BS: My first Cassoulet

Subject: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 02:57 PM

Today I made my first cassoulet [Sp] and it took ages, so many ingredients. However after many hours of work we had some for our dinner tonight, and it was pronounced excellent. Next St David's day I may make another. We also now have 5 containers of the remainder ready to be frozen, so the hard work will last a day or so more.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Alba
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:02 PM

John, Cassoulet as in the French recipe with Goose confit and Pork?
Best wishes
Jude

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:08 PM

Duck, pork fillet, belly pork, neck of lamb, haricot beans, carrot, celery, garlic, onion, tomato puree, chopped tinned tomatos. You name it, I've chopped it, braised it, shredded it, etc etc.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:13 PM

haricot beans? I thought cassuolet was mad with butter beans or suchlike?

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:19 PM

Butter beans or what I believe you USers call Navy beans can be used, but they are not a much used bean in France. They tend to use haricot,haricot vert, and cannellini.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Alba
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:23 PM

Oh John..That's the very one...if only we lived closer I would ask you for some of your leftovers....it is such a delicous dish.
Well done to You....hard work pays off in the Kitchen...yum.
Best Wishes
Jude (wondering what she can cook tonight that would satisfy her tastebuds now!!lol)

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Amos
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:23 PM

Look how much money you saved on cassoulet, Giok!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:28 PM

You're right Amos good buddy, I forgot to mention the sausages, The recipe asked for Toulouse sausages, but I couldn't find them, so I used a rough cut pork and garlic sausage that stunk my car out on the way home from the shops. How much I saved depends on what you think my hourly rate should be Amos, I spent about 5 hours on it alltogether.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:29 PM

Are the haricots a dry bean then? (I've only seen the term used for green beans before)

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:36 PM

They're the same thing just used at different stages of the bean's development.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:42 PM

Cassoulet is my husband's favourite dish, and I make it several times a year. We serve it with a nice green salad dressed with a sturdy vinaigrette, at least two loaves of French bread (which Edmund often makes himself), and lashings of red wine, followed by pears poached in more lashings of red wine.

I find that a decent cassoulet involves at least five different kinds of meat, usually two kinds of sausage (one super-garlicky, one heavily smoked), salt pork belly with rind, double-smoked bacon with rind and cubed stewing lamb, usually from the scrag end of the neck. I have also used smoked chicken and smoked goose, even the wings of the Christmas turkey once, but generally fall back on the lamb/bacon/sausage combination.

The most frequently used beans come in a net bag labelled "haricots blancs" and sure look like Navy beans, but we're Canadian so we just call them "white beans". Black beans (also called turtle beans) are also excellent, if a bit of a shock to our more conventional foodie friends. I always use fresh tomatoes, even if they do cost the earth; the canned variety has a distinctive bitter taste that comes through even the garlic aroma emitted by every good cassoulet.

Making a cassoulet is a three-phase project that requires your presence (i.e., in the same house) throughout, but only two spasms of genuine at-the-stove labour. The long simmer in the oven means you have time to clean the house, set the table, make the salad and dessert, take a shower and have a nice stiff drink before the guests arrive. Better still, it has to repose for at least half an hour between oven and table, which leaves time for a nice fish course, or perhaps soup.

There's absolutely no point in making cassoulet for fewer than six people. With a kilo of beans, a kilo of lamb, 250 G salt pork and four or five thick rashers of bacon, plus several large sausages and about a litre of meat stock, you can produce enough cassoulet to feed up to 10 people if some of them are not particularly greedy.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: gnu
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 03:43 PM

Haricots = beans, n'est pas?

