Cook-off 1: Cassoulet

[Chris Amirault]

Chris,next time try cassoulet with the breadcrumbs.  I used some stale brioche ground up in the food processor.  2 cups breadcrumbs with 1\2 cup chopped parsley.  I broke up the crust every 20 min. It was truly wonderful.    I;m wondering about the dryness?  Did you save the bean cooking liquid?  I ended up adding some during the cooking to prevent the cassoulet from drying out.    I'm game for another mass cook-in.

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Thanks for the tip. Yeah, I saved bean liquid and had some duck stock too. Paula Wolfert suggested that the dryness may be related to the cast iron cooking vessel; cassoulet (as well as Boston baked beans and other bean dishes) is traditionally cooked in a wide, conical ceramic pot.

Glad you're game for another one!

[Chris Amirault]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!

I think that we should soon start a new thread called eGullet Recipe Cook-Off: the XXXXXXX Event. Question is, to what dish should that event be devoted? I'm a bit perplexed about how to make this decision, because I'd like y'all to weigh in, but I think that we should move onward.

So, I'm pushing -- but with a friendly smile! -- for us to select dish #2. I think that we should use the following criteria to find our subsequent dishes. It should be a dish

-- that you've always wanted to make at home (and may enjoy out) but rarely have made, or haven't made successfully

-- for which special but locatable ingredients may be used, but for which expensive special equipment is not required

-- that includes techniques, ingredient combinations, or other elements that intrigue you

-- from a different cuisine than that of the previous dish (hence my resistance to the otherwise excellent suggestions of boeuf bourguignon -- though perhaps next fall....)

-- that demands some time and effort, but that rewards that effort for even those first approaching it

-- that motivates you to try it out, ask questions, serve it to friends, and share photos and stories

I suggested a few dishes (pho [Vietnamese noodle soup], char siu bao [steamed BBQ pork buns]) that conform to those criteria and that I thought would make good next threads. But having suggested the criteria, I want to open it up.

SO: What do YOU think?

[little ms foodie]

I'm totally in! This helped me remove my fear and do something that I may not have motivated myself to do otherwise!

hmmm....I like the idea of the BBQ pork buns and the pho....also what about something like paella or jumbalaya or gumbo?? just in time for mardi gras!

Edited January 12, 2005 by little ms foodie (log)

[Jensen]

How about choucroute garni?

[bleudauvergne]

I want to get my cassoulet going and then think about it... I didn't share this with anyone but my beloved butcher up and closed his doors for good about 5 weeks ago without one word of warning. It was freaky and scary. He covered his name on the store front so we know he's gone for good. In any case, I am taking this opportunity to interview the butchers in the neighborhood and see if they're up to snuff. I'm figuring out that I may end up looking all over town because one does this and another does that. Its really a rather good test. I tell them I am going an authentic cassoulet and get the non-commital "so what" look. Then I explain that I plan to confit the canard, eyes widen. They all can get me the duck legs. When I ask about the casings for the sausages, the answers vary. It's going to be very hard to find me a new butcher. These guys don't want to source anything like my old butcher used to do. I wish I knew what happened to him. My husband spotted him out walking (alone) in the week after they closed and since that time we haven't seen hide nor hair of either of them in the neighborhood.

[Chris Amirault]

I'm totally in! This helped me remove my fear and do something that I may not have motivated myself to do otherwise!

hmmm....I like the idea of the BBQ pork buns and the pho....also what about something like paella or jumbalaya or gumbo?? just in time for mardi gras! 

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Oh, I am ALWAYS up for gumbo or jambalaya! Paella might also be a good idea....

OH, and bleudauvergne, that really is awful!

[Toliver]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!

I think that we should soon start a new thread called eGullet Recipe Cook-Off: the XXXXXXX Event.

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I completely agree. A different thread for each dish but titled basically the same.

In fact, there was a previous "cook off" about a year or so ago (I think it was titled "Make me a better Cook" or something like that) where everyone got the same cookbook and made the same recipe from the cookbook.

