconds flat.  50% more than the above  amount was re-plated and that too was inhaled. I've been picking at the bowl of remaining potato salad with shrimp as it cools ever since and I cannot stop myself. That is why I need someone to come over here and stop me. 

This whole photograph set was so beautiful to my eyes that I could not decide which photo to post. Here, since this plate of potato salad with bacon and shrimp  cannot be repeated for the duration of mankind's term on Earth, have another.