Lamb And Pork Cassoulet Recipes

LAMB CASSOULET

Steps:

• Rinse beans under running water. Place in large pot with salt pork and bacon; add cold water to cover. Bring to boil and cook 3 minutes. Strain through colander and rinse.
• Return beans, salt pork and bacon to clean pot. Add 6 cups cold water. Stud whole onion with cloves and add to beans. Add carrot, bay leaf, thyme and 2 cloves peeled garlic. Cover and simmer very gently until beans are tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
• Remove carrot, onion and garlic from beans and discard. Set pot aside.
• Season shanks with salt. Heat duck fat in casserole or Dutch oven and brown meat on all sides. Remove from pan with slotted spoon; set aside. Add chopped onions, chopped garlic and tomato paste to pan, mixing well. Return shanks to pan and fit saucisson, salt pork and bacon around them. Pour beans and their liquid over. Cover partway and cook over low heat for 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Remove meats from beans. Discard salt pork. Cut lamb and bacon into chunks and slice saucisson into 6 thick pieces. Season well with pepper. Season beans with salt as needed.
• Using slotted spoon, remove half the beans from the casserole. Arrange meats over beans remaining in pan. Spread remaining beans over the meats.
• Cover casserole and bake 1 1/2 hours. Uncover casserole, raise oven setting to 450 degrees and cook until a crust forms on top of the beans, about 20 minutes.

SIMPLIFIED CASSOULET

Steps:

• Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 450 degrees.
• Place lamb cubes in a bowl. Drizzle with 2 tablespoons oil and sprinkle generously with salt and pepper, turning to coat.
• Place Italian sausages, 1 cup water, and remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large heavy roasting pan set over two burners. Cover with heavy-duty foil and turn heat to medium-high. Cook until sausages lose their raw color, about 5 minutes. Remove foil (reserve it) and continue to cook until water evaporates. Add smoked sausages and cook, turning frequently, until all sausages are browned, 5 to 8 minutes longer. Transfer to a plate. When cool enough to handle, cut Italian sausages into bite-size chunks. Halve smoked sausages lengthwise. Set aside.
• Generously sprinkle duck breasts with salt and pepper. Reduce heat under roasting pan and add duck breasts, skin side down. Cook until fat has rendered and skin is mahogany brown, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Turn duck breasts over and continue to cook until cooked through, about 5 minutes longer.
• Remove duck from pan. Drain fat from pan and reserve. Slice each breast crosswise into 4 pieces.
• Return roasting pan to medium-high heat. Add lamb cubes and cook, turning once, until a brown crust forms on two sides, 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer lamb to a large ovenproof pot; set roasting pan aside. Add broth mixture and wine to lamb and cover with reserved foil, pressing down so that it almost touches meat, then sealing foil around top of pot, leaving a small opening for steam to escape. Bring to a simmer and simmer for a few minutes to burn off alcohol. Seal foil completely, then cover pot with lid. Bake, without checking pot, for 1 hour and 15 minutes; meat will be very tender.
• Meanwhile, reheat roasting pan over medium-high heat. Add enough reserved duck fat or olive oil to pan to equal 2 tablespoons. Add onions and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add prosciutto and thyme and saute to blend flavors, 1 to 2 minutes longer. Add tomatoes and beans and simmer to blend flavors, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Transfer cooked lamb and broth to roasting pan. Add duck, sausages, and enough water to make a soupy, moist casserole. You can let the cassoulet mixture stand at room temperature for up to 2 hours.
• An hour before serving, adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Bring cassoulet to a simmer.
• Mix bread crumbs, melted butter, and parsley and sprinkle over cassoulet. Bake until crumbs are golden and stew is bubbly, about 45 minutes. Let stand for 5 minutes, and serve.

LAMB AND PORK CASSOULET

Steps:

• Saute onion and garlic in oil.
• Add lamb and pork.
• Saute 5 minutes until cooked though.
• Combine everything in a small deep oven safe dish.
• Bake uncovered 350 30 minutes.
• HINTS: for those who like more beans & less meat Add another can of beans & half as much meat. Just use a tad more water.
• If you liked it or hated it please let me know -- .