I can see this as a continuous learning/cooking process on eGullet.

[edsel]

Next Steps for This Idea -- Help!!

(...)

I suggested a few dishes (pho [Vietnamese noodle soup], char siu bao [steamed BBQ pork buns]) that conform to those criteria and that I thought would make good next threads. But having suggested the criteria, I want to open it up.

SO: What do YOU think?

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I've already lobbied for a bœuf bourguignon (Bourdain v Bouchon) battle *, but maybe we should take a break from slow cooked, old-fashioned French dishes. Your suggestions of pho and char siu bao are brilliant! Great dishes that many of us love but few have attempted. The techniques involved are different enough from cassoulet to provide a nice contrast. There's a recipe (actually more of a tutorial) on preparing pho here. I'm sure we can locate others that are accessible to all (without violating copyright).

All of the ideas here are great. Paella? Jambalaya? Gumbo? Yes to all! But I think that your suggestions make for a nice contrast with the cassoulet.

* I'm not giving up on BBBBB Just think we should try "something completely different" next.

[Chris Amirault]

Ok, how about this: we do char siu bao next, and then do a paella or jambalaya after that?

[little ms foodie]

After googling to find that this is steamed buns I am in!!

[Jensen]

Ok, how about this: we do char siu bao next, and then do a paella or jambalaya after that?

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I would go for this.

Of course, I'm crushed that no one has even mentioned my suggestion for choucroute garni... :sniff:

[little ms foodie]

Shopping made easy for those of you still wanting to make the cassoulet:

Cassoulet Kit

[edsel]

Jen, I like your idea. I do think that choucroute garni is a bit too similar to cassoulet to do next.

Char siu bao is a good choice for the next cook-off because it's quite different from the last one (cassoulet), and meets the other criteria as well. Especially the I've-always-meant-to try-making-that but-never got-around-to-it one.

There's a recipe for char siu bao in a cookbook I've had for twenty-five years. It looks intriguing, but I've always gone for the simpler recipes over that one. Maybe now I'll finally give it a try.

[fou de Bassan]

Char siu bao-- sounds great! Are we planning to use different recipes or the same? Different, I hope. I enjoyed the discussions generated by the different recipe choices.

[Busboy]

Shopping made easy for those of you still wanting to make the cassoulet:

Cassoulet Kit

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Even easier: they sell the stuff in cans at Dean & Deluca. At $30 a can.

[Chris Amirault]

Here it is -- the char siu bao cook-off!

[Eden]

Coming in late to the cassoulet game (my annual cassoulet fest was already on the calendar for late January before this thread started) I salted the duck legs tonight. I hope you can tell how enormous these legs are. Bill says they slipped me goose legs, I'm voting for swans or eagles!

If you're interested check my image gallery for more photos of the process.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...album&album=643

including my Cassoulet flow chart

Tomorrow I cook the nice little duckies in fat, brine the pork bits, and run a batch of duck stock on the back burner since I'll be there anyway...

Saturday or Sunday I'll make the sausage

I do love this dish!

[Chris Amirault]

The flow chart is great! Keep posting pix!

[little ms foodie]

Eden, I'd say you have emu legs! those are huge!!

this reminds me that I'd like to make another batch of duck confit!

[Eden]

Yesterday we boiled the little duckies in oil!

Well OK I simmered them gently in a 70/30 mix of duck & pork fat, after wiping off most of the salt/herbs.

I didn't order quite enough duck fat to cover the "giant mutant duck legs of doom" but I had some rendered duck/pork fat in the freezer from last years cassoulet which I pulled out when I realized I had emu legs to deal with

and now there is a giant vat of duck confit in my fridge.

As before there are supplemental photos in the album.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...album&album=643

Will post the pork brining pics next. I had a little pigfoot trauma that delayed things a bit, so more tomorrow...

Eden

[Eden]

OK took me a while to get pics uploaded, but here are the brining pictures from this weekend, which I will follow with today's sausage making.

