Cassoulet Toulousain La Cote Basque Recipes

Steps:

• Soak beans overnight in cold water to cover.
• Cut each duck into 10 pieces (legs, thighs, wings, breast cut in half). Salt and leave overnight in refrigerator.
• Drain beans and put them in a large casserole or kettle. Add water to cover. Simmer two minutes, drain and add fresh water to cover. Add the onions, carrots and bouquet garni. Bring to boil, turn down and simmer gently over low heat for 1 1/2 hours.
• In a preheated 325-degree oven, roast the pork loin for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until it has reached an internal temperature of 175 to 180 degrees.
• Simmer rind in water to cover for two minutes and cut into 1/4-inch strips and then again into small triangles. Simmer in fresh cold water to cover for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.
• In a large frying pan, fry the pieces of duck, skin down, until the skin is golden. Reserve the fat for frying potatoes on another occasion.
• Brown the lamb pieces in the frying pan in which you have browned the duck (they do not need extra fat). Put lamb in a casserole, add wine, stock and tomato puree and cook slowly in preheated 325-degree oven for 1 1/2 hours.
• Prick Toulouse sausages all over with a fork and fry until browned. Drain on paper towels.
• Boil the garlic sausage for 30 minutes in water and drain. Slice.
• In a food processor, combine the salt pork, garlic and shallots and blend until smooth.
• With a slotted spoon, remove the carrots from the beans. Turn up the heat under the beans, bringing them to a boil. Stir in the salt pork mixture and immediately turn off the heat. Set aside until final assembly.
• When lamb is cooked, remove from oven and mix the juices from the pan into the beans. Slice the roast pork.
• Arrange a layer of beans in a large casserole. Put pieces of lamb, duck, pork, rind and sausages on top. Add alternating layers of beans and meat, finishing with beans. Bake in preheated 375-degree oven for 30 minutes.

Steps:

