Vegetarians can skip this entry as they may find it offensive!
In keeping with a relatively recent "Tradition", we made Cassoulet again last night for NYE. It was a bit of a last minute thing as we almost forgot about the "Tradition" we've been upholding for the last five years (when in Country) since we had it at a great NYE party in Devon in 2015. I've been using a combination of Julia Child's recipe from The Art of French Cooking and the much easier version on the Cook's Illustrated website. It also depends on what we have in the fridge and freezer but this year I had a Cassoulet bounty just waiting to be harvested! Two duck legs, some braised pork belly from October, Chorizitos from Despaña, left over chicken, or was it Goose(?), from Thanksgiving, Bacon, and Hot Italian sausage from Swamp Fox Farm in Calloway. I was trying to compete with the Italian 7-fishes Christmas specialité with 7-meats. Alas I forgot about the cured Chorizo in the fridge else I would have succeeded 😂. The only item requiring any prep was the duck, which I baked at 300°F/150°C for two and a half hours. After sautéing onions and carrots, I added all the meat in bite sized chunks, a large can of tomatoes, some tomato paste, salt, pepper, pepper flakes and fresh thyme. By this time, other than the bacon and fresh sausage, everything was already cooked, so I let it simmer on low to infuse the flavors into the tomatoes sauce. I then transferred enough for dinner into a casserole and topped with drained canned cannellini beans and panko, and popped in a 350°F/180°C until bubbling nicely. I then turned to broil to get the bread crumbs and beans crispy. There are infinite permutations on a theme for this dish depending on what you like. Pork and lamb are common combinations. We have used Kielbasa as the smoked sausage component before. I always like to use duck legs though. Either way, how can you go wrong with all those flavors?
6 meats-a-cooking
Mmmm, left-overs