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 04:12 PM

Apparently Haricot bean is the same as a navy bean, I thought a navy bean was more like a butter bean or Lima bean. . Now I always thought a Lima bean in the US was the same as a runner bean, but it seems I was wrong again.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 04:20 PM

I had a Cassoulet for a while, but it never ran very well and was hard to get parts for. Traded it for a Cortina. It was just as bad.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 04:21 PM

I am so happy for you but daunted by your task. Most recently I've been working on getting eggplant parmegian done right, and I'm trying to develop a creditable hot & sour soup.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: jacqui.c
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 06:00 PM

Giok - Lima beans are what the UK calls broad beans.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: michaelr
Date: 01 Mar 05 - 10:45 PM

Please, oh please, don't mistreat the poor fresh haricot vert (green bean) by slow-cooking it in cassoulet. It should ONLY be prepared by gently steaming until just fork-tender.

Then you may add butter-sauteed shiitake mushrooms and parsley. Mmmmm...

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: open mike
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:21 AM

is this like a casserole?

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: dianavan
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 03:06 AM

John - I wonder if I will EVER be entitled to taste this dish! I thought my day had come when I ordered it in a restaurant in Carcasonne but, alas, they had no more left that day. I have never been so disappointed! Now you tease my taste buds with this post.

I will continue searching for this legendary dish. I can almost taste it.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Morticia
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 04:07 AM

well done, John,one of my favourite dinners ever but I haven't been brave enough to try making it myself yet.......

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Gervase
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 04:15 AM

One of my favourites, with as many recipes as there are varieties of cheese in France (wars have almost started across the tomato/no tomato divide).
But I find it has a way of lingering. Has the stench of farts cleared yet?

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 04:30 AM

Flatulent me?
G ¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:29 PM

Dianavan, you're not likely to find cassoulet in any Canadian restaurant west of Ottawa except a few really expensive French places. If you PM me, I'll send you my recipe, which isn't hard at all; in fact, you may find the most difficult part is locating a suitable pot! Even that isn't an insurmountable barrier, if you're willing to compromise on some elements of the, um, concept; I once made a huge cassoulet in an enamelled steel roasting pan from Canadian Tire, and it was *great*!

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:50 PM

open mike - it's pretty much old fashioned baked beans with a lot of meat.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:52 PM

A lot of meat, and no sweetening. I call it "beans and franks in French".

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 12:54 PM

Oh Mario you Philistine you. I suppose caviar is just fish eggs then?
Giok¦¬]

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:11 PM

no - they are salt-cured fish eggs.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:15 PM

Giok - remember - I'm a New Englander by birth and rearing. Baked Beans are one of the BLESSED HOLY FOODS - along with Boston Brown Bread, New England Clam chowder, Indian Pudding and stuffies.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: open mike
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 01:44 PM

ooh Boston Brown Bread--I haven't made any for ages...
it is Steamed like pudding, and can be done in the
pressure cooker in cans...makes little round loaves.
just make sure to use cans that do not have ridges
or it won't come out!

it would probably go good with Cassoulet

but i can';t imagine with such a meaty dish
that you would acutally have a "fish course"
before serving that! (as mentioned before-
you would have time to serve soup or some
thing as it takes a long time to prepare)

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: annamill
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:10 PM

dianavan, looking at the site that Amos set a link to, sells this dish for only 28.50 AU. It might be worth a try. If they ship to wherever you are. USA?

Annamill

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: annamill
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 02:58 PM

I know, canned! Me either.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 03:20 PM

My grade school teacher gave everyone in class a cassoulet, but for the life of me I can't remember the fingerings anymore. Probably something like a tin whistle, I think.

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 05:05 PM

Now, if you had included flageolet beans you could have posted this a music thread...

Perhaps it is after all!

Beans, beans, the musical fruit.
The more you eat the more you toot.
The more you toot the better you feel
So eat your beans at every meal...


:D

Subject: RE: BS: My first Cassoulet
From: Charmion
Date: 02 Mar 05 - 05:27 PM

Flageolets are too tender and delicate for cassoulet; you simmer them for about an hour with onion and garlic and the bone from the butterflied leg of lamb that you are simultaneously roasting! And if you blanch them first you shouldn't get more than your usual, um, volume of flatulence.