• We may think of it as decadent, but cassoulet is at heart a humble bean and meat stew, rooted in the rural cooking of the Languedoc region. But for urban dwellers without access to the staples of a farm in southwest France - crocks of rendered lard and poultry fat, vats of duck confit, hunks of meat from just-butchered pigs and lambs - preparing one is an epic undertaking that stretches the cook. The reward, though, may well be the pinnacle of French home cooking.Cassoulet does take time to make: there is overnight marinating and soaking, plus a long afternoon of roasting and simmering, and a few days on top of that if you make your own confit. However, it is also a relatively forgiving dish, one that welcomes variation and leaves room for the personality of the cook - perhaps more than any other recipe in the canon. As long as you have white beans slowly stewed with some combination of sausages, pork, lamb, duck or goose, you have a cassoulet.The hardest part about making a cassoulet when you're not in southwest France is shopping for the ingredients. This isn't a dish to make on the fly; you will need to plan ahead, ordering the duck fat and confit and the garlic sausage online or from a good butcher, and finding sources for salt pork and fresh, bone-in pork and lamb stew meat. The beans, though, aren't hard to procure. Great Northern and cannellini beans make fine substitutes for the Tarbais, flageolet and lingot beans used in France.Then give yourself over to the rhythm of roasting, sautéing and long, slow simmering. The final stew, a glorious pot of velvety beans and chunks of tender meat covered by a burnished crust, is well worth the effort.
• Named for the cassole, the earthenware pot in which it is traditionally cooked, cassoulet evolved over the centuries in the countryside of southwest France, changing with the ingredients on hand and the cooks stirring the pot.The earliest versions of the dish were most likely influenced by nearby Spain, which has its own ancient tradition of fava bean and meat stews. As the stew migrated to the Languedoc region, the fava beans were replaced by white beans, which were brought over from the Americas in the 16th century.Although there are as many cassoulets as there are kitchens in the Languedoc, three major towns of the region - Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse - all vigorously lay claim to having created what they consider to be the only true cassoulet. It is a feud that has been going on at least since the middle of the 19th century, and probably even longer.In 1938, the chef Prosper Montagné, a native of Carcassonne and an author of the first version of "Larousse Gastronomique," attempted to resolve the dispute. He approached the subject with religious zeal, calling cassoulet "the god of Occidental cuisine" and likening the three competing versions to the Holy Trinity. The cassoulet from Castelnaudary, which is considered the oldest, is the Father in Montagné's trinity, and is made from a combination of beans, duck confit and pork (sausages, skin, knuckles, salt pork and roasted meat). The Carcassonne style is the Son, with mutton and the occasional partridge stirred in. And the version from Toulouse, the Holy Spirit, was the first to add goose confit to the pot.The recipe for cassoulet was codified by the "États Généraux de la Gastronomie" in 1966, and it was done in a way that allowed all three towns to keep their claims of authenticity. The organization mandated that to be called cassoulet, a stew must consist of at least 30 percent pork, mutton or preserved duck or goose (or a combination of the three elements), and 70 percent white beans and stock, fresh pork rinds, herbs and flavorings.That settled the question of which meats to use. But there are two other main points of contention that still inspire debate: the use of tomatoes and other vegetables with the beans, and a topping of bread crumbs that crisp in the oven. Julia Child chose to do both, as we do here. "The Escoffier Cookbook" and "Larousse Gastronomique" give some recipes that include the tomatoes, vegetables and bread crumbs, and some that omit them. The beauty of it is that if you make your own cassoulet, you get to decide.Above, "The Kitchen Table" by Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779).
• Casserole dish You will need a deep casserole dish that holds at least eight quarts, or a large Dutch oven, to bake the cassoulet. If you use a Dutch oven, you won't need the cover. The cassoulet needs to bake uncovered to develop a crisp crust.Baking sheets All of the ingredients for a cassoulet are cooked before being combined and baked again. The meat can be cooked in any number of ways; here, the pork and lamb stew meat is roasted on rimmed baking sheets so that it browns.Large pot The beans and garlic sausage (or kielbasa) are cooked in a large pot before they are added to the casserole, though you could use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, if you have one. You will also need a second small pot for simmering the salt pork.Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has guides to the best Dutch ovens and baking sheets.
• This slow-cooked casserole requires a good deal of culinary stamina. But the voluptuous combination of aromatic beans with rich chunks of duck confit, sausage, pork and lamb is worth the effort. Serve it with a green salad. It doesn't need any other accompaniment, and you wouldn't have room for one anyway.