CASSOULET (WHITE BEAN CASSEROLE WITH PORK, LAMB AND DUCK) PART 2

Steps:

• (follows part 1) Arrange the duck pieces, skin side down, on a rack in a roasting pan and broil them under a preheated broiler about 4 inches from the heat for 10 minutes. Turn the duck pieces and broil them 10 minutes more, or until the juices run clear and the meat is cooked through. Transfer the duck with tongs to a cutting board and reserve 1/4 cup of the duck fat. In a 6 quart casserole layer one third of the reserved bean mixture, half the braised meat mixture, 4 pieces of duck, half the remaining bean mixture, the remaining braised meat mixture, the remaining duck pieces, and the remaining bean mixture. Pour 6 cups of the reserved broth, skimmed of any fat, slowly over the mixture, sprinkle the top with 2 cups of bread crumbs, and drizzle it with 2 tablespoons of the reserved duck fat. Bake the Cassoulet,uncovered, in the middle of a preheated 325deg. f. oven for 30 minutes. Press the crumb layer lightly into the cassoulet, top it with the remaining 1 cup of crumbs, and drizzle the top with the remaining 2 tablespoons of duck fat. Bake the cassoulet for 1 3/4 more, or until the crust is golden brown.

CASSOULET (WHITEBEAN CASSEROLE WITH PORK, LAMB, AND DUCK) PART 1

Steps:

• Make the bean mixture: In a large heavy kettle combine the broth and the water and bring the liquid to a boil. Stir in the beans, the salt pork, and the sausage and bring liquid to a boil, skimming the froth. Stir in the onions, the garlic, the thyme, the bouquet garni, and pepper to taste and simmer the mixture, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 hours, or until the beans are tender. Discard the salt pork, the onions, and the bouquet garni, strain the mixture through a colander set over a large bowl, and in separate bowls reserve the bean mixture and the broth. (the bean mixture and the broth can be made a day in advance and kept covered and chilled). In a large skillet cook the bacon until crisp and transfer it with tongs to paper towels to drain. In the fat remaining in the skillet brown the pork and the lamb over moderate high heat, turning the pieces once, for 8 minutes and transfer the meat with a slotted spoon to a large casserole. In the fat remaining in the skillet cook the onion, the celery, and the garlic with salt and pepper to taste over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened. Stir in the wine and boil the mixture until reduced by half. Stir in the tomatoes with reserved liquid and bacon and simmer the mixture, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Transfer the mixture to casserole and braise it, covered, in a preheated 325 deg f oven for 1 hour. SEE PART TWO!

CASSOULET

Steps:

• Make the bean stew: Soak the beans overnight in enough cold water to cover them well. Drain, rinse, and pick through them for stones and damaged beans. In a large saucepan, cover the pig's foot or ham hock, pork belly or pancetta, and pork rind with cold water. Bring to a boil, simmer for 3 minutes, drain, and rinse in cold water. Reserve. In a large saucepan, cover the beans with lukewarm water. Bring to a boil, drain, and return to the pan. Cover with hot water. Add the carrots, onion, tomato, celery, garlic, and herb bouquet. Bring to a boil, add the reserved pig's foot or ham hock, pork belly or pancetta, and pork rind. Simmer, covered, for 1-1/2 hours, until completely tender (don't add salt yet). Transfer to a large pan to cool and reserve the beans in their cooking liquid. Remove the carrot, onion, and herb bouquet; discard. Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed, but be prudent, as the pork parts add a good bit of salty flavor.
• Meanwhile, make the lamb stew: Cut the lamb into 2-1/2-inch pieces. Season with salt and pepper. In a large, heavy sauté pan over medium-high heat, melt the duck fat or heat the oil. Sear the lamb pieces until well browned on all sides. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add the carrot and onion, lower the heat to medium, and cover the pan. Sweat the vegetables until tender but not browned, about 6 minutes. Raise the heat, add the white wine, and boil, scraping up any browned bits with a wooden spoon, until the liquid is reduced by half. Add the reserved lamb and any juices, the tomatoes, herb bouquet, garlic, and broth or stock. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the lamb is tender, about 1 hour, skimming off the fat and froth as needed. Discard the herb bouquet and reserve the lamb stew until it's time to assemble the cassoulet.
• Assemble the cassoulet: Heat the oven to 250°F. In a medium-size sauté pan over medium-high heat, heat half of the duck fat or olive oil. Add the sausage and brown it on all sides. When cool enough to handle, cut it into six pieces.
• Cut the duck confit legs in half at the joint. Rub the garlic clove over the inside of an earthenware casserole, an enameled cast-iron Dutch oven, or a large ceramic soufflé mold. Retrieve the pig's foot or ham hock, pork rind, and pork belly or pancetta from the bean stew. Discard the pig's foot or ham hock bones. (If you've used a ham hock, tear off any remaining meat and add it to the bean stew.) Cut the pork belly or pancetta into 1/2-inch pieces and reserve. Cut the pork rind into 1/2-inch pieces and scatter them over the bottom of the dish.
• With a slotted spoon, transfer one-third of the beans to the dish. Do the same with half the pork belly or pancetta, all of the duck confit, half the lamb stew (again, use a slotted spoon, because you'll be using the cooking liquid later), and all of the sausage. Cover the meats with another one-third of beans, the remaining pork belly and lamb stew, and finish with the last one-third of beans. Combine the bean juices with the lamb sauce, taste for seasoning (remembering that the duck confit is salty), and pour just enough over the dish to barely cover the beans.
• Sprinkle the dish with the breadcrumbs and drizzle the remaining duck fat (melt it first if it's still solid) or olive oil over the breadcrumbs. Bake for 2-1/2 hours and then raise the heat to 350°F and bake until the crust is a rich golden brown and the cassoulet is bubbling around the edges, about another 30 minutes. Check the cassoulet during baking - if it's getting too dry, add more broth or stock; if the crust is browning too quickly, cover it with foil. Let the cassoulet rest for at least 30 minutes before serving. Bring the entire dish to the table and serve each guest some crust, beans, and pieces of the different meats.

HOW TO MAKE CASSOULET

Steps:

• We may think of it as decadent, but cassoulet is at heart a humble bean and meat stew, rooted in the rural cooking of the Languedoc region. But for urban dwellers without access to the staples of a farm in southwest France - crocks of rendered lard and poultry fat, vats of duck confit, hunks of meat from just-butchered pigs and lambs - preparing one is an epic undertaking that stretches the cook. The reward, though, may well be the pinnacle of French home cooking.Cassoulet does take time to make: there is overnight marinating and soaking, plus a long afternoon of roasting and simmering, and a few days on top of that if you make your own confit. However, it is also a relatively forgiving dish, one that welcomes variation and leaves room for the personality of the cook - perhaps more than any other recipe in the canon. As long as you have white beans slowly stewed with some combination of sausages, pork, lamb, duck or goose, you have a cassoulet.The hardest part about making a cassoulet when you're not in southwest France is shopping for the ingredients. This isn't a dish to make on the fly; you will need to plan ahead, ordering the duck fat and confit and the garlic sausage online or from a good butcher, and finding sources for salt pork and fresh, bone-in pork and lamb stew meat. The beans, though, aren't hard to procure. Great Northern and cannellini beans make fine substitutes for the Tarbais, flageolet and lingot beans used in France.Then give yourself over to the rhythm of roasting, sautéing and long, slow simmering. The final stew, a glorious pot of velvety beans and chunks of tender meat covered by a burnished crust, is well worth the effort.
• Named for the cassole, the earthenware pot in which it is traditionally cooked, cassoulet evolved over the centuries in the countryside of southwest France, changing with the ingredients on hand and the cooks stirring the pot.The earliest versions of the dish were most likely influenced by nearby Spain, which has its own ancient tradition of fava bean and meat stews. As the stew migrated to the Languedoc region, the fava beans were replaced by white beans, which were brought over from the Americas in the 16th century.Although there are as many cassoulets as there are kitchens in the Languedoc, three major towns of the region - Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Toulouse - all vigorously lay claim to having created what they consider to be the only true cassoulet. It is a feud that has been going on at least since the middle of the 19th century, and probably even longer.In 1938, the chef Prosper Montagné, a native of Carcassonne and an author of the first version of "Larousse Gastronomique," attempted to resolve the dispute. He approached the subject with religious zeal, calling cassoulet "the god of Occidental cuisine" and likening the three competing versions to the Holy Trinity. The cassoulet from Castelnaudary, which is considered the oldest, is the Father in Montagné's trinity, and is made from a combination of beans, duck confit and pork (sausages, skin, knuckles, salt pork and roasted meat). The Carcassonne style is the Son, with mutton and the occasional partridge stirred in. And the version from Toulouse, the Holy Spirit, was the first to add goose confit to the pot.The recipe for cassoulet was codified by the "États Généraux de la Gastronomie" in 1966, and it was done in a way that allowed all three towns to keep their claims of authenticity. The organization mandated that to be called cassoulet, a stew must consist of at least 30 percent pork, mutton or preserved duck or goose (or a combination of the three elements), and 70 percent white beans and stock, fresh pork rinds, herbs and flavorings.That settled the question of which meats to use. But there are two other main points of contention that still inspire debate: the use of tomatoes and other vegetables with the beans, and a topping of bread crumbs that crisp in the oven. Julia Child chose to do both, as we do here. "The Escoffier Cookbook" and "Larousse Gastronomique" give some recipes that include the tomatoes, vegetables and bread crumbs, and some that omit them. The beauty of it is that if you make your own cassoulet, you get to decide.Above, "The Kitchen Table" by Jean-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779).
• Casserole dish You will need a deep casserole dish that holds at least eight quarts, or a large Dutch oven, to bake the cassoulet. If you use a Dutch oven, you won't need the cover. The cassoulet needs to bake uncovered to develop a crisp crust.Baking sheets All of the ingredients for a cassoulet are cooked before being combined and baked again. The meat can be cooked in any number of ways; here, the pork and lamb stew meat is roasted on rimmed baking sheets so that it browns.Large pot The beans and garlic sausage (or kielbasa) are cooked in a large pot before they are added to the casserole, though you could use a slow cooker or pressure cooker, if you have one. You will also need a second small pot for simmering the salt pork.Wirecutter, a product recommendations website owned by The New York Times Company, has guides to the best Dutch ovens and baking sheets.
• This slow-cooked casserole requires a good deal of culinary stamina. But the voluptuous combination of aromatic beans with rich chunks of duck confit, sausage, pork and lamb is worth the effort. Serve it with a green salad. It doesn't need any other accompaniment, and you wouldn't have room for one anyway.
