BGE cassoulet, of sorts

Hungry Celeste

Egged a (sort-of) cassoulet this weekend....seasoned white beans (thyme, garlic, bay, tomato, bacon fat) layered with browned fresh pork sausages in a 2.5 quart enameled cast iron braiser. I topped the whole thing with garlic breadcrumbs, then covered tightly & cooked on a pizza stone for 45 minutes at 350. See it here: http://bouillie.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/kind-of-cassoulet/

RiverFarm

Celeste, when I make cassoulet it somehow grows and grows and I end up freezing it. Last winter the same cassoulet fed four friends and us for one meal and then I resurrected it for my kids (that's five of us) and for another set of friends later on. I think we had it, just the two of us, a couple of times, too. I finally used it all up by spring, since it's not a meal I like when it's warm out! But I do a fairly classic cassoulet from a recipe I cobbled together, with goose and pork and lamb as well as the sausages. I think it's as good as anything I've had in France. One year I actually grew white coco beans for my cassoulets, but the yield was so small that it wasn't worth the hassle and I discovered that I like cannelini beans just as well.

Your recipe does sound really good as a quickie. I'm just learning how to use my Egg, so your post got my attention since I love Eggs AND cassoulet!

Hungry Celeste

I do cook the seasoned beans in large batches & freeze for later use, though I've never frozen it with the various meats already cooked in. Goose isn't a staple at my house; I usually substitute duck confit or good bacon. You're right about the temperature: it is definitely NOT a hot-weather meal!

RiverFarm

Where do you get your duck confit? I've been tempted to make it but it's hard to get together enough duck fat to cover it.

We have poultry and I had fifteen geese in my freezer for a while. I'm slowly using them, but that's why I choose goose for my cassoulet.

The whole cassoulet freezes beautifully, and then you can have it numerous times for just one major effort. I tend to add to it because I think it needs more pork or lamb, or I have some leftover meat I can throw in. So it grows and grows, and the flavor keeps developing. In a funny book called "The Matchmaker of Perigord" the main character has a cassoulet that he (and his mother before him) have kept going for many years!

Hungry Celeste

If I'm feeling lazy, I'll buy the duck confit. I do make my own from time to time, when I can find duck legs sold as parts (rather than buying whole ducks). I substitute olive oil for the duck fat; it's damn tasy despite being a departure from tradition. A stash of confit is a fine thing to have in the freezer.

Little Steven

RiverRat,

I get duck fat at a gourmet catering/food store. You can also get it at large city markets. If you take care of duck fat and only use it for confit, you will gain a bunch every time you do the dish. The excess you can use for frying. I just filter it through a sieve lined with cheesecloth and re-freeze. Not sure if I would use it for terrine but it's good for confit.

Steve

RiverFarm

No gourmet catering/food stores in this neck of the woods, and my geese aren't that fatty, although I do have some of their fat saved in the refrigerator. If I try Little Chef's roasted duck recipe I'll probably have some I can use since I have a store-bought duck in the freezer.

I made chicken in a lidded clay container with olive oil, Greek olives and rosemary, and roasted some potatoes with some chicken fat and rosemary along with them ( - this was pre-egg!) and it was wonderful. Poultry fat is way underused and delicious!

What kind of terrine do you make? I have several recipes for pâté de campagne but none I'm crazy about.

Little Steven

When I do confit I usually do four whole birds. I do rillettes with some of the duck as the base and use the poached liver on the top of the terrine (inverted top) Armagnac, garlic and softened peppecorn and juniper berries.

Steve

RiverFarm

I'd love a recipe for that terrine. Do you do it in the egg or the oven? I made a clay lidded terrine for myself that works well.

I do rillettes from goose carcasses after I've roasted the bird and we've eaten most of it. That makes good eating, although some people (silly folks!) don't seem to care for them, probably because of the fat content.

