A few years ago, either by mistake or design, some genius realized if you added mayo to mashed potatoes that there was basically no difference in that and potato salad. And thus a trend was born.
I was introduced to it as smashed potato salad. We served it at a quaint little garden cafe and the customers went nuts over it. I ate the heck out of it, but never really had the impulse to make it at home until recently. I needed a quick side I could serve at room temperature for a fourth of July picnic that involved my preciously picky 4 year old niece. It was a big hit. My niece might be temporarily confused about what potato salad is now, but she loved it. It went over so well that I made a batch for our camping trip a few weeks later. What can I say. When I find something my little buddy likes, I make until she hates it.
I made one recipe for 2 adults and a kid. It made so much that I decided to throw the rest on the skillet the next morning with some scrambled eggs and it was amazing. Frying it up gave it a whole new existence, so we really didn’t notice we were eating leftovers. This one is permanently on the camping menu!
I have a little Black and Decker steamer that is my best friend. I wash the taters, throw them in and set the timer for about 30 minutes. I check to see if they are tender all the way through and cook more if needed, submerge them in ice water and then just scrape the peel off with my hands.
I feel this works best for me, as I am exceedingly lazy. But any way you prefer to prepare the potatos will work. Just don’t mash them to a smooth consistency. You want to leave them slightly chunky, and they will break up even more during the mixing process.
After preparing the potatos, add the butter, sour cream, mayo, ranch, salt, pepper and half of the crumbled bacon and all but 1/4 cup of the cheese (we are gonna garnish this bad boy). Fold ingediants untill compley incorparated. If needed, add a little milk. It should be creamy but not runny.
Transfer the mixture into appropriate serving dish. This dish is versatile! You can eat it hot, room temp or chilled! For our needs, I packed the garnish separately because I didn’t want the cheese and bacon to get soggy. When we got to the camp site I took it out of the cooler, garnished, and set up camp; which took about an hour.
I fried off bacon and scrambled eggs for our breakfast. The taters were kinda an after thought, but I crisped up the taters in the grease. And mixed the eggs in afterwards. Oh. My.
I’m sure you could cook the bacon first, then fry the potatos the add in the raw egg. I’ll do this again and update the post with those results. Enjoy!
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