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A popular New York restaurant has earned a reputation for some of the best southern cooking you can find anywhere!

Now, Chef Jasper Alexander is sharing some of the recipes that have made Hattie’s Restaurant so famous in his new cookbook.

 

 

Stone Soup

There are as many variations of this soup as there are variations of the folk tale it stems from.  The exact story or the even exact recipe is not as important as the meaning behind it.  The message in the story centers on the spirit of sharing, breaking bread with the people around you, making do, and being content with what you have.

A cook named Joe who worked for us for a brief time introduced me to this simple but deceptively complex tasting soup.  To take a barometer reading on Joe’s skills, I asked him to make me a soup using some leftover mashed potatoes and whatever extra stuff we had lying around.  Joe, who was Portuguese, said he had just the soup and launched into the story of the wandering Friar and his stone, and proceeded to make this delicious saffron kissed soup with potatoes, sausage and kale.  This is a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes but the soup is just as easily made with raw potatoes.

Yield:  8 cups, 4-6 servings

1/4 cup olive oil

12 ounces chorizo sausage, cut in half lengthwise, then crosswise into 1/2 inch slices

2 cups chopped onion

2 cloves finely chopped garlic

1/2 teaspoon saffron threads

2 bay leaves

2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 1/2 cups mashed potatoes or 2-3 large potatoes peeled or scrubbed and cut into 1/2 inch cubes

2 cups chopped kale

4 cups chicken or vegetable stock

 

  1. Heat the oil in a heavy 4-quart saucepot over medium high heat.
  2. When the oil is shimmering, add the chorizo and cook for 5 minutes or until the sausage begins to brown.
  3. Add the onions, garlic, bay leaves, and saffron.   Reduce the heat to medium and sauté for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft.
  4. Add the potatoes, kale and stock.
  5. If you’re using leftover mashed potatoes, break up the mass of potato with a spoon or whisk to help the stock absorb the potato.   The finished soup will be a little thicker and have a uniform texture, as the potato will absorb all the stock.  If you use raw potatoes, cook until the potatoes are falling apart and thickening the broth slightly.  The overall appearance will be more broth like.  Either way you may need to add a little more stock to adjust the consistency.

 

 

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