Cafe Campagne takeout cassoulet

[mamster]

As an important research project, I brought home cassoulet from Cafe Campagne for dinner tonight. It's $16 per person, and you have to call or email a day ahead to order it.

The cassoulet came in a bag with a card describing the ingredients and reheating method, and the actual food was in eight plastic containers, two each of breadcrumbs, beans and some meats, duck confit and sausage, and veal stock. You mix these all together, heat it on the stove, then pour it into a casserole. Bake twenty minutes, top with breadcrumbs, bake a few more minutes, and it's done.

First, the criticisms. There's more stock than you need. After dumping in all of it, I strained it and put in half. The breadcrumbs soaked some up, so maybe 3/4 would be good, but using all of the stock would make soup. Although I'll probably heat up the rest of the stock and drink it for breakfast. Also, the beans are cooked just slightly past where I would do, but this is not a serious problem like it would be if they were undercooked.

The meats are pretty unassailable. You get two nice duck confit legs, some very flavorful pork shoulder and smoked ham hock, and garlic sausage (this is especially good). Supposedly there is lamb in there also, but I couldn't find any. (On the other hand, the ingredients card doesn't mention duck confit. If they ran out of lamb and substituted duck, I can support that.) The bread crumbs are nice and buttery. The broth is full of bits of bacon and perfectly salted. I intend to eat the leftovers for lunch tomorrow and make my coworkers downright sick with envy.

More restaurants should do this. In fact, many do, but you have to ask. The prepared foods sections of most supermarkets are embarrassing, but it's nice to be able to bring home interesting take-out from time to time. Can you think of dishes from other restaurants that would make good take-out? This could make an interesting theme meal.

[tighe]

Sounds tasty. Are you going to get the same from Bandol and conduct a rigourous comparison?....maybe we should start Cassoulet Club!....

[mamster]

Anything for science, tighe.

[Coop]

I had the good fortune of having the cassoulet at Campagne one cold evening in November during the late 80's, I still remember it fondly. It was the first time I ever dined alone in a fine restaurant, the 375 of Chateau Beaucastel 85 helped restrain my lonliness. I have returned to Campagne since but never found the place as comforting as that night. However the Cafe is very cosy. Do they serve cassoulet downstairs?

[tsquare]

However the Cafe is very cosy. Do they serve cassoulet downstairs?

Yes - it was on the menu 2 weeks ago. A "friend" had it and didn't even offer a taste. (I've eaten it on at least 2 occassions myself.) Is there an advantage to taking the parts home and finishing it? Doesn't sound less expensive - though the serving might be larger, you can do the sides (and wine) for less $. But you have to do the dishes.

Last year (or was the previous one?) was my tasting year - Brasa, Cafe Campagne, Stumbling Goat, Matt's in the Market. Makes you glad for cold weather. (Didn't make it to Cassis.)

[mamster]

It's definitely cheaper to take it home once you factor in drinks and especially tip. It's also fun in its own way, since I doubt I'll ever make such an ambitious cassoulet at home. Not sure about the serving size; the "cassoulet for two" was about three servings.

[LEdlund]

Au Bouchon in the Wallingford Center also does cassoulet. I haven't had it this year, but when I had it last year, it was fabulous.

[malarkey]

a CASSOULET CLUB?!? oh I'd be a member of that.

Very cool that they'll do take-out cassoulet. I still need to do a cross city sampling of all available cassoulets.