Little Steven

RiverRat,

I'm not partial to goose except for the liver. When ducks go on sale I buy a bunch. I don't normally use recipes but I can give you something close tonight. I started rillettes using Lagasse's method and changed up the spices a bit. Haven't done them on the egg but next time I intend to. I worried about getting too much smoke flavour in the duck fat.

Steve

fishlessman

never heard of this dish, but it looks really good. something im going to try this winter. thanks for posting it

RiverFarm

Cassoulets are definitely good eating, Fish; something to stick to the ribs on a cold winter's night. You can also add a little red wine to the mix.

To me, goose is very much like duck and I like them both. We would raise ducks but they're a lot more trouble to pluck than geese, maybe because they're smaller so there's less return for the labor. I'll be interested in hearing how the rillettes work on the egg. I'd think that they wouldn't cook down enough with that fairly moist heat. When I do them I try to reduce the liquid as much as I can so what's left is a fairly thick paste of shredded meat and fat.

A couple of years ago I bought some duck legs and breasts, packaged separately, on sale; obviously they weren't a very popular item because the supermarket never had them again. The legs would be good for confit. Do you freeze yours or keep it in the refrigerator?

Hungry Celeste

I freeze the confit legs, one per package. Makes it easy to defrost just as much as you need, plus the smaller packages defrost faster.

fishlessman

the dish screams breakfast while ice fishing to me, could cook a big dutch full of the stuff and maybe reheat during a derby. never made the confit but will someday, seen so many posts about it the last few weeks. the forum seems to go in waves, several months will go by with nothing new to try, then all of a sudden its hard to keep up with all the new things to cook

Little Steven

fishlessman,

Chaurico would be awesome in it.

Steve

fishlessman

works for me beans meat and chourico casserole

Little Steven

With duck confit and a cherry on top. :laugh:

Hungry Celeste

Shouldn't that be an olive on top?

Little Steven

Hungry Celeste

Sorry

Steve :laugh:

RiverFarm

What's chaurico, and what recipe do you use for duck confit? I've got one that I found on Recipezaar that looks both good and easy. I take it there are none posted here!

I have another recipe for Algerian Chicken and Beans that's really good; I used to make it a lot before I discovered cassoulet. This is the kind of weather when you start thinking about good hearty meals with beans and meat!

Little Steven

Chaurico is a hot Portuguese sausage. I don't know how it is made but the meat isn't ground as much as traditional sausage. It has big hunks of meat and little veins of hot chilis and sauce running through it. It is cold smoked.

As I said before, I don't really use recipes but for that confit I separate the duck breasts and legs and rub heavily with coarse sea salt. I use a big enamelled cast iron dutch oven and make a single layer of breasts and leg/thighs as tight as I can skin side up. On top of this go half cloves of garlic, whole peppercorns and whole juniper berries and more salt. I do another layer of duck parts, this time skin down. Repeat the seasoning and do the same thing for another two layers. Cover the DO in plastic wrap and weight on top of the duck and refrigerate for 72 hours. Take the duck pieces out and rinse thoroughly to remove excess salt. Save or replace the garlic and spices. Replace the duck in the rinsed DO and add enough just melted duck fat to cover all the duck. 200* for 8-12 hours depending what you want to do with the confit, less if you wast to grill, more if you are doing rillettes and middle for cassoulet.

Steve

RiverFarm

Thanks, Steve! I'm copying this for my recipe folder. The other confit recipes I have seen use thyme instead of juniper berries. Maybe it depends on what the end use will be. Both sound good.

Thanks again!

Little Steven

RiverRat,

There are a lot of differrent herbs and spices that can be used. When I was trying to remember at work I forgot I use bay leaves too.

Steve

RiverFarm

Okay, I added that. Thanks for taking the time to give me the recipe!

Are these just things you work out for yourself, adapting other recipes, or did you learn them at the knee of a French chef?

Little Steven

RiverRat,

I read a lot of recipes. I read them and try and understand what the cooking method does for the dish and then put the spices into the dish. Works sometimes, sometimes not so much. :laugh: After a lot of years of cooking they seem to work out more often.
Steve