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Cassoulet Night

Schielke

By Schielke
in Cooking

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Schielke

Schielke

Posted
Posted
It's the last Saturday of the month; time for Au Bouchon's Cassoulet Night. Once a month, the French bistro cooks up this traditional meat dish from southwest France. It takes three days to prepare. $21. 5-10:30 p.m. 1815 N. 45th St., 206-547-5791. WALLINGFORD

Does anybody know if this is any good? I have never tried Cassoulet so I have no basis for comparison. :biggrin:

Gimme what cha got for a pork chop!

-Freakmaster

I have two words for America... Meat Crust.

-Mario

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MsRamsey

MsRamsey

Posted
Posted

Cassis serves cassoulet every Sunday, and I love that place. I believe scrat and tighe have had it and told me that it was really good.

"Save Donald Duck and Fuck Wolfgang Puck."

-- State Senator John Burton, joking about

how the bill to ban production of foie gras in

California was summarized for signing by

Gov. Schwarzenegger.

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girl chow

girl chow

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Posted

Cafe Campagne serves a stellar cassoulet, but I don't know anything about Au Bouchon. The Campagne version is the traditional white bean, lotsa meat variety (lamb, pork, duck confit and garlic sausage...sounds like a Klink special). Extra yummy winter food. I read somewhere that they have a vegetarian version too.

A palate, like a mind, works better with exposure and education and is a product of its environment.

-- Frank Bruni

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Really Nice!

Really Nice!

Posted
Posted

I don't know, but I'm glad to see there are a couple of places that are making it. I've made this dish about 5 times and I never know how it compares to 'real' cassoullet.

3 days to prepare? Is that including duck confit or some other step/process?

Drink!

I refuse to spend my life worrying about what I eat. There is no pleasure worth forgoing just for an extra three years in the geriatric ward. --John Mortimera

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tighe

tighe

Posted
Posted (edited)
Cassis serves cassoulet every Sunday, and I love that place.  I believe scrat and tighe have had it and told me that it was really good.

Right you are MsR! I think Cassis' cassoulet is excellent, particularly if you like your cassoulet heavy on the duck. I've never tried Au Buchon's. If it take 3 days, they must be rendering their own duck to make the confit, or they're just really slow cooks....

I also had a really good, but very different style, cassoulet at Maximilien. I'm not sure if its a regular menu item though.

Edit: to correct the fact that I am apparently 'n' impaired....

Edited by tighe (log)

Most women don't seem to know how much flour to use so it gets so thick you have to chop it off the plate with a knife and it tastes like wallpaper paste....Just why cream sauce is bitched up so often is an all-time mytery to me, because it's so easy to make and can be used as the basis for such a variety of really delicious food.

- Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink, 1946

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RandyB

RandyB

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I love cassoulet, but have been reluctant to try it in Seattle. If not done well, it can be a most boring dish. The three day preparation sound promising.

As for the $21 price, my only comparison is to a restaurant in the Marais district in Paris near where I stay. They specialize in this kind of food.. A prix fixe, superb cassoulet dinner costs about $26, including tax and tip.

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tighe

tighe

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Welcome to PNW eGullet Randy.....

I forgot to include in my last post that the Sunday cassoulet at Cassis is $18 if I recall correctly.

Also, I checked the Maximilien web page and the cassoulet is on the regular dinner menu for $22

cassou.jpg

Most women don't seem to know how much flour to use so it gets so thick you have to chop it off the plate with a knife and it tastes like wallpaper paste....Just why cream sauce is bitched up so often is an all-time mytery to me, because it's so easy to make and can be used as the basis for such a variety of really delicious food.

- Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink, 1946

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mamster

mamster

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Posted

I'm also wary of ordering cassoulet--it's never actively bad, but it can turn into monotonous sludge in the wrong hands. Then again, I'm not so wary that I won't order it every time I see it on a menu. And I've never been served a cassoulet I could finish in one sitting.

Does that mean cassoulet night at Au Bouchon is Saturday the 25th? I might be talked into that.

