Mac Salad (Hawaiʻi Local Plate-Lunch Macaroni Salad)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large 6-quart pot with strainer
• •Fine-hole box grater for carrot and onion
• •No. 8 disher or 1/2-cup scoop for plate-lunch portions
• •Large rimmed sheet pan for cooling the warm macaroni quickly

Instructions

1. 1

   Cook it soft

   Bring a 6-quart pot of water to a hard boil and add the 2 tablespoons kosher salt. Stir in the macaroni and cook 1 to 2 minutes past the package time, until the elbows are swollen, tender all the way through, and still holding their shape. Al dente makes a stiff plate-lunch scoop. We want soft enough to take the dressing, not mush.

   If one elbow still has a hard white line in the center, give it another minute. No rush the noodle, yeah?
2. 2

   Season while warm

   Drain the macaroni well but don't rinse it. Tip the warm elbows into a wide bowl or rimmed pan, sprinkle over the apple cider vinegar, toss gently, and let it sit for 10 minutes. The vinegar wakes up the pasta before the mayo comes in, and warm macaroni drinks better than cold.

3. 3

   Make the dressing

   Whisk 2 cups mayonnaise with the milk, sugar, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, and black pepper until loose and glossy, like it looks a little too much. That's right. Mac salad tightens as it rests, same way rice firms when the cooker clicks off.

4. 4

   Fold it together

   Add the grated carrot, grated onion with its juice, and celery if you're using it to the warm macaroni. Pour in the dressing and fold from the bottom until every elbow is coated. It should look wetter than the final salad, pale ivory with orange flecks, smelling faintly sweet, oniony, and clean.

5. 5

   Chill and refresh

   Cover and chill at least 2 hours, overnight if you can. Before serving, fold in the reserved 1/2 cup mayonnaise and a splash of milk only if the salad has gone tight. Taste for salt. The scoop should mound softly and settle, not stand stiff like cement.

   Aunties know this one: the salad you put in the fridge is not the same salad you pull out. It drinks while it rests.
6. 6

   Plate it proper

   Set one scoop beside two scoops white rice and your protein, or bring the bowl to the potluck with a spoon big enough for everybody. Keep it cold if it sits out; in warm weather set the bowl over ice and get it back to the fridge within 2 hours. No blame the plate for being humble.

Chef Tips

• •This is Hawaiʻi Local, not old Hawaiian deep food, and it is not lesser. The deep table has kalo, taro, poi, pounded taro, ʻulu, breadfruit, and the imu. The Local plate has rice, mac salad, teri beef, chicken katsu, hamburger steak, Spam, and whatever the family can feed everybody with. Both tables matter.
• •Cook the macaroni soft on purpose. If you stop at al dente, the dressing sits outside the noodle and the scoop eats dry. The old plate-lunch counter knew what it was doing.
• •Use full-fat mayonnaise for the potluck bowl. Light mayo turns loose faster, and sweet salad dressing takes the flavor somewhere else. Eat what you have, but if you're feeding a crowd, the sturdy one behaves better.
• •Grate the onion fine enough that it becomes seasoning, not a raw chunk. The juice is part of the dressing, so scrape that into the bowl too.
• •Don't dress this up with flowers or fancy leaves. A clean scoop is the look. The rice, the mac, the protein, the plastic fork, that's the whole grammar.

Advance Preparation

• •Mac salad is best made the night before. Chill it 2 to 24 hours, then refresh with the reserved mayonnaise and a splash of milk right before serving.
• •For a picnic or potluck, pack the bowl cold in an ice chest and set it over ice once served. Bring it back to the fridge within 2 hours.
• •Leftovers keep 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator. Do not freeze it; the dressing breaks and the macaroni goes grainy.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 225g)