• The hardest part of making a cassoulet may be obtaining the ingredients. Beyond that, it helps to think of cooking and building it in stages. Once you've gathered and prepared the components (the meat, beans, salt pork, sausage, duck confit and bread crumb topping), assembling the dish is just a matter of layering the elements.• You can use any kind of roasted meats for a cassoulet, and the kinds vary by region. Substitute roasted chicken, turkey or goose for the duck confit, bone-in beef for the lamb and bone-in veal for the pork. Lamb neck is a great substitute for the bone-in lamb stew meat, and you can use any chunks of bone-in pork, like pork ribs, in place of the pork stew meat. (The bones give the dish more flavor, and their gelatin helps thicken the final stew.)• Do not use smoked sausages in the beans, or substitute smoked bacon for the salt pork. The smoky flavor can overwhelm the dish, and it is not traditional in French cassoulets. If you can't find salt pork, pancetta will work in its place, and you won't need to poach it beforehand.• You can buy duck confit at gourmet markets or order it online. If you'd prefer to make it yourself, this is how to do it: Rub 4 fresh duck legs with a large pinch of salt each. Place in a dish and generously sprinkle with whole peppercorns, thyme sprigs and smashed, peeled garlic cloves. Cover and let cure for 4 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, wipe the meat dry with paper towels, discarding the garlic, pepper and herbs. Place in a Dutch oven or baking dish and cover completely with fat. (Duck fat is traditional, but olive oil also works.) Bake in a 200-degree oven until the duck is tender and well browned, 3 to 4 hours. Let duck cool in the fat before refrigerating. Duck confit lasts for at least a month in the refrigerator and tastes best after sitting for 1 week.• Don't think the meat is the only star of this dish. The beans need just as much love. You want them velvety, sitting in a trove of tomato, stock and rich fat. Buy the best beans you can, preferably ones that have been harvested and dried within a year of cooking. The variety of white bean is less important than their freshness.• Bread crumbs aren't traditional for cassoulet, but will result in a topping with an especially airy and crisp texture. Regular dried bread crumbs, either bought or homemade, will also work.• When you roast the meat, leave plenty of space between the chunks of meat so they brown nicely. More browning means richer flavor. You can also use leftover roasted meat if you have them on hand.• The bouquet garni flavors both the beans and the bean liquid, which is used to moisten the cassoulet as it bakes. To make one, take sprigs of parsley and thyme and a bay leaf and tie them together with at least 1 foot of kitchen string. Tuck the bay leaf in the middle of the bouquet and make sure you wrap the herbs up thoroughly, several times around, so they don't escape into the pot.• Feel free to use a slow cooker or pressure cooker for the beans. Add the garlic sausage (or kielbasa) about halfway through the cooking time. It doesn't have to be exact, since the sausage is already cooked; you're adding it to flavor the beans and their liquid.• Use a very large skillet, at least 12 inches, for sautéing the sausages and finishing the beans before you layer them into the casserole dish. • In this recipe, the beans are finished in a tomato purée, which reduces and thickens the sauce of the final cassoulet. But you can substitute a good homemade stock for the purée. You'll get a soupier cassoulet, but it's just as traditional without the tomatoes.• The salt pork is layered in strips into the bottom of the baking dish. Then, while cooking, it crisps and turns into a bottom crust for the stew. So it is important to slice it thinly and carefully place it in a single layer on the bottom of the dish (and up the sides, if you have enough). Don't overlap it very much, or those parts won't get as crisp.• The reserved bean liquid is added to the cassoulet for cooking, and its starchiness is what keeps the stew thick and creamy. Using stock instead would make for a soupier but still delicious cassoulet.• You create a substantial top crust with crunch by repeatedly cracking the very thick layer of bread crumbs as the cassoulet cooks, and by drizzling the topping with bean liquid, which browns and crisps up in the heat. It's best to crack the topping in even little taps from the side of a large spoon. You are looking to create more texture and crunch by exposing more of the bread crumbs to the hot oven and bean liquid, which should be drizzled generously and evenly.• If you like you can skip the bread crumbs entirely, which is just as traditional. The top will brown on its own, but there won't be a texturally distinct crust.• You do not have to make the cassoulet all in one go. You can break up the work, cooking the separate elements ahead of time and reserving them until you are ready to layer and bake the cassoulet. Or assemble the cassoulet in its entirety ahead of time, without bread crumbs, and then top and bake just before serving.
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Steps:

• Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large pan, add the chopped onions, carrots, 3 of the garlic cloves, tomatoes, bouquet garni and some salt and pepper. Cook over a gentle heat for 5 mins, then stir in the beans, wine and 200ml water, bring to the boil and simmer for 5 mins.
• Meanwhile, heat oven to 180C/160C fan/ gas 4. In a large frying pan, add the remaining olive oil over a medium heat and brown the sausages all over.
• Rub the inside of a casserole dish or baking dish with the remaining garlic clove. Pour in half the bean mix, arrange the sausages on top, then finish with another layer of beans. Cover with foil and place in the oven for 45 mins. While it cooks, blitz the bread in a food processor to make breadcrumbs.
• Remove the casserole dish from the oven, discard the foil and sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the top. Return to the oven and bake for a further 20 mins until the breadcrumbs are golden and crusty. Serve with a crisp green salad.

Steps:

• Melt the fat from the bacon in a large, heavy-bottom pot over medium heat. Add the beans and carrot. Stud 1 onion with the 4 cloves and add, along with 5 of the garlic cloves and 1 bouquet garni. Season with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and add a half gallon of broth. Cover and simmer until the beans are almost tender, about 1 hour. Drain, reserving the broth and beans. Discard the onion and the bouquet garni. Cut the bacon into 1-inch cubes.
• In a large stewing pot over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the duck fat. Add the lamb and pork, season lightly with salt and pepper and sear over medium-high heat, about 3 minutes. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the remaining fat, return the pork and lamb to the pot. Chop the remaining onions and add. Mince the remaining garlic and add, along with a bouquet garni and the tomatoes. Add 1 quart broth and simmer, uncovered, for 1 hour.
• Add the beans, bacon and garlic sausage to the pot and simmer for 1/2 hour. Remove the garlic sausage and, when cool, slice in 1/2-inch slices. In a large, ovenproof pot, ladle in half the bean-and-meat mixture. Add a layer of sausage and the duck confit. Top with remaining beans and remaining quart of broth. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• Three hours before serving, remove the cassoulet from the refrigerator. Remove the top layer of fat and discard. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Sprinkle with bread crumbs. Bake for 2 hours. If it begins to dry, moisten with reserved bean broth. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Soak Great Northern beans in water in a large bowl overnight. Drain beans and place into a large soup pot. Push whole clove into the 1/2 onion and add to beans; stir in garlic, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, and 10 cups water. Bring beans to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat until beans have started to soften, about 1 hour. Drain beans and reserve the cooking liquid, removing and discarding onion with clove and bay leaf. Transfer beans to a large mixing bowl.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Cook bacon in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium heat until lightly browned and still limp, about 5 minutes. Stir celery, carrots, and 1/2 diced onion into bacon; season with salt. Cook and stir vegetables in the hot bacon fat until tender, about 10 minutes.
• Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat; brown sausage link halves and duck confit in the hot oil until browned, about 5 minutes per side.
• Season vegetable-bacon mixture with 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, cracked black pepper, and herbes de Provence; pour in diced tomatoes. Cook and stir mixture over medium heat until juice from tomatoes has nearly evaporated and any browned bits of food on the bottom of pot have dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir mixture into beans.
• Spread half the bean mixture into the heavy Dutch oven and place duck-sausage mixture over the beans; spread remaining beans over meat layer. Pour just enough of the reserved bean liquid into pot to reach barely to the top of the beans, reserving remaining liquid. Bring bean cassoulet to a simmer on stovetop and cover Dutch oven with lid.
• Bake bean cassoulet in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add 4 crushed garlic cloves, panko crumbs, and parsley to the melted butter. Season with salt and black pepper, and drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over crumbs. Stir to thoroughly combine.
• Uncover cassoulet and check liquid level; mixture should still have several inches of liquid. If beans seem dry, add more of the reserved bean liquid. Spread half the crumb mixture evenly over the beans and return to oven. Cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. There should be about 2 or 3 inches of liquid at the bottom of the pot; if mixture seems dry, add more reserved bean mixture. Sprinkle remaining half the bread crumb mixture over cassoulet.
• Turn oven heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and bake cassoulet, uncovered, until crumb topping is crisp, edges are bubbling, and the bubbles are slow and sticky, 20 to 25 more minutes. Serve beans on individual plates and top each serving with a piece of duck and several sausage pieces.

Steps:

• The night before cooking, marinate the meat and soak the beans. For meat: In a large bowl, combine all ingredients except fat and toss to combine. Cover and refrigerate overnight. For beans: In a large bowl, combine beans, 1 teaspoon salt and enough cold water to cover by 4 inches. Cover and let sit overnight.
• The next day, roast the meat: Heat oven to 325 degrees. Pour fat over meat in the bowl and toss to coat. Spread meat in one even layer on a rimmed baking sheet, leaving space between each piece to encourage browning (use two pans if necessary). Top meat with any fat left in bowl. Roast until browned, about 1 hour, then turn pieces, cover with foil, and continue to roast until soft, another 1 1/2 hours. Remove meat from baking sheet, then scrape up all browned bits stuck to the pan. Reserve fat and browned bits.
• Meanwhile, cook the beans: Drain beans, add them to a large stockpot and cover with 2 inches water. Add bouquet garni, celery, carrot, 2 garlic cloves, 2 teaspoons salt and the pepper. Stick whole clove into the folds of the onion half and add that as well. Bring to a boil and then simmer over medium heat, stirring often, until beans are cooked through, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, adding garlic sausage after 30 minutes. When beans are cooked, remove bouquet garni and aromatics, including vegetables. Reserving cooking liquid, drain the beans and sausage.
• While beans are cooking, bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add salt pork. Simmer for 30 minutes, remove and let cool. Cut off skin, then slice pork into very thin pieces and reserve.
• Heat a very large skillet (at least 12 inches) over medium heat and add a drizzle of duck or other fat. Add fresh pork sausages and cook until well browned on all sides, about 20 minutes. Remove to a plate and reserve, leaving any sausage fat in skillet.
• In same skillet over medium-high heat, add 1/4 cup of the reserved fat and the browned bits from the roasted meat. Add diced onions, carrots and celery, and cook until softened, about 10 minutes. Add 9 whole garlic cloves and cook until fragrant, another 2 to 4 minutes. Add tomato purée, season with salt to taste, and simmer until thickened to a saucelike consistency, 5 to 10 minutes, if necessary. Add cooked beans and stir to combine. Remove from heat and reserve.
• Assemble the cassoulet: Heat oven to 375 degrees. In a large Dutch oven, lay salt pork pieces in an even layer to cover the bottom of the pot. Add a scant third of the bean and garlic sausage mixture, spreading evenly. Top with half of the roasted meat pieces, 2 pork sausages and 2 duck legs. Add another scant third of the bean mixture, and top with remaining meat, sausages and duck legs. Top with remaining beans, spreading them to the edges and covering all meat. Pour reserved bean liquid along the edges of the pot, until liquid comes up to the top layer of beans but does not cover. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and drizzle with 1/4 cup duck fat.
• Bake until crust is lightly browned, about 30 minutes. Use a large spoon to lightly crack the crust; the bean liquid will bubble up. Use the spoon to drizzle the bean liquid all over the top of the crust. Return to oven and bake 1 hour more, cracking the crust and drizzling with the bean liquid every 20 minutes, until the crust is well browned and liquid is bubbling. (The total baking time should be 1 1/2 hours.) Remove from oven and let cool slightly, then serve.

