OK we finally tried a new recipe and a brand new-to-us dish – Cassoulet: a (dry) bean casserole. It was great – I think we ate half of it in one meal. Another way to use wonderful dry beans.
The recipe we used as our base is from Cook's Illustrated magazine, November-December 2009 pp. 18-19. We altered it from the get go as we forgot to soak the beans overnight. Plain sausage was substituted for Fresh French garlic sausage, Bacon ends for salt pork, celeriac for celery, Great Northerns for Cannellini. The rest of the non-meat ingredients came direct from our food storage.
Ingredients
- 1 pound dry Cannellini beans (great northern)
- 2 medium celery ribs (celeriac)
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme (it's winter here - our own dried thyme)
- 1.5 pounds Fresh French garlic sausage (we used 4 oz - meat as garnish...)
- 4 ounces salt pork (4 oz bacon)
- 4 tablespoons vegetable oil (olive, of course)
- 1.5 pounds pork shoulder, cut into small chunks (4 oz - meat as garnish...)
- 1 large onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 4 medium cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon tomato paste
- 1/2 cup white wine
- 1 pint canned tomatoes
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup bread crumbs
- 1/2 chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
Soak rinsed beans in 3 quarts water overnight. 6 hours was not long enough, which required baking an extra 20 minutes in the oven.
Place sausage in saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove sausage from water and slice into pieces when cool.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in dutch oven over medium high heat until beginning to smoke. Add sausage pieces and brown on all sides. Remove from dutch oven. Do the same for the pork shoulder pieces.
Place onion, carrots and celeriac into dutch oven. Stir constantly until onion is translucent (2 minutes). Add garlic and tomato paste (30 seconds). Return sausage and pork to dutch oven. Add the wine and deglaze. Stir in tomatoes and bacon.
Add broth and drained beans. Add up to one cup water if beans are exposed. Increase heat to high and bring to simmer.
Cover pot and place in oven heated to 300º. Cook until beans are tender - circa 1 1/2 hours.
Skim fat from surface and remove bacon. Meat may be cut up and put back into cassoulet. Season with salt and pepper.
Increase oven to 350º and bake 20 minutes, uncovered.
Take bread crumbs and combine with 2 tablespoons oil. Add parsley, salt and pepper.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup bread crumbs over cassoulet. Bake covered 15 minutes.
Remove lid and bake 15 minutes.
Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup breads crumbs over cassoulet. Bake another 20-30 minutes until topping is golden brown.
Let rest 15 minutes before serving.
