Switzerland: Zeughauskeller Potato Salad

Too many people think of Zürich as a boring, gray bankers' town, only good for passing through fast on the way to somewhere else. Maybe those of us who enjoy a slower and more thoughtful style of travel should be grateful for this, as it leaves the city to us, and less at the mercy of Rick Steves and those who (having read something by a single travel writer) couldn't be bothered to look for a second opinion.

The same goes for the food in Zuerich. The idea that Swiss food is boring is laughable. True, Switzerland has always been a crossroads for foods from the countries that surround it (Germany, Italy, and France). But sometimes it's taken the Swiss to perfect dishes from one or another of these, or find an aspect to them that the others have ignored. This happens to that commonplace side dish, a kartoffelsalat or potato salad, in a central Zurich restaurant called the Zeughauskeller. (If you're interested in going there, click here for a Google map or scroll down to the bottom of the full entry.)

The place used to be the town armory, back in the day. Now it mostly serves up basic Swiss food -- with French and Italian accents here and there -- to both tourists and locals. The most popular side dish to go with the various grills, roasts and sausage dishes is the Zeughauskeller's famous relatively-low-fat potato salad. They go through approximately twenty metric tons of it every year, and (if you ask nicely) they don't mind giving out the recipe.

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To make approximately eight servings of potato salad the way they make it at the Zeughauskeller:

First, prepare your salad dressing. You need --

• About 1/2 cup of a good mayonnaise: homemade, if you like. But storebought works fine (and so do low-calorie mayonnaises). Mix the mayo with --
• About 1 tablespoon (or more if you like) of a sharp yellow or brown mustard. Gulden's mustard in the US closely approximates the flavor of a good German or Swiss deli-style mustard.

Set the dressing aside in the fridge while preparing the potatoes.

For the salad proper, you need:

• 1 cup beef stock, boiling
• One cup chicken stock, boiling
• 3 3/4 pounds of mealy potatoes (Do not use waxy salad-style potatoes: if you do, the recipe will come out badly.)
• 1/2 ounce fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 small onion, finely chopped

Every utensil must be scrupulously clean, then scalded, including pans. (This is because this potato salad is low-acid, and you don't want the naturally occurring bacteria to have a chance to get a foothold.)

Peel and cut up the potatoes. Cook in rapidly boiling water for about 10-12 minutes, until almost ready -- meaning to the point where they're just getting soft.

Then carefully drain them, doing your best to retain as much as possible of the starch that will have come out of the potatoes while boiling. This starch will do some of the business of thickening the salad. It might help to take the potatoes off the heat a little early and let the boiling stop for a few minutes before draining.

When the potatoes have been drained, bring the chicken and beef stock to a boil and pour the boiling stock over the potatoes. Allow the potatoes to sit for at least 45 minutes. This time allows the hot stock to bring more starch out of the potatoes.

Chop the parsley and onions (to taste) by hand. Add these to potatoes and toss; let them sit in the hot mixture to add flavor.

Finally, pour the salad dressing over the salad, and toss. Serve immediately: and immediately refrigerate what has not been served.

(And here we add a line for people hunting for this article who spell potatoe differently than usual.)