Food of the Week: Watercress

Watercress is a great alternative to the monotony of lettuce for salads and sandwiches. It has a crisp, spicy flavor that I love. This is the first of a few recipes that involve watercress I'll post over the course of this week. This is one I made a couple years ago. It turned out well. I'm not sure where the original recipe came from but it was good enough that I wrote it down.

Grilled Potato Salad with Blue Cheese Vinaigrette

1/4 cup sherry wine vinegar, white or red wine vinegar should be fine if that's what you have on hand
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup and some extra olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
12 medium red potatoes
2 bunches watercress, stems trimmed
2 green onions chopped
salt and pepper

combine vinegar, mustard, 1/2 cup oil, and cheese in a small bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Gently boil potatoes in a large pot of salted water until almost tender, about 13 minutes. Remove potatoes from water and allow to cool for at least a half hour. Cut potatoes into 1/4-1/2 inch round slices. Coat slices with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill potatoes over medium high heat until they're golden brown, about 2 minutes per side. Toss potatoes with watercress dressing and onions.

I realize that it is January and grilling is a bit out of season. Rather than boiling, cooling, and grilling the potatoes, it will work fine to cut the raw potatoes into slices coat them olive oil, season them with salt and pepper, and roast them in the oven at about 400 degrees until they are tender and lightly golden brown. Turn them over half way through cooking.