Someone always complains if there’s no potato salad at our annual homecoming reunion in Long view. And while I never tire of getting together with my extended family, I do grow weary of eating the same old spud salad over and over. I decided a new version was in order and combined potatoes, buttermilk, sour cream, and blue cheese into a fresh-tasting, mayonnaise-free salad flavored with fresh tarragon.

　　

Ingredients

serves about 8

　　3 pounds medium red potatoes, quartered or cut into bite-size pieces if large

　　1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese

　　1 cup sour cream

　　1/2 cup buttermilk

　　2 tablespoons Dijon mustard

　　1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

　　A few grinds of black pepper

　　1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon leaves

　　1 cup chopped celery

　　4 green onions, green parts only, sliced

　　

Step 1

Fill a large stockpot half full with water and bring to a boil over high heat. Add the potatoes to the boiling water. Decrease the heat to medium and simmer, uncovered, until they are fork-tender, about 12 minutes. While the potatoes are cooking, combine the blue cheese, sour cream, buttermilk, mustard, salt, pepper, and tarragon in a bowl. When the potatoes are done, drain them and let cool in a large, shallow bowl for about 15 minutes. Add the celery, onions, and blue cheese mixture and gently stir the ingredients together. Cover and refrigerate until cold.

　　

variations

Step 2

To add a Texas-style chile kick, stir in 2 small stemmed, seeded, and diced jalapeños along with the celery and onions.

　　

Step 3

Reduce the fat quotient by substituting low-fat or nonfat sour cream for the regular stuff.

　　

do it early

Step 4

The salad can be made 24 hours in advance and stored, covered, in the refrigerator. In fact, a night in the fridge improves the flavor.

　　Pastry Queen Parties by Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Copyright © 2009 Rebecca Rather and Alison Oresman. Published by Ten Speed Press. All Rights Reserved.A pastry chef, restaurateur, and cookbook author, native Texan Rebecca Rather has been proprietor of the Rather Sweet Bakery and Café since 1999. Open for breakfast and lunch daily, Rather Sweet has a fiercely loyal cadre of regulars who populate the café’s sunlit tables each day. In 2007, Rebecca opened her eponymous restaurant, serving dinner nightly, just a few blocks from the café.  Rebecca is the author of THE PASTRY QUEEN, and has been featured in Texas Monthly, Gourmet, Ladies Home Journal, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Chocolatier, Saveur, and O, The Oprah Magazine. When she isn’t in the bakery or on horseback, Rebecca enjoys the sweet life in Fredericksburg, where she tends to her beloved backyard garden and menagerie, and eagerly awaits visits from her college-age daughter, Frances.Alison Oresman has worked as a journalist for more than twenty years. She has written and edited for newspapers in Wyoming, Florida, and Washington State. As an entertainment editor for the Miami Herald, she oversaw the paper’s restaurant coverage and wrote a weekly column as a restaurant critic. After settling in Washington State, she also covered restaurants in the greater Seattle area as a critic with a weekly column. A dedicated home baker, Alison is often in the kitchen when she isn't writing. Alison lives in Bellevue, Washington, with her husband, Warren, and their children, Danny and Callie.