Madame Mourieres Cassoulet Recipes

Steps:

• In a large deep saute pan or pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat. Add the shallots, garlic, and herb sprigs, and cook, stirring, until fragrant and the shallots are soft, about 1 minute. Add the wine, pepper, and salt and bring to a boil. Add the mussels, cover and cook, shaking the pan occasionally, until the mussels are opened, 5 to 6 minutes.
• Remove from the heat and discard any mussels that have not opened. Transfer the mussels and their liquid to a large, deep serving bowl and garnish with the chopped parsley. Serve immediately with the French bread croutons for dipping.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Place the bread slices on a large baking sheet and brush 1 side of each slice first with the cut garlic cloves and then with the olive oil, and then lightly season with the salt and pepper. Bake until light golden brown, about 8 minutes.
• Cool slightly on the baking sheet before handling or serving.

Steps:

• Prepare the confit, or preserved duck. This can be done weeks in advance or the same day if desired. To reduce the amount of time the dish takes, it is best to make it at least a day ahead.
• The day before the cassoulet will be served prepare the beans. Rinse them well and pick them over to eliminate tiny stones. Put them in a Dutch oven or large saucepan and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, cover and remove from the heat. Allow to sit 40 minutes.
• Meanwhile, in another large saucepan cover the fresh pork rind or bacon with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Simmer for several minutes, rinse, drain and set aside. This is done to remove the salt, which would have a toughening effect on the beans.
• By this time the beans should have swollen. Discard the liquid (to help make the beans more digestible), rinse the beans and cover them again with cold water. Add the bay leaves, thyme, and drained pork rind or bacon and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Boil vigorously for about 45 minutes to one hour, or until the beans are quite well-cooked but still a bit firm. Add the carrots and additional boiling water if necessary and cook an additional 15 minutes, or just until the carrots are cooked. The mixture should not be too dry. Remove from the heat, stir in a tablespoon salt and allow to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
• In a very large frying pan melt three tablespoons goose fat (or butter). Add the sausages all in a single coil, if you can, and cook them over medium heat for about 12 minutes on one side, about 6 minutes on the other side. (Remember which side was cooked for the shorter time. When the cassoulet is assembled, you will place the sausage with the less cooked side down, so the remaining fat will soak into the bean mixture.) You need not prick the sausage. Remove the sausage from the pan and set aside.
• In the same saucepan, add an additional three tablespoons goose fat (if necessary) to cook the confit. If the confit was made ahead, let it come to room temperature to soften the fat and remove all of the confit pieces, wiping off the fat as you remove them. Now saute the pieces of confit over medium-high heat until the skin is very crisp and turns a rich, deep brown. Baste off the fat as necessary. The duck should cook about five to 10 minutes on each side. Remove from the frying pan, drain and set aside.
• Remove the bean mixture from the refrigerator to bring to room temperature.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
• In the same frying pan, add two tablespoons goose fat (if necessary) and cook the onions over high heat for about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the liquid and a clove garlic and cook until the mixture is fairly dry, or about 30 minutes. The mixture should be a rich, deep red. Combine the bean and carrot mixture with the tomato and onion mixture.
• Remove the bones from the duck confit and cut the duck into large chunks without removing the skin.
• Assemble the cassoulet in a large, earthenware casserole. An oval casserole measuring 12 by 17 by 3 inches deep is a perfect size for this recipe. Rub the inside of the casserole with one clove of garlic and discard the garlic. Layer in this order: a single layer of the bean mixture, using about a third of it. Cover this with the cutup pieces of duck. Add a second layer of the bean mixture. Add the sausages in one layer with less-cooked side down. Add the last layer of beans. Finally, add the bread-crumb mixture. Be sure there is at least half an inch of growing space between the bread crumbs and the rim of the casserole.
• Place in the oven and bake for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the crust is golden and firm. Serve immediately.

