The Anti-Cassoulet Topic

[Jensen]

Over the past several weeks, I've been reading a fair bit about cassoulet here. Before Christmas, I'd found some local cranberry beans at the farmer's market downtown and used them to make my own version of the classic dish.

I bought some tiger eye beans at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago and have tried them in the dish too. Beans have never really been a big hit with me but these varieties are really quite good. Who knew?

At any rate, here's what I did with them today...

First, I put 250g of beans in a pot, covered with cold water, and brought it to a boil. Once it was boiling, I turned the gas off and just let them soak until I was ready to use them. I also blanched some sliced salt pork.

Shortly before 4:00 this afternoon, I drained the beans:

I browned some chicken thighs and got the other ingredients (minced garlic and 125g strained tomatoes) ready:

Once that was all together, I combined it all in my Calphalon pan. When I've made this before, I've used chicken broth (Swanson's low sodium) as my liquid. I felt like Old Mother Hubbard when I went to my cupboard this afternoon and found none there. Instead, I used some red wine and some "potato water" (i.e., water in which I'd boiled potatoes) that I'd saved for making bread.

I covered the pan and put it in the oven (350 F) for about 90 minutes. Then I took the lid off for another 30 minutes to let a crust form.

Here's the final result:

Okay, there's no duck confit, I didn't use flageolets, and I cooked it in a metal pan. I'm calling this my anti-cassoulet.

Whatever you want to call it, it was pretty damn tasty ...

[Schneier]

There are about a zillion casoulet varients like this. They all sound tasty.

[ludja]

Thanks for the blow-by-blow pictures. It looks very good!

A nice reminder to make something like this when nice beans are available.

[rancho_gordo]

I bought some Tigers Eye beans at Whole Foods a couple of weeks ago and have tried them in the dish too. Beans have never really been a big hit with me but these varieties are really quite good. Who knew?

The only problem I can see is Tigers Eyes dissolve quite easily compared to other beans. The advantage of flageolets is they stay whole, mostly, despite a lot of cooking and handling. They are also a milder bean.

Tigers Eye are a great pinto substitute.

[ronnie_suburban]

Yum! I love chicken thighs. That really looks great Jensen. I'll be giving this a try for sure.

Can you describe what it is about this variety of beans that makes you like them better than others? Is it pretty much what is described in the link?

=R=

[Jensen]

The only problem I can see is Tigers Eyes dissolve quite easily compared to other beans. The advantage of flageolets is they stay whole, mostly, despite a lot of cooking and handling. They are also a milder bean.

Tigers Eye are a great pinto substitute.

I did find that they cooked a lot faster than the cranberry beans I bought at the market. I think when I cooked those beans, they were in the oven for around 3 hours. At just under 2 hours, the tigers eye beans still had good texture.

[Jensen]

Can you describe what it is about this variety of beans that makes you like them better than others? Is it pretty much what is described in the link?

I'm not a bean connoiseur by any stretch of the imagination. I did find these beans to be quite creamy, as the link mentions, but also very much like a pinto bean, as Rancho Gordo said. I think I liked the cranberry beans I got at the market better (that's not to say that I didn't like these beans ... they're very good).

If nothing else, the cranberry beans and these tiger eye beans have made me realise that, not only can beans be tasty, but they also have distinct flavours. I feel like a whole new food group has opened up for me

[fifi]

Lack of time and a busy schedule have postponed my foray into classic Cassoulet-Land, which I fully intend to do when I get my POT. However, some of these ideas are really welcome. I have a pan very similar to yours, Jensen. I may have to try out your method. I have done something similar with cubed pork butt and chicken thighs. It certainly was not classic cassoulet but it was damn good.

[snowangel]

Thanks for the great report, Jensen. I was busy today defrosting the deep freeze (it was -10F today, so cold storage was not a problem) and came upon a package of 3 or 4 chix thighs (not enough for our family) and some salt pork. I have two polish sausages (really good and quite spicy), and was wondering just how to incorporate these sausages into a meal for 5. Happenstance is that I have some flagolet beans. Voila! Dinner tomorrow night.

[mnebergall]

What would happen if you used some of each type of bean?

[Katherine]

What would happen if you used some of each type of bean?

If you have two types of beans that take different lengths of time to cook, you would need to parboil the longer-cooking one, otherwise you'd end up overcooking the quicker-cooking bean.

Not that mushy beans are always wrong, but not cassoulet-like.