Cassoulet for the holidays!

The holidays are approaching and I can't wait to make our traditional cassoulet for Christmas Eve. It is a typical winter dish and one of the most famous complete meal in itself. It is typical of the Southwest France. The name comes from "cassolette" which means big pot used to cook a bean dish.

Cassoulet is a dish that used to be cooked forever! It is in Castelnaudary that one cassoulet is known to have cooked for 100 years! After several hours of cooking, a crust is supposed to form on top of the cassoulet. Every hour or so, a ladle of broth is added, pushing down the crust. Most of the connaisseurs would not eat cassoulet unless it has been reheated 4 or 5 times!!

The cassoulet of the rich would have "confit d'oie" (cooked goose parts marinated in its own fat and in salt) while the cassoulet of the poor would include sausages and chicken or lamb. So be creative! Make your own recipe by adding lamb chops, pork tenderloin cubed , smoked pork chops (if you are cooking for less than one hour), pork shoulder, lamb shanks, pork shanks (if you are cooking for more than 2 hours) chicken thighs, bacon, sausages etc...

Over the years I have cut down on the time soaking beans, by using several 15 oz cans of Great Northern white beans or Navy beans.

Cassoulet :

4 slices of bacon cut in 1/3 and fried

2 lbs chicken parts ( fat trimmed) and sauteed in 1 or 2 Tbsp margarine

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp pepper

1 lb good sausage ( polish or german works) sauteed or boiled and skinned if skin is tough

2 Tbsp margarine or oil

1 chopped onion

4 minced cloves of garlic

3 chopped carrots

1 chopped celery stick

3 to 4 15 oz cans of white beans

2 Tbsp tomato paste or 2 cubed fresh tomatoes

1 cup of chicken broth

1 bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 1 branch of thyme, 1 branch of parsley) if using dried herbs use 1 Tbsp of each

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

One hour and a half before dinner:

Fry bacon in a skillet until brown and crisp on medium high heat. Drain on paper towel, set aside and reserve bacon fat in a little bowl for later. In the same skillet put 1 Tbsp margarine or oil and add chicken pieces when hot. Sprinkle chicken with 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and saute until brown on each side about 20 to 30 minutes. When chicken is golden brown, set aside.

One hour before dinner: Set oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit

Boil water in a saucepan and with a fork prick the sausages. Plunge them in boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. Peel the skin off. If skin is not tough sauteed the sausage making sure each side is brown in a little oil for 10 minutes. Set aside after cooking.

In the meantime, chop garlic, onion, carrots, celery. Use the skillet you fried the chicken in, add 1 Tbsp margarine or oil and saute the vegetables until limp and tender, on medium high heat, about 5 to 10 minutes. Mix in tomato paste or tomatoes. Reduce heat to simmer. Mix in 1 cup of chicken broth, bouquet garni, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper and simmer for 5 minutes.

Drain the beans and add to the skillet. Simmer for 5 minutes. During that time cut sausage in chunks.

Drizzle half of the bacon fat at the bottom of a 3 to 4 quarts Dutch oven. Put a layer of the bean mixture, then bacon and sausage, then beans, then chicken then beans. The top layer should be beans. Drizzle more bacon fat on top of the beans. Cover the Dutch oven and cook for 30 minutes. Uncover and cook for another 30 minutes. If it gets dry add more broth. Before serving make sure you remove the bouquet garni. Sprinkle with chopped parsley when serving.

Serves 6 to 8 people.

Have fun !

With the cold days coming we tend to turn to comfort food.....

On my last trip to the southwest of the Massif Central I rediscovered the region where my mom Gisele grew up : Correze. We visited the small village of Sarran nearby and explored the Chirac Museum with a display of all the gifts he received from famous heads of state around the world. Quite impressive! We had lunch in the village.

I enjoyed a Pate Limousin sometimes called Pate Correzien. It just melted in my mouth. Immediately I checked with Mamy, I had to make it once I got home!! (Mamy and I got to work that week and we came up with a good recipe).

Little did we know that day!! Here walks in Jacques Chirac our ex-president of France in person.

Of course he agreed to have his picture taken with me and back in the States I got to work on that delicious recipe!!

With the cold days coming now, we tend to turn to comfort food. This recipe is a great example of comfort food and I thought I would share it with you so you can have it on hand for the coming cold months.

PATE CORREZIEN
Ingredients:
1 package Pepperidge Farm puff pastry (it comes with 2 sheets of dough)
8 normal size red potatoes
1 lb Johnsonville Sweet Italian ground pork
1 bunch of parsley
6 regular cloves of garlic
3/4 cup Creme Fraiche (optional)
Salt and pepper
1 egg

Use a glass dish 9x13 inches for the recipe. Make sure the dish is greased.
Roll out the first sheet of dough so it is 12x14, leaving an overlap over the glass dish. Slice the potatoes thinly and mix with the creme fraiche. If not using creme fraiche, omit and mix the potatoes with salt and pepper. Place half of the potatoes on the dough.

In a food processor chop parsley and garlic and mix with the ground pork. Place the pork mixture on top of the potatoes and top with the remaining half of the potatoes.
Place the second sheet of dough you have rolled out to 9X13 on top of the potatoes.
Beat one egg with a little water. Brush that mixture on the dough using it as glue overlapping the bottom dough over the top dough on the sides.

Make sure you brush all the dough exposed with the egg wash. It will brown better.Make 3 or 4 little holes on top of the dough so that the steam escapes while baking.

Turn your oven on bake at 410 degrees Fahrenheit and bake 45 minutes. Enjoy!!

This is a great dish with a salad and since it can feed 8 to 10 people you can have leftovers. Just reheat a piece or two at 350 for 10/15 minutes.

Enjoy !