Cassoulet
A great way to use the lower leg of lamb (if not using for lamb shanks which seem to be all the rage at the moment) or the shoulder. This recipe can also be used for the meat left over after a roast-which makes it very economical. It can also be made in advance and reheated the following day or frozen for eating later.
Cassoulet is one of the great country dishes of France, from the Languedoc. It’s rich filling, dead easy to make and serves many.
Ingredients
1lb belly of pork, rind removed (keep this) and cut into very large cubes ˝ lb dry cured bacon-smoked or unsmoked, as liked 1 ˝-2lb boned shoulder of lamb, or shank end of leg 1 lb top quality pure meat sausages 1 ˝ lb dried haricot/flageolet beans soaked overnight (butter beans or anything else for that matter will not do) 8 cloves of garlic 1 bay leaf, lots of thyme, 1 clove 2 tomatoes peeled and choppedMethod
Boil the soaked beans for 30 minutes and drain. Put the lamb in to roast if not already cooked. Fry the pork cubes, seasoned with pepper, in their own fat, until golden. Fry the bacon.Add the pork, beans, garlic, herbs, clove chopped pork rind, tomatoes and lamb; cover with water and simmer in a large casserole for at least 1 ˝ hours. Slowly on top of the cooker is fine, but can also be done in the oven making sure it’s simmering before turning the heat right down.
Meanwhile brown the sausages and place in the casserole. Mash around a third of the beans with the back of a fork.
Cook for another ˝ hour, scatter with chopped parsley and serve. Should serve at least eight.
Notes
A simple salad or dish of steamed vegetables goes well with this. Kids tend to like it because of the resemblance to baked beans.
The quantity of tomatoes might seem mean, but you want to end up with a plate of steaming regional excellence, not a dish resembling something from the Mediterranean.
For the more avid garlic lover, some of the garlic can be reserved and crushed into the casserole, when the sausages are added. Other meats can be used, increasing the amount of bacon, blade of pork, and popularly preserved duck or goose; we sometimes use a chicken joint.
However, Elizabeth David has stern warning “The cassoulet is a dish which may be infinitely varied as long as it is not made into a mockery with a sausage or two heated up with tinned beans or with all sorts of bits of left over chicken or goodness knows what thrown into it as if it were a dustbin” As if...
