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Originating in the south of France, cassoulet is a slow-cooked casserole of white beans and various meats named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole. This cassoulet recipe is classic French cuisine at its best, packed with confit duck, lamb, pork and juicy Toulouse sausages..The perfect comfort food dish on a cold wintry day! (This dish takes 12 hours prep/soaking time, so plan ahead).
Cassoulet à la Maison
Serves 10
Total time: 4 hours plus 12 hours soaking time
Ingredients
2 1/4 lb of dried white haricot beans (Cannellini, Navy or Great Northern beans can be substituted)
1 ham hock
2 oz of duck fat (if not available, use schmaltz, chicken fat)
4 large onions, chopped
12 garlic cloves, large, thinly sliced
14 oz of pork rind, rolled and tied (ask your grocer or butcher)
1 3/4 lbs of carrots, cut into 1/8 inch thick slices
1 large onion, cut into quarters
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of thyme
4 Toulouse sausages or Polish kielbasa
2 1/4 lb of lamb shoulder, on the bone, trimmed of sinew and cut into 10 pieces
4 confit duck leg, broken into large pieces (rotisserie chicken legs)
1 3/4 lb of back bacon (Canadian), unsmoked, cut into 1/2 inch thick slices
3 tbsp of parsley, chopped
sea salt, to season
white pepper, freshly ground
Directions
In separate bowls of cold water, soak the dried beans and ham hock for 12 hours, changing the bean water three times during this period. Drain them both and set aside.
In a large frying pan, heat 1 oz of the duck fat over a medium heat. Add the onions and cook slowly until caramelized, about 10-15 minutes.
Reduce the heat, add the garlic and cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the mixture is close to a puréé consistency. Remove from the heat and set aside.
In another large saucepan, place the drained beans, pork rind, ham hock, carrots, onion quarters, bay leaves and thyme. Cover with water, about an inch above the beans. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 1 hour.
Drain the beans, reserving the cooking liquor, and place into a large bowl. Discard the herbs and onion quarters and remove the bone from the ham hock, reserving the meat.
Chop the pork rind very finely, it should be close to a purée consistency, and stir into the beans along with the reserved onion and garlic mixture.
Heat half of the remaining duck fat in large saucepan, over a high heat. Once hot, add the sausages and cook until browned all over. Remove the sausages and leave to drain on paper towels, then cut into 1 2/3 in thick slices.
Heat the remaining duck fat in the same pan. Add the lamb and cook until caramelized all over. Season well with salt and pepper, remove from the pan and drain.
In a large earthenware cassoulet dish, spoon in 1/3 of the bean mixture. Add the lamb shoulder in an even layer, and cover with another 1/3 of the bean mixture. Add the slices of sausages, duck confit(Rotisserie chicken legs) and back bacon, then add the final 1/3 of the bean mix.
Pour enough reserved bean cooking liquor over the top so that everything is just covered.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Cook for 1 hour and then check the level of liquid. If it has almost evaporated, moisten with more of the bean cooking liquor, or boiling water.
You will need to repeat this process several times until a crust has formed on top of the cassoulet. This will take 2 1/2 to 3 hours
The cassoulet is ready when the crust is deeply caramelized and a knife goes through the beans easily when inserted. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.
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