Cassoulet

[Dave Hatfield]

Cassoulet

Serves 15 as Main Dish.

Cassoulet originates in South West France where I live. It is a dish of nearly mythic proportions with several cities claiming to be it's true home.

For all this cassoulet is a simple peasant dish and is easy to prepare; just take your time about it. Make it over several days & the dish will be better for it.

Is my version authentic? Who knows; certainly the ingredients are all local and are all used in one or more of the various versions.

My proudest moment was when our friends 83 year old Mother who only speaks Occitan asked for the recipe! The secret ingredient to making a good cassoulet is careful, loving preparation. Enjoy it with a group of hungry friends.

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1) Vegetables

• 1 Large yellow onion
  
• 3 stalks of celery
  
• 3 medium size carrots
  

2) Dry & canned goods

• 1 tubes of tomato puree
  
• 500 grams of white (lingot) beans
  
• 1000 g (4 cuisse to the can) of confit de canard
  

3) Meats

• 500 g fresh Toulouse sausage
  
• 1 large ham hock (jarret) OR 2 smaller lightly salted ham hocks
  
• 3 or more Lamb shanks. If no shanks use bone in Lamb cutlets
  

4) Herbs

• -1+ head of garlic
  
• -Thyme to taste
  
• -Herbs de Provence to taste
  
• -10+ crushed juniper berries
  
• -Salt & Pepper
  

5) Misc.

• -Duck fat
  
• -Freshly made bread crumbs
  
• -Chopped parsley
  

NOTES:

Using the smaller quantities of ingredients this recipe will make a large Cassoulet filling my big green pot. (The green crock feeds 8 happily) My new cassole using the larger quantities fed 15, but the portions were not large. Most of them came back for seconds. Luckily I'd made a second cassoulet in the green pot. The Cassoulet freezes perfectly so don't be shy on quantity.

Feel free to vary ingredients & quantities as you wish. Do not, however, be stingy with the herbs or garlic & remember that it’s the combination of meats that is important. Try to keep the ratios roughly the same as shown. Do be careful with the salt until near the end.

Step by Step: (this is roughly the right order)

A. Place all of the beans in a large pot & cover with 3-4 inches of water over the top of the beans. Cover pot & bring beans to the boil. Meanwhile skin, crush & roughly chop all of the garlic. Add to the beans. Boil beans for about 15 minutes. Turn off & let sit covered until you’re ready for them. (if you are using an unsalted ham hock lightly salt & pepper the beans at this point. if hocks salted then don’t)

ALTERNATE: Soak the beans overnight & only boil for 2-3 minutes

B. Cut the skin off of the ham hocks.

If they are salted put in water & bring to the boil for 5 minutes, pour the water off, discard then proceed.

In a large deep pot brown the hocks over high heat using some duck fat. Lightly season. Remove & set aside.

(Cut the skin into about 1 cm wide strips. Cut 1 or 2 strips into 1/2 inch squares & save for later. The rest can be salted, put in a medium oven and turned into crackling. Cook’s bonus never makes it to table.)

C.Place the Toulouse sausage in a large frying pan & add enough water to 1/3 cover them. Over high heat bring to the boil. Turn sausages when about ½ the water has boiled off. When dry prick the skins & add some duck fat to the pan. Sear until the sausages are nicely browned. Set aside.

D.Put the lamb into the same pot with the same fat as you used to brown the hocks. Brown the lamb & set aside.

E.Chop up the celery, onion & carrot fairly finely. Put in the same browning pot. Add fat if necessary & gently (low heat) sweat the vegs for 10-15 minutes.

F.Add the vegs to the beans. Add the tomato purée to the beans. Stir well & taste for seasoning. Adjust if/as necessary. Add the rest of the herbs. Taste & adjust to your taste. (I like lots of herbs so am heavy handed, but you will be able to further adjust later so don’t overdo it at this stage.)

G. Drain beans reserving all of the liquid.

H. You now start to assemble the Cassoulet in the crock or pot that it will be cooked & served in.

a. Spoon a layer of beans into the pot.

b. Put the hock(s) in the middle of the pot.

c. Add some more beans.

d. Put the lamb in around the sides

e. A few more beans.

f. Add the pieces of ham skin.

g. Cut up the sausage into 2-3 cm lengths & add ½ to the pot.

h. Open the confit cans (if you didn’t earlier to get at the fat.) Wipe off as much fat as possible with your hands then arrange the cuisses around the pot.

i. Add the rest of the sausage.

j. Add the rest of the beans.

k. Press everything down & adjust if necessary to fit the pot with a little room at the top.

l. Pour in the reserved bean juice until it just covers the rest of the ingredients.

NOTE: IF YOUR POT HAS A LID USE IT AT THIS STAGE. IF, LIKE CASSOLE, IT DOESN'T DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT. JUST COOK UNCOVERED.

m. Put the lid on & place the pot into a 180C. Oven for about 3 hours.

n. Check periodically & push the cuisses back down gently as they tend to float up. Check seasonings & adjust if needed.

o. Check beans for softness. If still a little hard add ½ hour to final cooking time.

I. Take out of the oven & let stand until ready for the final preparation. A minimum of 3-4 hours is best; overnight in fridge even better. If overnight then take the Cassoulet out of the fridge about 2 hours before you want to start the final cooking.

J. Allow 2 hours for final cooking PLUS any extra for beans. Longer cooking within reason won’t hurt.

K. Make 3-4 cups of breadcrumbs & add chopped parsley & some herbs de Provence. (some garlic won't hurt either.)

L. Put Cassoulet into a 180C. Oven. After ½ - ¾ hour check the juice level.

M. If it’s not over the top of everything add some more bean juice. (If no bean juice left red wine will do instead.)

N. If it’s way over then remove the lid & continue cooking.

O. ½ hour before you want to serve sprinkle a good coating of breadcrumbs over the top & put back into the oven with the lid off.

P. After 15 minutes push the crumbs down into the Cassoulet & spread the rest of them over the top.

Q. When the top is nicely browned the Cassoulet is ready to serve.

(A little top heat from the broiler may be needed to do the browning.)

There you go! Cassoulet. It takes about an hour to get up to the first cooking stage. After that most of the cooking is unattended with a few quick checks & additions. You can do all of this in a day & serve that evening or you can take your time & spread the whole process over 3 days. This is what I did just before New Year. Day 1 prepared everything. Day 2 was the assembly and first cooking. All I had to do one day 3 was the final cooking & serving.

A note on serving. We showed the casoulette to everyone so they could properly OH! & AHH! then we took it back to the kitchen for serving up as it can get a bit messy. Be sure you have a large long handled spoon ready for serving. The idea is to dig down through the layers to give each portion a bit of everything.

Enjoy.

Keywords: Main Dish, Lamb, Easy, Duck, Beans, Dinner, Pork, French

( RG1910 )