I made a traditional cassoulet last winter full of white beans, duck and pheasant confit and sausage and shared it with you HERE. It was dark and rich and got slurped up in record time, rich as it was –– it was inhaled! I made it a few weeks later (back by popular demand) and same outcome. It was like a ravenous pack of wild beasties had descended on what I thought was a huge dish. What should have been enough for 8 was nearly gone with 3!
When I began researching cassoulet for that post, I immediately turned to Paula Wolfert and her classic “The Cooking of Southwest France
” for direction. I realized I had owned that book for 25 years –– and it looks it. The jacket cover is tattered, the inside is splattered–– it is much-loved because it is beautifully written and researched and the recipes work perfectly, bless her. If you don’t have it and her other brilliant books on Moroccan and Mediterranean cooking (as well as a recent one on cooking with those gorgeous clay pots) you should… they are inspiring.
” for direction. I realized I had owned that book for 25 years –– and it looks it. The jacket cover is tattered, the inside is splattered–– it is much-loved because it is beautifully written and researched and the recipes work perfectly, bless her. If you don’t have it and her other brilliant books on Moroccan and Mediterranean cooking (as well as a recent one on cooking with those gorgeous clay pots) you should… they are inspiring.Her chapter on cassoulet is magnifique, which is as it should be since she suffered for her art on this one. She went to the source of the dish in France and nearly tasted herself into a gastro-intestinal crisis trying all the versions… going from one recommendation to another, one town to the next. When she included the Prosper Montagne anecdote about a shop sign that announced “Closed on Account of Cassoulet” it was an accurate reflection of toll exacted for her quest… she took to self-medicating with Alka-Seltzer to survive the dangerously delicious ordeal.
Wolfert tested 3 classic forms from the holy trinity of cassoulet towns in Languedoc. She tried the Castelnaudary version with pork, ham, pork sausage and pork rind, the Toulouse variety with confit d’oie (or canard) and Toulouse sausage and Carcassonne’s cassoulet with mutton (or partridge in season). All, however, do have beans as an ingredient although the meat/bean ratio and even the type of beans vary from recipe to recipe. She even wrestled with the breadcrumb conundrum –– classicists say never use them (they say the crust must come from breaking and reforming the natural crust 7 times, although most admitted to only doing it twice), yet she tasted great cassoulets using crumbs. It appears in all things cassoulet there is no clear consensus.
Wolfert tested 3 classic forms from the holy trinity of cassoulet towns in Languedoc. She tried the Castelnaudary version with pork, ham, pork sausage and pork rind, the Toulouse variety with confit d’oie (or canard) and Toulouse sausage and Carcassonne’s cassoulet with mutton (or partridge in season). All, however, do have beans as an ingredient although the meat/bean ratio and even the type of beans vary from recipe to recipe. She even wrestled with the breadcrumb conundrum –– classicists say never use them (they say the crust must come from breaking and reforming the natural crust 7 times, although most admitted to only doing it twice), yet she tasted great cassoulets using crumbs. It appears in all things cassoulet there is no clear consensus.
Flying in the face of tradition, Wolfert even tried a Cassoulet de Morue made by Lucien Vanel at his restaurant in Toulouse. It was unorthodox indeed with cod, the ubiquitous beans, seafood sausage, and mussels in a saffron scented fish broth sauced with mustard, egg and cream and a soupçon of mischief as his fishy ingredients playfully winked at the meat-based bastion of classic Toulousean cassoulet (that I made HERE). It was the same iconoclastic Vanel who inspired a young Ferran Adrià to march to his own drummer at about the same time Wolfert paid a visit in the early 80’s. Vanel once said “Cuisiner, c'est donner –– Cooking is giving”. I think Adrià and Wolfert would agree.
The heroically determined Wolfert ate cassoulet in Paris, Toulouse, Castelaundry, Carcassone and Landes. She ate them in homes and restaurants, she even attended a cassoulet cook-off, but it wasn’t until she visited André Daguin at the Hotel de France in Auch that she found the best cassoulet EVER. Daguin is the champion of traditional Gascon cuisine and the creator of magret de canard as we know it –– a gently cooked duck breast, separated from the bird. This man knows the ways of the cassoulet ––he makes the preparation sound positively liberating. In the preface to his cookbook, Le Nouveau Cuisinier Gascon he wrote: “To those intimidated by the clock: the longer a recipe cooks, the longer it gives you liberty; and the lower the heat, even though more time is needed, more energy is economized. The longer a preparation takes, the more your hands are occupied, the more it permits your spirit to be available.” (Thanks to Kate Hill at Kitchen at Camont for the translation!!). You’ve got to love a man who thinks that way. Cassoulet is SLOW food.
Daguin prepared 3 cassoulets for her. He did the “normal” cassoulet with garlic sausage and steamed confit, a lentil version with the unusual addition of chorizo sausage and then… the winner… a cassoulet made from fresh fava beans, the Cassoulet de Féves with preserved duck and favas… “crisp on the outside soft and buttery-tender within. The contrast of flavors and the textures, the beans so full of spring and the Mediterranean, beans that absorbed the taste of the other ingredients and yet, almost paradoxically, maintained a fresh taste of their own –– I could not quite believe what I was eating. It seemed a miracle…. Daguin’s cassoulet of fava beans transcended definitions. As far as I was concerned, the cassoulet war was won.” After I read that… I was hooked.
