“You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism.”

Erma Bombeck

It’s the Fourth of July today, so it seems appropriate to celebrate with potato salad.

This potato salad includes a lot of cucumber which gives it an interesting texture, a kind of soft, summery crunch, if that isn’t a contradiction in terms.

It’s very simple to make, and it goes particularly well with smoked salmon. It’s also good on its own, served with drinks.

This is a perfect thing to do with leftover, already cooked, potatoes.

How long can you keep it, and can you freeze it?

Once made the potato salad will keep for three or four days in the fridge (no longer because of the cucumber).

Don’t try freezing it though – that would be a disaster on numerous counts: potatoes have a high water content, if you freeze them they go mushy – same goes for the cucumber; mayonnaise separates when you freeze it, and then it makes the potatoes go brown.

Recipe for crunchy, creamy potato salad

For three to four

• 200g/7 oz cooked potatoes – you want the waxy type that won’t disintegrate – follow this link for some suggestions
• ½ a large cucumber
• 120 ml/½ cup mayonnaise
• 120 ml/½ cup crème fraîche
• 1 small clove of garlic, crushed with 1 tsp smoked salt
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Generous grinds of Indonesian long pepper
• 2 spring onions – preferably red, for the colour!
• If you can’t find red spring onions, you can garnish with chopped dill, or Spanish bitter-sweet smoked paprika

1. In a pretty bowl mix the mayonnaise, the crème fraîche, the oil, garlic, salt and pepper.
2. Slice the potatoes, and add them to the bowl.
3. Cut the cucumber into chunks, add that.
4. Snip in the spring onions (if you’ve found red ones, save a few for garnish). Stir well.
5. Garnish with the red spring onions, or dill, or paprika.

For an authentically German recipe for potato salad, follow this link.

For a salad of new potatoes with smoked salmon, follow this link.

Below you can listen to Bruce Springsteen’s Born In The USA

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPhWR4d3FJQ]