For Delia Smith’s Anya potato salad, you steam the potatoes for about 20 minutes and give them 10 minutes in a bowl before a garlic and mustard vinaigrette goes on. Finely chopped shallots go in with the dressing and snipped chives go in last, giving 8 people a big bowl in about 40 minutes.
It first appeared in How to Cook Book Three (2001), in a summer lunch menu for 8 built around a baked whole salmon with sauce verte. The chunky green salad on the same page uses the same vinaigrette, made up a second time for the leaves.
Delia loves “the consistently good flavour of Anya potatoes” and her catering kitchens at Norwich City Football Club cooked them regularly, bought direct from a grower. Steamed in their skins they hold their shape, and the raw shallots give a sharp little crunch against the mellow, mustardy dressing.
Delia Smith’s Anya Potato Salad with Shallots and Vinaigrette
Course: SaladsCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy8
servings20
minutes20
minutes255
kcalFrom Delia’s Vegetarian Collection (2002), page 41: steamed Anya potatoes, six shallots and plenty of chives in a vinaigrette of sea salt, garlic, mustard powder, balsamic and sherry vinegar. These ingredients make a large bowl for 8.
Ingredients
- For the salad:
900g (2lb) Anya or other new potatoes, washed
6 shallots, peeled and finely chopped
4 tablespoons snipped chives
salt, for the steaming water
- For the vinaigrette:
1 rounded dessertspoon sea salt
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 rounded dessertspoon mustard powder
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
150ml (5fl oz) extra virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
Directions
- Steam: Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, set the potatoes in a steamer over it, cover with a lid and steam for about 20 minutes, until tender.
- Crush: While they cook, crush the sea salt fairly coarsely in a pestle and mortar, then add the garlic and keep crushing until it breaks down into a purée.
- Mustard: Add the mustard powder and work it in with a circular motion for about 20 seconds, then grind in some pepper. Work in the balsamic and sherry vinegars the same way.
- Whisk: Pour in the olive oil, switch to a small whisk and whisk hard until the dressing is well blended.
- Rest: Tip the cooked potatoes into a mixing bowl and leave them for 10 minutes.
- Dress: While the potatoes are still just warm, stir in the vinaigrette and the shallots. Add the chives, toss well so the dressing that has run to the bottom coats everything, then spoon the salad into a serving bowl.
Notes
- Chop the shallots as finely as you can, since they go into the salad raw.
- Without a steamer, the potatoes can sit in a metal colander over the pan, covered with a lid or a plate.
- Once it has cooled, keep the salad covered in the fridge if it has to wait more than 2 hours, and eat it within 2 days, which is my own limit.
FAQs
What can I use instead of Anya potatoes?
Charlotte, or any small salad potato with plenty of flavour. Delia asks for good-flavoured salad potatoes if you can’t find Anya, and elsewhere in that same 2001 book she names Anya or Charlotte as small steamed potatoes to serve with bacon.
When she wrote How to Cheat at Cooking in 2008, the Anya she pointed to were Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference ones. Whatever you buy, I’d pick potatoes of a similar size so they all cook in the same time.
Can I serve it warm?
Yes, and Delia suggests it herself. The summer menu where it first appeared was planned for sun or rain, and on a cooler day she says the potato salad can go to the table warm, as the salmon is served cold.
For a warm salad, bring it to the table as soon as the chives are in rather than leaving it to come down to room temperature. That’s how I’d make it through the winter, which is my own call.
Is a whole dessertspoon of salt right?
It is what both printings give, in 2001 and again in the Vegetarian Collection a year later. The salt is crushed only coarsely with the garlic, and it has 900g of potatoes for 8 people to season.
If you’re using fine table salt rather than sea salt flakes, I’d start with about half, because fine salt packs more tightly into the spoon. Taste once the chives are in and add more then, which is my own way of playing it safe.
Can I make it for 4?
You can, by halving everything: 450g (1lb) potatoes, 3 shallots and 2 tablespoons of chives. For the dressing, use 1 clove of garlic, 1 rounded teaspoon each of sea salt and mustard powder, 1½ teaspoons of each vinegar and 75ml (2½fl oz) of olive oil, which is my own maths.
The steaming time stays at about 20 minutes, since it depends on the size of the potatoes, not how many there are. Keep the 10 minutes of cooling as well before the dressing goes on.
How is it different from her new potato salad with mint and chives?
Mostly in how the potatoes are cooked and in the dressing. Her new potato salad from the Complete Cookery Course simmers the potatoes with mint, chops them up and uses one vinegar, with mint, parsley and spring onions folded in.
Both dressings begin with salt and garlic crushed together and mustard powder worked in. This one is bigger and bolder, with a whole dessertspoon of mustard powder, 2 cloves of garlic and two vinegars for 150ml of extra virgin olive oil.
