Cassoulet in Houston

[FoodMan]

Prompted by this thread and by Fifi's suggestions to have a Cassoulet in Houston thread, I tried to do just that. I've never tried making this dish before but it sure had all my favorite ingredients.

Firts thing I bought were two ducks and three duck legs from and Asian grocery store called Well Farm market on the corner of highway 6 and Dulles. I removed the duck breats in one piece, cut the leg/thigh portions for confit, rendered skin and fat and made duck Demi-glace with the cracasses.

To make the dish I used -more or less- Paula Wolfert's recipe from The Slow Mediteranean Kitchen.

All pork products , fresh ham hocks, salt pork, rinds, pork butt were from Fiesta. In hindsight I should've bought those also from the Asian place or from Hong Kong market but I was tigh on time and Fiesta was the closest.

The beans were regular Great Northern beans from Whole foods. I also bought fresh pork garlic sausage from there (Pete's Fine Meats were out of them).

Here are the cooked seperate ingredients for the dish right before assembly. On the left side from front to back I have the cooking liquid, duck confit and beans. On the left side the cooking pot with pork rind skin on the bottom of it, the cooked various meats, and the sausage all the way in the back.

The dish was fantastic, I invited my in-laws over and everyone loved it. The one thing I might change next time is use a little less liquid in the final cooking and maybe use coarser bread crumbs.

All in all a fun project and great meal, lucky for us the wether was nice and chilly here in Houston.

Elie

[Richard Kilgore]

Wow Elie, that looks and sounds wonderful. I am going to try making it later in the winter. (It's almost balmy here this weekend.) Inspiring photos.

[texesser]

Thanks for the photos. Sounds terrific. Looks terrific.

[fifi]

Elie... I am in awe. Thanks for the "critical" comments on the amount of liquid and the bread crumbs. Those are the details that are so helpful.

And, of course, that leads to more questions.

Are you saying that you would use less liquid than in Wolfert's recipe? I wonder if there may be a variable here that can't be controlled... how dry the beans are... and that you just have to go by look and feel.

Did you use Wolfert's confit recipe? Looking at that confit has me drooling.

Thanks you so much for sharing.

[FoodMan]

thanks everyone for the kind comments.

Fifi-

I am glad you enjoyed my post. Regarding your questions. I do believe there are variables but Wolfert says to add enough liquid to barely cover the beans, instead I think the liquid should just come up to the beans’ level but not totally cover them-- they were just a little runnier than I expected and I did not have to baste them at all. As for the bread crumbs, she does not specify if they should be coarse or fine, it was just my observation that a coarser crumb would produce a better texture.

I did not use Paula Wolfert’s confit recipe that includes both duck and pork (which does sound fantastic and I will try it). I used Ariane Daguine’s recipe from the D’artagnan game cookbook.

I mainly had three changes from Wolfert’s recipe, First I used pork shoulder meat instead of cut up spare ribs, second I used Daguine’s confit recipe, third I left the duck leg confit whole instead of removing the meat from the bone and wrapping it with the crisped skin. I did crisp the whole legs in a skillet before adding them to the pot during the last 30 minutes of cooking. There is just something about a whole duck leg confit that I could not bring myself to skinning and boning them.

[Wolfert]

So pleased you liked the cassoulet.

I think I know why you had too much liquid. Did I see a le crueset pot in the corner of one of the photos? Next time try baking the cassoulet in a traditional style, deep flared earthen or stoneware bowl. A certain amount of evaporation provides the perfect texture.

Try using a large earthenware mixing bowl to bake the cassoulet.

Edited December 23, 2003 by Wolfert (log)

[FoodMan]

Thanks for the input Paula, I did use a Le Creuset pot to bake the Cassoulet in. It makes sense that baking in a earthenware dish would lead to more evaporation. Hopefully next time I make this dish I will have an appropriate clay pot.

Is this why my bread crumbs did not form a thicker crust but rather got real soggy? Or do I need to use a coarser crumb?

Elie

[fifi]

Oooo... that is a good tip. I would have grabbed the Le Creuset, myself. Paula, if I go out and actually buy something to do this in, what do you recommend?

[Wolfert]

it's ok to use the le creuset for the initial cooking but when you want to bake off the cassoulet a flaring bowl will give you faster evaporation and thus teh crumbs will brown faster as well.

do you have an old fashioned earthen bowl your mother used to mix bread dough? Something like that will work. Just don't put it into a very hot oven. Slowly heat the bowl with its contents in a medium low oven and then go to the desired heat..

also, when you take it out be sure to put it on a towel or wooden board to avoid thermal shock..

happy xmas

Paula

[FoodMan]

do you have an old fashioned earthen bowl your mother used to mix bread dough?

Mine is not nearly big enough. I need buy a sort of all purpose clay pot, or maybe I should buy a lead check kit and figure out if that one I have is safe to use.

Elie

[Wolfert]

I went to ebay and saw some "mason cash" bowls for auction ...unfortunately the 18 inch one that I have isn't up for auction, but you can do a search through the internet and buy a new one. These bowls will work perfectly and they are cheap...

you might find an unglazed (on the outside preferably and shallow and wide) flower pot , or just borrow one until you find yourself .

good luck and happy christmas

Paula

[fifi]

I do have one of those earthenware bowls that I used to use for my brief forays into bread making. I wouldn't have thought of using that but it does make ultimate sense. Many thanks for the information and happy Christmas to you.