Japanese Potato Salad With Mentaiko
Updated Oct. 12, 2023
- Total Time
- 45 minutes
- Prep Time
- 15 minutes
- Cook Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 1pound russet potatoes (about 2 whole large potatoes), peeled and cut into large chunks
- Salt
- 2eggs
- 1tablespoon rice vinegar, plus more to taste
- 2teaspoons sugar
- 1small Japanese or Persian cucumber, or ½ an English cucumber (about 4 ounces), quartered lengthwise, seeds removed and discarded, and thinly sliced
- 1small carrot (2 to 3 ounces), quartered lengthwise and thinly sliced
- ½cup thawed frozen corn kernels or briefly boiled fresh corn kernels (optional)
- ¼cup chopped radish (about 2 radishes; optional)
- 2scallions, thinly sliced
- 5tablespoons Kewpie mayonnaise (see Tip), plus more to taste
- 1whole sac mentaiko or tarako (about 2 ounces)
- 1teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1teaspoon fresh lemon juice, plus more to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
- Step 1
In a medium saucepan, cover the potatoes with cold water by at least 1 inch. Add a few big pinches of salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. Gently lower the eggs into the pot. Cover, reduce to a bare simmer, and cook until the potatoes are tender and show no resistance when pierced with a knife or cake tester, 10 to 12 minutes. Drain the potatoes in a colander and spread in a single layer on a large rimmed baking sheet. Immediately sprinkle with vinegar and sugar. Set aside until completely cool, at least 15 minutes. Transfer the eggs to a bowl of ice water and peel when completely cool.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, toss the cucumber with a big pinch of salt in the bottom of a large bowl and set aside until the potatoes are cool.
- Step 3
When the potatoes are cool, add them to the bowl with the cucumber and lightly mash with the back of a fork until some bite-size chunks still remain.
- Step 4
Add carrot, corn, radish, scallion, mayonnaise, mentaiko, lemon zest and juice. Squeeze the hard-boiled eggs through your clean fingers to break them up, or chop them with a knife and add them to the salad. Stir together and season with pepper, more salt, sugar, vinegar, lemon juice or mayonnaise, or a combination, to taste.
- Kewpie is a Japanese brand of mayonnaise with a thicker texture, and tangier, more umami flavor, though any mayonnaise you prefer will work in this recipe.
Private Notes
Comments
Suitable substitute for mentaiko?
Russet potatoes are not available here in Japan — so for a more truly authentic version of the dish, 男爵薯 (danshakuimo; also known as Irish Cobbler) would be the potato to use. Some local variations: Supermarket potato salads usually have slices of ham and occasionally iceberg lettuce mixed in — but the truly great potato salads nix the carrots/corn for chunks of smoky bacon and jammy eggs.
I made this with baby Yukons cut in half, took the eggs out sooner, and couldn’t find the mentaiko so I simply left it out. I really liked all the veg mixed in! I might put a dash of fish sauce in the leftovers to make up for the lack of fishy flavor.
Creamy, crunchy, comforting with tangy/sweet/umami/fresh flavors. Delicious! I used about a tablespoon of fish sauce in the dressing in place of mentaiko (I made roughly a double batch).
This is good and was a hit at the bbqs I took it too. I didn't have Kewpie at the time so used Hellmans. Did not add the fish roe. Sprinkled a little shichimi togarashi on top at the end. Def the best mayo based potato salad you will have!
Great recipe - granted I’m not someone who follows recipes exactly, but rather uses them to inspire new ways of using what I have on hand. Thus, omitted the fish roe, though I’d love to try that sometime. More or less made the rest as written, just used reg cucumber and yellow potatoes. Genius idea to include cucumber and carrot in a potato/egg salad, and it had never occurred to me to quarter then slice these 2 veggies - so I appreciated learning this (albeit - elementary) move for my mise en place!