Matthew Amster-Burton, aka "mamster"

Author, Hungry Monkey, coming in May

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tighe

tighe

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...And I've never been served a cassoulet I could finish in one sitting....

And I've never ordered cassoulet and not finished it in one sitting, whatever the ultimate consequences were...... :blink:

Most women don't seem to know how much flour to use so it gets so thick you have to chop it off the plate with a knife and it tastes like wallpaper paste....Just why cream sauce is bitched up so often is an all-time mytery to me, because it's so easy to make and can be used as the basis for such a variety of really delicious food.

- Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink, 1946

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tsquare

tsquare

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I've also had it as a special at Matt's in the Market, and it's on the current menu at Stumbling Goat (I thought it was very good last year - if slightly lighter than other versions.) Went to a lunch class at Brasa and helped make it - and then ate a bunch, with wine and dessert! We didn't eat what we made...the staff did! We got the good stuff. Good entree to split - helps keep the boredom factor down, if it becomes too much of a good thing. I'll get to Cassis one of these days...

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malarkey

malarkey

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Posted

Duck confit takes a day to make, BUT the flavor improves after about a week so really this dish should be started a week before its to be eaten. Also, a traditional cassoulet should be baked over 2 days, not all at once.

gad how I love this dish. it can be so sublime. I would say the best one I ever had was at Brie & Bordeaux, when they were first open. it even blew away Campagne's, which I adore. Sadly, I never made it back there till they had a different chef and alas, the cassoulet was never the same.

I've not had the one at Cassis, or Au Bouchon, but dammit, I need to.

Born Free, Now Expensive

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malarkey

malarkey

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the thing I like about the cassoulet at Campagne is they bring it in its own little earthenware pot, and you get to break the crust yourself, (or the waiter does it for you). I got a meat grinder & sausage making attachment for my kitchen aid just so I can make garlic sausages for cassoulet :raz: ok, I'll stop obsessing about it :wub:

Born Free, Now Expensive

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SeAAttle

SeAAttle

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Posted

We like the cassoulet at Maximillien.

I would not recommend the "cassoulet" currently on the menu at Dahlia. We both had it last night - very dissappointing. Dry, undercooked and virtually no flavor. We should have known better since it was cassoulet with sausage and venison (?) but nothing else on the menu seemed very attractive. The venison was the best part, but that is not saying very much.

First time we have been to Dahlia in about a year. Was this an off night or have they gotten.....uh...boring?

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thelastsupper

thelastsupper

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I just had the Cassoulet last night at Cassis. I thought it was much better than the last time I had it. The flavors were more layered, more actively delicious (sounds strange, but that is the best way I can describe it). It goes down quite nicely with the Clos laCoutale Cahors.

I also had a tasty little fried squid and cauliflower appetizer. Cassis has calves brains on the menu as well . . .

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SparrowsFall

SparrowsFall

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In general I've been disappointed with Au Bouchon. (Some of you can imagine how happy I was to find a french-style bistro close to home.) It reminds me of the run-of-the-mill third-rate street restaurant in france. The carbonara, for instance, is pretty insipid and very soupy. (Go down the street to Asteroid if you want the best carbonara I've ever had, as long as you don't mind salt.)

It's not bad food, it's just uninspired and predictable. The wine list is a travesty of boring standard big-brand names--Duboeuf, Jaboulet, etc.

Campagne's cassoulet is wonderful. (And if you haven't had their Oeufs en Meurette, you haven't lived.) Im thinking of moving in.

I think I'll go to Stumbling Goat tonight and see what they have, try out the Cassoulet if it's on the menu. I went once when they first opened years ago and wasn't impressed, but they've had a chance to get it together now. And it's crawling distance to my house.

"Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon." --Dalai Lama

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  • 2 weeks later...
malarkey

malarkey

Posted
Posted
I think I'll go to Stumbling Goat tonight and see what they have, try out the Cassoulet if it's on the menu. I went once when they first opened years ago and wasn't impressed, but they've had a chance to get it together now. And it's crawling distance to my house.

Hey sfroth, did you try the cassoulet at Stumbling Goat?! We need to know...

Born Free, Now Expensive

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