CASSOULET

It’s been a cold and rainy week here is San Francisco, it’s Sunday and the perfect day and weather for a hearty meal. I thought about making one of two dishes, Cassoulet or Short Ribs of Beef for dinner tonight. After consulting with the husband we decided on Cassoulet because as he put it “you haven’t made it this winter”.

There are many recipes for Cassoulet and I probably followed one of those recipe’s when I first made this dish many years ago. Now that I have spent years in the kitchen I basically make the dish with the foundation ingredients; duck legs, sausage, beans, onions, garlic, diced tomatoes and aromatics. The thing to remember about Cassoulet is that it is a bean stew (usually cooked in earthenware) and you can do almost anything you want with a stew and historically no two households prepared stews in the same exact way.

So the first thing I had to do was consult the cupboard to see if I had any beans because if I were to carry of this dish for tonight’s dinner I had to get the beans soaking. In the cupboard I found red beans, lentils and black eyed peas so off I go immediately to the grocery store. When I returned home I immediately started the process of soaking my beans. Beans generally take 8 to 10 hours to soak and I had only about eight hours before I planned to serve dinner so I needed to speed up the soaking process. I put a pot of water on the stove top and heated it until it came to a boil then I added a cup of cannellini beans, put the lid on the pot and turned the pot off and let sit for about 5 hrs.

When the beans are ready strain in a colander. In a pot I sauté pancetta, onions celery and garlic with a little olive oil. While the vegetables are sautéing I boned the duck legs and cut into cubes. Sit the cube duck pieces aside and add the duck bones to the pot with the sautéed vegetables. Add the tomatoes, a cup of chicken stock, a cup of water and the herbs (tied together) to the beans cover and cook on a low heat for about 1 hr until beans are just tender.

In another pan on medium heat begin to sauté the duck pieces, skin side down, until brown. When the duck pieces are brown turn them add a little salt, pepper and more herbs if you like then place in a 325 degree oven for 25 min. Take the duck pieces out of the oven, with a slotted spoon remove the duck pieces, pour off some of the duck fat put the pan on the stove top on medium heat and brown the sausage. After the sausage is browned, add the duck pieces, chopped parsley and ladle the beans into the pan, top on and place in a 350 degrees oven for roughly one hour.

I transferred the Cassoulet to small individual size earthenware pots for multiple servings later in the week; it is impossible to make this dish in small portions and it is only two of us. I coated breadcrumbs with some of the rendered duck fat and sprinkled on top of the Cassoulet, place in a hot oven for a few minutes to brown. For the Cassoulet’s you are saving for a later day sprinkle the breadcrumbs on top and put away until you are ready to heat and serve.

I served the Cassoulet with a green salad and a my husband served a lovely Chateauneuf du Pape. The wine pared nicely with the dish, it was so clear, crisp and bright and married well with the earthiness of the Cassoulet. It was the perfect meal for a cold Sunday!