Daring Cook’s January Challenge: Cassoulet

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

Cassoulet is a rich, slow cooked stew or casserole that originated in the south of France during the 14th century. It traditionally contains pork, sausages, and white beans as well as a duck or goose confit and then topped with fried bread crumbs or cracklings. The dish is named after its traditional cooking vessel, the cassole, which is a deep, round earthenware pot with slanted sides.

A confit is essentially any kind of food that has been immersed in any kind of fat for both flavor and preservation. When stored in a cool place, confit can last for several months! Typically meats (most often waterfowl) are preserved in fats.

This challenge looked very daunting to me because it called for duck and duck fat, pork, and sausage all in one dish. I can’t get duck or duck fat where I live and we don’t really eat a lot of meat in my house. I was about to pass on this challenge, but then I noticed that we had the option of making a vegetarian cassoulet and I jumped on it! This vegetarian version is much healthier and takes a lot less time to make. I was very pleasantly surprised by how tasty mine turned out. I think it turned out to be one of the best soups I have ever had and I will be making this again and again. (Although, I must admit, I didn’t make a confit for this recipe even though making a confit was part of the challenge. However, if you want to make a leek confit as well as the other cassoulets click here for the recipes.)

Note: a lot of other people on daring cooks made this same recipe and found it to be very bland. I am not sure what made mine so flavorful, but I pretty much followed the recipe and had great flavor. I think I might have dumped in more thyme and parsley than called for and added a lot more salt and pepper than called for because mine had a wonderful flavor.I also added some crumbled bacon which probably added some extra salt. If you taste it and it is bland, add more salt or a little bit of chicken bullion.

PRINTABLE RECIPE

Ingredients:

• 3 medium leeks (white and pale green parts only)
• 4 medium carrots, halve lengthwise and cut into 1/2 inch wide pieces
• 3 celery ribs, sliced
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped (or pressed)
• 1/4 C. olive oil (or enough to sauté the veggies in)
• 4 thyme sprigs (or at least 3 tsp. dried thyme leaves)
• 2 parsley sprigs (or a good sprinkle of dried parsley)
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/8 tsp. ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp. salt (for soup)
• 1/2 tsp. pepper (for soup)
• 3 cans of cannellini, Great Northern, or any kind of white beans, rinsed and drained
• 4 C. water
• crumbled bacon (optional)
• 4 C. coarse fresh bread crumbs from toasted bread or a baguette (I used 4 sliced of wheat bread)
• 1/ tsp. salt (for bread crumbs)
• 1/4 tsp. pepper (for bread crumbs)
• 1/3 C. olive oil (or enough to toss the bread in.)
• 1 tbsp. copped garlic
• 1/4 C. chopped fresh parsley (or a good 2 TBSP. of dried parsley)
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Halve the leeks lengthwise and cut crosswise into 1/2 inch pieces. Then rinse them thoroughly. I rinsed them about three times to get all the dirt out from between the layers.

2. Cook leeks, carrots, celery, and garlic in oil with the herb sprigs, bay leaf, cloves, salt and pepper in a large heavy pot over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened and golden. About 15 minutes.

3. Stir in beans (after draining and rinsing), then water and bacon if using. Simmer partially covered until carrots are tender but not falling apart,about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F. with rack in the middle. Toss bread crumbs with oil, garlic, and 1/4 tsp. each of salt and pepper until well coated. To make the bread crumbs, pulse bread in a blender or food processor.

5. spread in a baking pan and toast in the oven, stirring once halfway through, until crisp and golden. About 12 to 15 minutes. Cool crumbs in pan, then return to bowl and stir in parsley.

6. discard herb sprigs and bay leaf from the soup. Mash some of the beans in the pot with a potato masher or back of a spoon to thicken the broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. I added about 1/4 tsp more of both salt and pepper. Make sure you taste it and add a little bit at a time until it tastes just right.

7. Just before serving, sprinkle  generously with garlic crumbs. I also sprinkled a little bit of crumbled bacon in mine.

Recipe adapted from Vegetarian Cassoulet by Gourmet Magazine, March 2008