Two potato salads from Justin Bonello

Nothing completes juicy, fire-cooked meat quite like a beautiful braai salad. With Justin Bonello taking centre stage on all things cooked outdoors, we asked him to share two winning potato salads with us. It appears he loves spuds as much as we do.

Bashed herb and roasted potato salad

Sometimes the simple things in life put a smile on my face: a decent cup of coffee in the morning, a fish that finally takes my bait, playing in the garden with my lightie, a beautiful sunset after a long day…

And really good potato salad. Have this with blackened calamari  or just by itself as a leftover breakfast the next morning (you know what I’m talking about).

Ingredients:

A couple of handfuls of baby potatoes, with skins
2-3 cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
A large handful of rocket
A handul of basil
A handful of parsley
1 cup grated Parmesan
A good glug of olive oil
A generous glug of white balsamic vinegar
1 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
Coarse sea salt
Black pepper

Method:

1. Cut the baby potatoes in half. Parboil and then put them in a roasting tin along with the chopped garlic. Drizzle with olive oil, coarse sea salt and a generous crack of black pepper, cover with foil and whack it on a medium to hot fire.
2. Once your potatoes are roasted (soft on the inside, crispy on the outside) let them cool down.
3. In the meantime, grab your mortar and pestle, add all the herbs, a drizzle of olive oil and bash to release all the flavours.
4. Toss the herbs, grated parmesan. rocket and a glug of white balsamic vinegar with the now cooled potatoes.
5. Sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds (as much as you like) and tuck in.

Bertus Basson’s rubbed sirloin and crushed potato salad

This is a great salad, especially for those lazy and less hungry warm days or nights, because it’s a meal in one that won’t leave you feeling stuffed and gasping for air after you’ve eaten.

Ingredients:

For the rub

50g whole coriander spice
25g peppercorns
50g mustard seeds
30g coarse salt
15g paprika

For the salad

Two pieces of matured sirloin steak, weighing in at about 200g each.
800g baby potatoes, cooked
50g chopped onions
30g chopped capers
50g chopped anchovies
30g chopped parsley
90g olives, pips removed and quartered
Olive oil
Freshly squeezed lemon juice
Coarse sea salt
Black pepper

Method:

1. First up, combine all the rub spices you need in your trusty mortar and pestle and give them a good bashing.
2. Generously rub the ground spices into the meat until coated and leave to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours.
3. Once your braai is ready and your guests are getting hungry, whack the sirloin onto your braai-grid (hot coals) and grill on an open flame for about seven minutes a side.
4. You want the meat to be medium rare. While the steaks are sizzling, it’s time to start combining the salad – but remember to keep one eye on the meat!
5. Crush the cooked potatoes using the palm of your hand. You just want the skin to break open and to crush the potato slightly – try not to flatten them completely… it’s not a pancake-potato salad.
6. Add the chopped onions, capers, anchovies, parsley and olives.
7. Drizzle with olive oil, a generous squeeze of lemon and cracked black pepper. You can add salt if you want but taste it first – the anchovies are very salty.
8. Mix the salad thoroughly  and then scoop onto plates. Once the meat is done, let it rest for a few minutes then slice it into about 1cm thick slices. Put a couple of slices of that deliciously juicy sirloin on top of the potato salad and you’re done.

With thanks to the Cooked in Africa team for the mouth watering recipe photographs.