I have been fighting pneumonia since Thanksgiving. Been tested several times for Covid but always come up negative. I think I had Covid in late January early February. When I get over this pneumonia, I will get an antibody test. Doctor thinks I contracted it from wearing a mask over and over. Masks do nothing but virtue signal. Stupid.
I have some high powered antibiotics, Levequin, so we will see what happens. In the interim, it’s the holidays. My kids are here so yesterday we made cassoulet. It turned out amazing. Cassoulet is a wonderful winter dish. So comforting.
Here is a photo
The recipe isn’t difficult but it is long. It’s several recipes that are put together, in the end, to make tremendous umami filled whole. You’ll want to drink a full-bodied red wine from the south of France. Remember, it’s a peasant dish. No need for a super fancy expensive red.
Ingredients
4-6 duck legs
Two heads of garlic
Two pounds of raw pork belly
Toulouse Sausage (if you can’t find, substitute a good quality sausage)
Garlic Sausage
Tarbais beans (some people substitute Great Northern, but the Tarbois are worth searching for)
Fresh thyme (you can use dried, but I think fresh is much better for this recipe)
Salt and pepper. (I use Diamond Kosher salt, like the flavor)
Chicken stock (If you can make your own, better! Especially if it’s bone broth)
Carrots, celery, onions
1 can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes
Tomato paste
You will need a big pot. I used a Le Creuset dutch oven I had.
1.
Sous vide the duck legs. Prick the skin a little and put thyme and garlic in the sous vide. You must sous vide them for 36 hours at around 155. They will store for up to three weeks in the refrigerator or you can freeze them. If you cannot sous vide them, you must
make duck confit or just
buy some duck confit.
2. Tarbais beans
Get them. Much better than any other white bean. Soak the beans overnight in water. The next day, add the beans to a pot and cover with chicken stock.
Inside the pot goes:
- 1lb of raw pork belly or pancetta.
- Fresh thyme.
- Large cut up carrots, celery, and onions
- 3-5 whole cloves (you know the fragrant ones you use with fruit and cookies)
- 1 head of garlic sliced open at the top,
- Salt and pepper
- Bay leaf
- You can add some duck bones to the stock if you want
This needs to simmer for 1 to 1.5 hours. Simmer covered loosely. Skim the scum that comes to the top.
3. Pork ragout
Take some garlic sausage and some Toulouse sausage and cut it into 2” lengths. If you cannot find Toulouse sausage, get some good pork sausage or beef sausage. This also might be a chance to experiment with a game sausage. Fry it in the bottom of a big pot until they brown. Take 1lb of pork belly, cut it into one-inch pieces and fry that until it browns.
If you want, take a half-pound or pound of lamb shoulder, or pork shoulder and cut it into pieces and fry that. Pull the meat out and set it aside.
If you want to use wild game, like pheasant or venison or rabbit I think it’s perfectly acceptable. I would make sure I balanced that flavor with pork shoulder to soften the gaminess. Even when they make venison sausage, it’s primarily pork shoulder. The lamb/mutton or wild game should be used as a flavor enhancer, not the main focus of the dish. It might be better to use a game sausage than a lean piece of game meat. The duck confit and pork belly will help soften any game flavors that might be off.
Finely dice two stalks of celery, two carrots, and one large onion. Fry that in the meat fat. You can add either duck fat or butter if you want or need to.
Take one cup of wine (white or red) and deglaze the pan. Add the meat back.
Add in one can of diced tomatoes, and one or two tablespoons of tomato paste.
Add in chicken broth to cover the meat and mirepoix.
Add in some salt, pepper, and fresh thyme along with a couple of bay leaves.
You can add some anchovy paste, or a tablespoon of fish sauce to ramp up the umami. It will make it taste meatier.
Simmer for at least 45 minutes uncovered. The point here is a sauce reduction. You are intensifying flavor, and the sausage will absorb some of the fat. It makes a difference.
4. Bread crumbs
Take 2-3 cups of bread crumbs and toast in a stainless steel pan with butter, pork fat, or duck fat until slightly browned. I like to use seasoned bread crumbs mixed with some panko bread crumbs.
4a. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
5. Pull all the duck meat off the bones. Chop it into pieces. If you do this ahead, you can toss some of the bones into the bean pot to help flavor the stock.
6. Drain the beans BUT RESERVE THE COOKING LIQUID. Take the belly and chop it into 1” pieces and add to the ragout
7. Add the duck to the Pork Ragout and make sure you add in all the duck fat!
8. Add the beans to the ragout and mix with the meats. Fill the pot with chicken stock to cover. I like to use homemade chicken bone broth if I have it.
9. Sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top
Bake uncovered for at least 45 minutes. Pull out, and use a spatula or fork to gently break the crust the bread crumbs have formed. Ladle in the reserved stock so it goes through the holes and moistens the crust.
Bake for another 35 minutes and repeat the crust breaking thing——do this three to four times.
If you don’t eat pork, you can alter the dish by using a little fatty beef along with some chicken thighs. The beef tallow and chicken schmaltz are different than pork fat obviously. I think the key is having enough duck or goose fat to flavor it. If you are vegetarian or vegan, this is not for you!
We serve it in a bowl. This time we drizzled just a teeny bit of truffle oil over the top to give it even more pizzaz.
Serve with warm crusty French baguette some really good butter and a Southern Rhone Wine. This is not for Burgundy or Bordeaux. You want a big village wine like a Carignane, Syrah, Chateaux Neuf. Another good wine might be from the Languedoc. This is a peasant dish, so it should have a simple peasant wine.
If you can make a nice pear tart, it would make a great dessert with a shot of Sauternes.
The post
Source:
http://pointsandfigures.com/2020/12/21/cassoulet/
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