• The hardest part of making a cassoulet may be obtaining the ingredients. Beyond that, it helps to think of cooking and building it in stages. Once you've gathered and prepared the components (the meat, beans, salt pork, sausage, duck confit and bread crumb topping), assembling the dish is just a matter of layering the elements.• You can use any kind of roasted meats for a cassoulet, and the kinds vary by region. Substitute roasted chicken, turkey or goose for the duck confit, bone-in beef for the lamb and bone-in veal for the pork. Lamb neck is a great substitute for the bone-in lamb stew meat, and you can use any chunks of bone-in pork, like pork ribs, in place of the pork stew meat. (The bones give the dish more flavor, and their gelatin helps thicken the final stew.)• Do not use smoked sausages in the beans, or substitute smoked bacon for the salt pork. The smoky flavor can overwhelm the dish, and it is not traditional in French cassoulets. If you can't find salt pork, pancetta will work in its place, and you won't need to poach it beforehand.• You can buy duck confit at gourmet markets or order it online. If you'd prefer to make it yourself, this is how to do it: Rub 4 fresh duck legs with a large pinch of salt each. Place in a dish and generously sprinkle with whole peppercorns, thyme sprigs and smashed, peeled garlic cloves. Cover and let cure for 4 to 24 hours in the refrigerator. When ready to cook, wipe the meat dry with paper towels, discarding the garlic, pepper and herbs. Place in a Dutch oven or baking dish and cover completely with fat. (Duck fat is traditional, but olive oil also works.) Bake in a 200-degree oven until the duck is tender and well browned, 3 to 4 hours. Let duck cool in the fat before refrigerating. Duck confit lasts for at least a month in the refrigerator and tastes best after sitting for 1 week.• Don't think the meat is the only star of this dish. The beans need just as much love. You want them velvety, sitting in a trove of tomato, stock and rich fat. Buy the best beans you can, preferably ones that have been harvested and dried within a year of cooking. The variety of white bean is less important than their freshness.• Bread crumbs aren't traditional for cassoulet, but will result in a topping with an especially airy and crisp texture. Regular dried bread crumbs, either bought or homemade, will also work.• When you roast the meat, leave plenty of space between the chunks of meat so they brown nicely. More browning means richer flavor. You can also use leftover roasted meat if you have them on hand.• The bouquet garni flavors both the beans and the bean liquid, which is used to moisten the cassoulet as it bakes. To make one, take sprigs of parsley and thyme and a bay leaf and tie them together with at least 1 foot of kitchen string. Tuck the bay leaf in the middle of the bouquet and make sure you wrap the herbs up thoroughly, several times around, so they don't escape into the pot.• Feel free to use a slow cooker or pressure cooker for the beans. Add the garlic sausage (or kielbasa) about halfway through the cooking time. It doesn't have to be exact, since the sausage is already cooked; you're adding it to flavor the beans and their liquid.• Use a very large skillet, at least 12 inches, for sautéing the sausages and finishing the beans before you layer them into the casserole dish. • In this recipe, the beans are finished in a tomato purée, which reduces and thickens the sauce of the final cassoulet. But you can substitute a good homemade stock for the purée. You'll get a soupier cassoulet, but it's just as traditional without the tomatoes.• The salt pork is layered in strips into the bottom of the baking dish. Then, while cooking, it crisps and turns into a bottom crust for the stew. So it is important to slice it thinly and carefully place it in a single layer on the bottom of the dish (and up the sides, if you have enough). Don't overlap it very much, or those parts won't get as crisp.• The reserved bean liquid is added to the cassoulet for cooking, and its starchiness is what keeps the stew thick and creamy. Using stock instead would make for a soupier but still delicious cassoulet.• You create a substantial top crust with crunch by repeatedly cracking the very thick layer of bread crumbs as the cassoulet cooks, and by drizzling the topping with bean liquid, which browns and crisps up in the heat. It's best to crack the topping in even little taps from the side of a large spoon. You are looking to create more texture and crunch by exposing more of the bread crumbs to the hot oven and bean liquid, which should be drizzled generously and evenly.• If you like you can skip the bread crumbs entirely, which is just as traditional. The top will brown on its own, but there won't be a texturally distinct crust.• You do not have to make the cassoulet all in one go. You can break up the work, cooking the separate elements ahead of time and reserving them until you are ready to layer and bake the cassoulet. Or assemble the cassoulet in its entirety ahead of time, without bread crumbs, and then top and bake just before serving.
• Photography Food styling: Alison Attenborough. Prop styling: Beverley Hyde. Additional photography: Karsten Moran for The New York Times. Additional styling: Jade Zimmerman. Video Food styling: Chris Barsch and Jade Zimmerman. Art direction: Alex Brannian. Prop styling: Catherine Pearson. Director of photography: James Herron. Camera operators: Tim Wu and Zack Sainz. Editing: Will Lloyd and Adam Saewitz. Additional editing: Meg Felling.
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