Steps:

• Two days in advance, season the pork shoulder, fresh ham hock or pig's knuckles, and the pork skin moderately with salt and pepper. Place in an earthenware or glass dish, cover, and refrigerate overnight. Soak the beans overnight in enough water to cover by at least 2 inches.
• The following day, simmer the pork skin in water to cover until it is supple, 10 to 20 minutes. Drain, roll up the strip, and tie it with string.
• Dry the cubes of pork shoulder with paper towels. In an 8- or 9-quart flameproof casserole, heat the duck fat over moderately high heat. Add the pork shoulder and lightly brown on all sides. Add the onions and carrots and sauté, stirring, until the onions are soft and golden, about 5 minutes. Add the ham hock or pig's knuckles and the whole piece of ventrèche or pancetta. Allow these meats to brown a little around the edges, turning the pieces occasionally. Add the whole head of garlic, and the tomato or tomato paste; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the stock, bundle of pork skin, and herb bouquet. Bring to a boil; cover, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the ragout for 1 1/2 hours.
• When the ragout has cooked for l hour, drain the beans and put them into a large saucepan, cover with fresh water, and slowly bring to a boil. Skim, and simmer for a few minutes, then drain and immediately add the beans to the simmering ragout. Continue simmering for up to 2 hours, or until the beans are tender. (You can tell when the beans are done by removing one or two beans with a spoon and blowing on them-the skins will burst.) Let cool, then skim off all the fat that has risen to the top; reserve 2 tablespoons of this fat for finishing the cassoulet. Cover the pork ragout and beans and refrigerate overnight to develop the flavors.
• The next day, steam the duck confit for 10 minutes to soften. As soon as the meat is cool enough to handle, pull it off the bones in large chunks.
• Remove the ragout and beans from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Pick out the ham hock or pig's knuckles, pancetta, garlic head, and herb bouquet. Cut the meat from the ham hock or pig's knuckles into bite-size pieces, discarding bones and fatty parts. Cut the pancetta into 1-inch pieces, discarding the extraneous fat. Set all the meats aside. Press on the garlic to extract the pulp and set aside. Discard the garlic skins and herb bouquet.
• In a food processor or electric blender, puree the pork fat or salt pork with the cooked and raw garlic and 1 cup water. Add this garlic puree to the ragout and beans and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat. Fold reserved meats into the ragout and beans.
• Preheat the oven to 325°F. To assemble the cassoulet, remove the roll of pork skin from the ragout. Untie, cut the skin into 2-inch pieces, and use to line a 5 1/2- or 6-quart ovenproof casserole, preferably earthenware, and fat side down-the skin side sticks (see Note below). Using a large slotted spoon or skimmer, add one half of the beans and pork shoulder. Scatter the duck confit on top of the pork and beans. Cover with the remaining beans and pork ragout. Taste the ragout cooking liquid and adjust the seasoning; there will probably be no need for salt. Pour just enough of the ragout liquid over the beans to cover them. Be sure there is at least 1 inch of "growing space" between the beans and the rim of the dish. Drizzle with the 2 tablespoons fat reserved in Step 4. Place the casserole in the oven and let cook for 1 1/2 hours.
• Prick the sausages and brown them under a hot broiler or in a skillet. Drain; cut larger sausages into 3- or 4-inch pieces.
• Reduce the oven heat to 275°F. Gently stir up the skin that has formed on the beans. Place the sausages on top of the beans. Dust the bread crumbs on top of the beans and sausage. Bake the cassoulet for 1 more hour. The top crust should become a beautiful golden brown; if it isn't, turn on the broiler and carefully "toast" the top layer of beans, about 2 minutes. Transfer the cassoulet from the oven to a cloth-lined surface and let it rest 20 minutes. Drizzle with the walnut oil just before serving.