Japanese Potato Salad

Ingredients

• 700 g potato, peeled and cut into 3 cm chunks
• 1 carrot, sliced into thin half-moons
• 1 cucumber, halved and very thinly sliced
• ½ onion, sliced paper-thin
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 egg
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• ½ tsp white sugar
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• 5 tbsp mayonnaise

Method

1. 1.

   Salt the cucumber and onion — Toss the sliced cucumber and onion with half the salt in a bowl and leave for 10 minutes. They will weep a surprising amount of water, which is exactly the point.

2. 2.

   Boil the potato and carrot — Put the potato and carrot in a pan of cold salted water, bring to a boil and simmer for 13-15 minutes, until the potato is soft enough to crush against the side of the pan.

3. 3.

   Hard-boil the eggs — Meanwhile lower the eggs into a second pan of simmering water and cook for 9 minutes for firm yolks. Cool them under cold running water, peel and chop roughly.

4. 4.

   Season and mash while hot — Drain the potato and carrot well and return them to the dry pan over low heat for a minute to drive off the steam. While still hot, sprinkle over the rice vinegar, sugar, black pepper and the rest of the salt, then mash about half the potato with a fork, leaving plenty of lumps.

5. 5.

   Cool before dressing — Spread the potato out and let it cool to just warm, about 15 minutes. Folding mayonnaise into hot potato will split it into an oily mess.

6. 6.

   Fold in the mayonnaise — Squeeze the cucumber and onion dry in your hands and fold them into the potato with the chopped egg and the mayonnaise. Taste for salt and serve cool or at room temperature.