Ingredients for the smoked haddock potato salad
Serves 6. Preparation: 20 minutes. Cooking: 20 minutes.
- 1 kg potatoes
- 2 carrots
- 6 small red pearl onions
- 250 g smoked haddock
- 150 ml cider vinegar
- 100 ml white wine
- 300 ml rapeseed oil
- 60 g fresh salted sea lettuce (laitue de mer)
- Fleur de sel
- Salt and freshly ground pepper
Steps — from warm potatoes to plating
- Cook the potatoes whole for about 20 minutes, until a knife slips in easily. Peel them while still hot, cut into wedges and immediately sprinkle with white wine. Cover with cling film so they absorb the wine as they cool; they soak it up best while warm.
- Meanwhile, slice the carrots into thin 2 mm rounds. Blanch them for a few seconds in simmering salted water, then refresh in a bowl of iced water to set their color and crunch.
- Finely chop the small red onions. Remove the skin from the haddock and cut it into thin strips.
- Whisk together a bright vinaigrette with rapeseed oil, cider vinegar, salt and pepper. Toss the warm, wine-scented potatoes with the carrots and some rinsed, finely chopped sea lettuce, then taste and adjust seasoning.
- Arrange everything on a large serving platter, top with the haddock and onions, scatter the remaining sea lettuce and finish with a pinch of fleur de sel.
Why pour white wine over warm potatoes
The moment the potatoes come out of the water is crucial. A still-warm potato is porous and absorbs the white wine like a sponge, allowing the flavor to penetrate to the center. If the potatoes were cold, the wine would remain mostly on the surface. Covering them with cling film while they cool helps retain both the wine’s aroma and a tender, creamy texture.
The carrots are only in the simmering water for a few seconds, then shocked in ice water to lock in their vivid color and crispness, creating a contrast with the soft potatoes. The sea lettuce contributes a salty, briny note that complements the smoked haddock. This interplay of warm and cool elements and of land and sea flavors makes the salad more interesting and lighter than a mayonnaise-based version.