Salt, sugar, apple cider, fresh thyme, pepper, juniper berries, whole nutmeg, bayleaf, garlic which I forgot to put in the picture, and Tamarind paste. Bruce's original recipe called for whole tamarind pods, which I couldn't find the first time I made it but I did have tamarind paste in house, and since the result was quite happy I've just stuck with the paste ever since... [Oh and a bit of last years brine which I had stored in the freezer.]

Brine ingredients all boiled together & cooled down ready to pour over pork

2 days of soaking in salty flavorful liquid later and the pork is ready to roll!

the pork chops go whole into the bean pot, while most of the pork belly gets sliced into postage stamp sized pieces & distributed in the beans & the lamb ragout, but some of it gets ground into the sausage.

And speaking of the sausage:

the dark bowl with the white lump is the casings after soaking but before final rinsing. Getting ready to be ground up & stuffed we have Juniper berries, pepper, cognac, garlic, shallots, sage, parsley, pork shoulder & the brined pork belly.

Here's the sausage mix all ground up, and with a bit of salt added, because the test piece I fried up was SOOOO good, but it needed just a bit of salt...

and here's the first few sausages coming out. Fortunately Bill wasn't home so there are no shots of me perched precariously up on the kitchen ladder to make the sausage because when the Kitchen-Aid is set up on the counter it's too high for me to see into the hopper without a boost

And here they all are ready to hang out in the fridge with their little ducky friends.

small tragedy today: I had boiled down my duck stock, and put the pot in the sink so I could cool it down and go out for the afternoon, and as I was running the cold water to fill the sink I turned away for a moment, and the pot started floating & slipped under the faucet, adding buckets of water to my perfectly reduced stock The pot is now back on the stove & I am stuck here wallowing in self-recriminations because yes of course I know better & that just makes it worse...

Tonight the lamb ragout which will make me all happy again, but for now I need a break from the kitchen.

see link in previous post if you want additional pictures.

[phifly04]

I cant wait to see the finished dish together,Very inspiring that you are keeping it as true to the region it,s from,Dat,s a lot of work!!Im sure the end product will reward you though,Nice job so far.Looking forward to the rest of the pic,s

Dave s

[Eden]

The Lamb ragout has been set (carefully!) in the sink in an ice bath so it can cool, but in the meanwhile, here are the few pics I took (I got wrapped up in browning & cooking so the middle part didn't get well documented I'm afraid )

all the ingredients ready to go: duck fat for sauteeing, lamby bits (shoulder?), brined pork belly, carrots, onions, garlic, tomato paste, bay leaf & thyme. Duck stock was still re-reducing at this point...

simmering ragout, making kitchen smell amazing!

I always make extra of the Ragout because it's so good on it's own that we have to have enough for a bowl or two on it's own beyond what goes in the cassoulet. Lamb-y tomato-y richness

[Eden]

Almost done! I cooked the beans today. This is the only part of the Cassoulet that does not seem to be a dish on it's own (the way the lamb ragout, the sausages & the duck confit all are) I wonder why...

I use Haricots de Soissons, which absorb flavor beautifully, and are just HUGE!

The dry bean was about 7/8" long, the soaked bean about 1-3/8" long. About 3X the original size.

Here are all the ingredients: Brined pork chops, confit'd duck legs, brined pork belly, quartered pigs feet, Haricots de Soissons, garlic, fresh thyme, fresh bay, onion studded with whole cloves, carrot, chicken broth.

Ingredients mounding up in the pot

Tommorow I combine everything & bake the first batch in the cassoulet pot

I have to go rummage in the wine cabinet & decide what to serve with it...

Eden

More pics: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=mo...album&album=643

[fauxtarga]

Did any of you guys from NYC get to swing by Williams Sonoma when Mr. Bourdain was "demo"-ing the cassoulet? (The demo was as good as one could expect for a dish that implies a multi-day prep)

Here's some pics, for those interested:

Explanation of the dish.

Mise en place

Finished.

I really liked the haricot tarbais, thought they really fit well. Will have to get some from D'Artagnan. Sorry I don't have any close-ups, this was one of those eating and standing things.

Cheers. -J