Steps:

• Soak Great Northern beans in water in a large bowl overnight. Drain beans and place into a large soup pot. Push whole clove into the 1/2 onion and add to beans; stir in garlic, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary, and 10 cups water. Bring beans to a simmer and cook over medium-low heat until beans have started to soften, about 1 hour. Drain beans and reserve the cooking liquid, removing and discarding onion with clove and bay leaf. Transfer beans to a large mixing bowl.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Cook bacon in a large, heavy Dutch oven over medium heat until lightly browned and still limp, about 5 minutes. Stir celery, carrots, and 1/2 diced onion into bacon; season with salt. Cook and stir vegetables in the hot bacon fat until tender, about 10 minutes.
• Heat 1 teaspoon olive oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium heat; brown sausage link halves and duck confit in the hot oil until browned, about 5 minutes per side.
• Season vegetable-bacon mixture with 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, cracked black pepper, and herbes de Provence; pour in diced tomatoes. Cook and stir mixture over medium heat until juice from tomatoes has nearly evaporated and any browned bits of food on the bottom of pot have dissolved, about 5 minutes. Stir mixture into beans.
• Spread half the bean mixture into the heavy Dutch oven and place duck-sausage mixture over the beans; spread remaining beans over meat layer. Pour just enough of the reserved bean liquid into pot to reach barely to the top of the beans, reserving remaining liquid. Bring bean cassoulet to a simmer on stovetop and cover Dutch oven with lid.
• Bake bean cassoulet in the preheated oven for 30 minutes.
• Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat; add 4 crushed garlic cloves, panko crumbs, and parsley to the melted butter. Season with salt and black pepper, and drizzle 1 tablespoon olive oil over crumbs. Stir to thoroughly combine.
• Uncover cassoulet and check liquid level; mixture should still have several inches of liquid. If beans seem dry, add more of the reserved bean liquid. Spread half the crumb mixture evenly over the beans and return to oven. Cook, uncovered, for 20 minutes. There should be about 2 or 3 inches of liquid at the bottom of the pot; if mixture seems dry, add more reserved bean mixture. Sprinkle remaining half the bread crumb mixture over cassoulet.
• Turn oven heat to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and bake cassoulet, uncovered, until crumb topping is crisp, edges are bubbling, and the bubbles are slow and sticky, 20 to 25 more minutes. Serve beans on individual plates and top each serving with a piece of duck and several sausage pieces.

Steps:

• To cut the meats, roll up the pork rind like a Swiss roll. With the seam underneath, use a very sharp knife to cut the roll across into thin slices, then chop the rolled-up slices across into dice. Chop the bacon into small cubes (lardons). Cut the garlic sausage into 1cm thick slices.
• Drain the soaked beans and discard the soaking water. Tip the beans into a large saucepan, add the diced pork rind and lardons and cover with fresh cold water. Bring to the boil and blanch for 15-20 minutes. Drain the beans, rind and lardons into a colander, and discard the cooking water.
• Roughly chop the celery, onion and carrot. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole. Cut each tomato into eight wedges. (You never see tomatoes in a traditional cassoulet, but chef Raymond Blanc likes them for their colour and sweetness, so he puts a couple in.) Preheat the oven to 120C/fan 100C. (If cooking in a gas oven, use mark 2.)
• Heat the goose fat or olive oil in a 26cm flameproof casserole or deep overproof sauté pan over a low heat and sweat the celery, onion, carrot and garlic for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and bouquet garni and cook slowly to get a sugary caramelisation (about 5 minutes). Add the sausage, beans, pork rind and lardons and pour in 1.2 litres/2 pints water. Bring to the boil, skim off the scum, then add the salt, pepper, clove and lemon juice.
• Transfer the casserole to the oven and cook, uncovered, for 2 hours, stirring every hour. At the end of this time, the beans will be soft and creamy in texture and the juices should have thickened. You may need to cook it for longer than 2 hours (say up to 2½ hours) to get to this stage - it depends
• Remove the cassoulet from the oven. Bury the duck legs in the beans and sprinkle over the goose fat or olive oil, breadcrumbs and garlic. Return to the oven and cook for a further 2 hours. Serve the cassoulet in bowls, sprinkled with chopped parsley.