I begrudgingly bid my time until Spring when I could get fresh favas to make this –– I had to make it –– nearly a biological imperative. It is interesting to note that favas would have been the original bean for the dish, predating the New World beans that have become the standard.
André’ Daguin’s daughter, D’Artagnan’s own Ariane Daguin said: "Cassoulet made with fresh fava beans is the quintessential French recipe, the origin of it all, as cassoulet appeared before the discovery of the Americas and, thus, before the bean plant came back from there.”
“Personally, it reminds me of the first days of the spring, as the dish, all winter long, can be made only with dried beans. I remember fondly the taste and crunch of the young fava beans, eaten raw right then and there, just dipped in a little coarse salt, as we sorted and peeled the bigger ones to go in the cassoulet.”
I would recommend this cassoulet as a sensational replacement for baked beans for an outdoor cookout… it will knock your guests off their lawn chairs… no fooling. Since there is more meat than beans in this version, it will feed a lot of people too.
Can you imagine it sideling up to beautiful grilled meats and vegetables on a plate with a little forest of crisp salad beside it (although traditionally it is served by itself, with perhaps a light vegetable salad before it)? Your taste dreams will be filled with its gentle, green-tinted-ducky-piggy goodness all summer long. * Also, very inauthentically... leftovers were great with maple cornbread and broccoli rabe!
Fava Bean Cassoulet (Cassoulet des Féves) inspired by André Daguin
1 cup duck fat
8-9 pounds of fava beans in their pods (this is a lot of work... easier when watching a good movie)
1 ¾ -2 pounds small white onions, peeled
1 ½ pounds lean fresh pork belly in 1 ½” dice blanched, rinsed and dried (Available at D’Artagnan in a large piece- order by phone 800-327-8246).
salt and pepper (I used smoked salt)
1 T sugar
6 oz pork skin with ¼ “ layer of fat (Available at D’Artagnan as part of the pork belly)
1 quart chicken stock
1 leek, trimmed, washed and left whole
1 large sprig thyme, tied with the leek
6 small ribs celery
5 firm cloves garlic, peeled
1 T Armagnac (optional)
Pinches of Herbes de Provence, nutmeg, mace and allspice (optional)
1 t fresh marjoram (optional)
Pinches of Herbes de Provence, nutmeg, mace and allspice (optional)
1 t fresh marjoram (optional)
1. Shuck the beans and discard the pods. You should have 2 quarts of beans. Slip off and discard the skins from 1 cup of the beans, cut the shoots off the rest if you see them, but leave the skins on. The skins will turn dark when you cook them, which is fine.
2. Warm the duck leg confit in a pan to melt whatever fat is on them, then remove the duck and save any fat that accumulates – make sure you have 1 cup. Supplement with extra duck fat if necessary.
3. Sauté the onions in the reserved duck fat 4-5 minutes in a 6-quart casserole. Add the diced and blanched pork with some pepper and sauté 5 minutes longer, or until it is browned a bit.
4. Stir in the peeled favas and sugar. Cover and cook slowly for 10 minutes, mashing the beans a little.
5. Simmer pork skin in water till supple, around 15 - 20 minutes. Drain, roll it up and tie it with string.
6. Add stock, fava beans, pork skin, leek, celery and garlic. Bring to a boil and skim. Reduce heat, cover with parchment or foil pricked in 2 or 3 places. Simmer for 1½ hours.
7. Place duck confit in a colander over steaming water and steam 10 minutes. Remove the duck and cool, then remove the meat from the bones (this is a special trick from Daguin). Remove the duck skin, cut into slices and reserve separately. Cover to keep duck meat moist.
8. Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
9. Remove the pork skin, unroll, and slice into smaller pieces. Line a 3 – 3 ½ quart casserole with the sliced pork skin, fat side down. (The classic clay cassole is conical, so the wide end at top allows a large surface; use a pot with a good surface area to create a crust.) Put duck meat on top of that. Remove leek, thyme and celery from the beans and transfer beans to the pot, straining out and saving the liquid/juices.
10. Skim the fat from the juices and add some of the juices to the meat to just cover the beans, reserving the remaining juices to add as needed. Add the optional herbs and spices. Taste for salt and add more if needed.
11. Cover the dish with foil and cook 20 minutes.
12. Remove the foil. Spoon off the fat (about a cup). Add only enough juices from the reserved cooking liquid to keep the beans moist.
13. After an hour, remove the foil and sprinkle the Armagnac over the surface, then push down to blend. Check the beans to see if they need more liquid. Put it back in the oven and allow a crust to form, which takes about 30 minutes.
14. Take care not to put in too much of the stock - better to leave a 1 cup or so in reserve and use it if it looks too dry. You want it to be creamy - not soupy.
15. If you have too much liquid, break the crust, push down and add at least another 20 minutes to the cooking time.
16. Cook the reserved duck skin in a cast iron pan until crisp. Sprinkle cassoulet with reserved duck skin crisps and serve.
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