Tatara - Poteto - Sarada

This is a recipe for potato salad, Japanese-style, from my friend, Tatara-san.

Potato Salad ingredients:
-4-5 potatoes
-mayonaisse
-1 cucumber
-dash of salt

Garnishes:
-3 boiled eggs
-ham
-apple

1. Peel potatoes, and put in a pot. Fill so the potatoes are just submerged/floating. Boil like crazy.
2. Take out excess water and keep in a cup (you might use it later if the potatoes are too dry). Let the potatoes cool. (In summer, setting them down in front of your fan will help cool them down faster.)
3. Slice your cucumber very thinly. (I use a mandolin, but watch your fingertips!) Put in a bowl with a dash of salt, toss to cover the cucumber evenly, and set aside.
4. When the potatoes are cool enough to handle, put in mayo to taste. Squeeze cucumber out over the sink to get rid of excess water, and put in with the potato. Squish with your hands, yay! (Or, if you don't find squishing things with your hands as fun as I do [stay away from handmade gyoza (pot stickers) then], stir with a fork.)
5. Good garnishes: apples sliced incredibly thinly and small go well mixed into the salad if you want a sweeter potato salad. Ham (lunch meat style), sliced thinly, is also delicious. Mashed up boiled eggs go well on top, or with the whites chopped and mixed into the salad and the yolks mashed and sprinkled on top.

MeriPon

This is a recipe for my homemade ponzu. I never make the same batch twice, but here's a general recipe I follow:

Base: 1/2 vinegar, 1/2 soy sauce.
Spices: 1 fair sized lobe of ginger (approximately 2x2x2 cm), grated. 3 cloves of garlic, minced. The juice of 1 citrus; in Japan I use yuzu or kabosu, but in America a lime would do well. You want something less zesty than a lemon, but not sweet. (I don't recommend mikan, oranges, or grapefruit, but if you try it and find it delicious, let me know!)
Mix and serve!
I find it gets tastier the longer it sits, so I mix it when I have free time in the kitchen, and then let it sit in the refridgerator.

Tatara-san's Umepon
This is an idea from Tatara-san for an alternative to the Ponzu above.
Put 8-10 unripe green ume (Japanese plum) in soy sauce, let it sit for a month or two in the refridgerator, and then serve.
I will test this recipe out in May, when ume grow.