This last weekend was Hutchmoot, and one of the meals Chef Lewis Graham made was Totato Soup. It's too good not to share, so here you go—and since the recipe makes such a very lot of soup, invite a few friends to help you eat it. While you're all eating, read to them. :-)
Ingredients:
- One 3-5 lb. bag of small Yukon gold potatoes
- Two boxes of chicken stock
- One package sausage with sage
- One whole roasted or rotisserie chicken
- Three ears fresh corn (or one bag frozen corn)
- Two whole carrots
- Three stalks celery
- Two medium yellow onions
- One large can of whole, peeled tomatoes (or two small cans diced tomatoes).
- Seasonings: Fresh garlic, dried thyme, sprig of fresh Rosemary, two dried bay leaves, kosher salt, cracked black pepper, and a healthy pinch of red pepper flakes
Directions (in Lewis Graham's words):
1. Two or three glugs of good olive oil in Dutch oven. Make warm, add sausage. When the sausage is done, remove from pan but save the grease.
2. Cut potatoes in half, and rub well with sea salt (About one tablespoon is plenty for the batch). Heat the saved grease up in the pot, add potatoes. Let them sit awhile, frying the skins a little.
3. When potato skins have browned a little, add fresh veggies, chopped up of course. Cook them a little; when the onions are translucent and celery pliable, add chicken stock.
4. Add chicken, pulled from bones, sausage, tomatoes, and everything else.
5. Let that bad boy cook awhile. When it boils, reduce the heat and let it simmer.
The rule with soup is the longer it sits, the better it gets. Mind it occasionally, stirring to keep anything from burning in the bottom. Fresh bread is always good. Be sure, absolutely sure, to do a little celebration dance after each taste, each seasoning.
This week, Madame Sidler will be reading chapters 38-45 of The Warden and the Wolf King. Check back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own! Meanwhile, go see what's up in the forum. :-)p.s. Andrew's album release tour kicked off on Friday, and will be in full swing later this week. If he's near you, he'd love to say hi.