Potatoes with Cheese Sauce (Papas a la Huancaína) & My Olympic Dream

Above photo by Marcus Nilsson

I understand the irony in offering up Peruvian potato salad as a Fourth of July side dish option, but the colors are pretty, and I'm not thinking straight these days. See, I've gone bat-shit crazy for the upcoming summer Olympics. If you took a look at my browser history, you would think that following women's gymnastics was my job, my only job. I scour the web for interviews, new and old. I search youtube for leaked iPhone footage of warm-ups, anything to get a glimpse of the routines in training. And of course, I live for fluff pieces. When I find one, I look around for Matt and scream: FLUFF PIECE! 

So naturally when one of my favorite gymnasts, 2008 Olympic gold medalist Nastia Liukin, tweeted the below image of herself in Women's Health magazine, I forwarded it to Matt and said that I would like to attempt it. It was hard to find the exact city ledge, but we managed.

 

Only five girls out of the fifteen at trials will "punch their ticket" (lame announcer lingo) to London, and unfortunately for Nastia, it seems she won't be one of them. Disoriented and lonely, I'm trying to make sense of this cruel fate by realizing that another girl who has worked her whole life for this singular opportunity will get to punch her ticket to London instead. The team is announced tonight. Set your DVRs, people! Set them!

In the mean time, there are these lovely potatoes with cheese sauce.

In order to make it as patriotic and Olympic as possible, I added cherry tomatoes. 

Ladies and gentleman: your Olympic-gold side dish. 

Potatoes with Cheese Sauce (Papas a la Huancaína) via Gourmet

2 lb medium potatoes such as purple Peruvian or Yukon Gold (about 8)
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/4 lb queso fresco or feta, crumbled (scant 1 cup)
1/2 cup whole milk
1 tablespoon chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon bottled ají amarillo or ají mirasol paste (sometimes labeled “crema”) (I couldn't find this at the grocery store, so simply served it with Cholula hot sauce on the side.)

Garnish: chopped pitted black Peruvian or Kalamata olives; lime wedges (preferably Key lime)

Cover potatoes with water in a medium pot and season well with salt, then briskly simmer, covered, until just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Drain and cool, then peel.

Meanwhile, mince and mash garlic to a paste with a pinch of salt, then blend with remaining ingredients in a blender until very smooth and thicker than heavy cream (if necessary, thin with milk). Season with salt.

Cut potatoes crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick slices. Spoon some sauce onto 8 small plates, then top with sliced potatoes. Serve remaining sauce on the side.