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Monday, April 7, 2014

My Short Cut Cassoulet - Jacques Style

It's no secret David and I love food. Especially me lately, but that's a whole other issue haha. Usually we try to let the changing season dictate our food preferences, you know summer = lighter fare and winter is of course warm and heartier. However, sometimes there are just some recipes that look WAY too enticing to wait a whole year to try. Take, for example, Jacques Pepin short-cut Cassoulet. Defined as a stew with (lots of) meat and (some) white beans, and described as a rich slow cooked casserole. Essentially, the French's version of chili. David LOVES chili, and I have been needing to eat more meat recently so we found ourselves in the 'perfect storm' to create this dish.

After one quick trip to the grocery we gathered the few items we needed. I have to tell you that the ratio of meat to beans in the original recipe from Jacques was a little bit ridiculous. And by little you know that I really mean a LOT. Even David was impressed and that is not easily done my friends. This is the man who is well known for saying "I just want a hunk of meat". But I digress. So, after getting back from the store I set about putting the 'quick' dish together. Traditionally this is a dish that takes about 3 days to put together, which is insane in my book, but Jacques so nicely creates a shorter version of it for those of us mere mortals that only have like 30 minutes to an hour in our afternoon free to make dinner. Now, you could Google Jacques 30 minute cassoulet recipe and follow it if you desired, but to suit my needs and items available I kind of used his recipe more like guidelines (yes, I said that just like in Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl when Barbossa says, "the code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.")

This is not the finished stew, but rather a preview of the meat to vegetable ratio

Anyways, here is what I did to make this stupendous dish:

Cassoulet
Adapted from Jacques Pepin 30 minute Cassoulet recipe
Makes 8-10 servings


  • 2 tbsp EVOO
  • 1/2 lb Boston Butt or 1/4 lb bacon
  • 3 Hot Italian Sausages
  • 2 Bratwursts or 1 smoked Kielbasa
  • 1 pint mushrooms
  • 5 carrots, sliced
  • 1 large tomato, chopped
  • 4 stalks celery, sliced
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 4 large garlic cloves
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 4-6 cans Cannelloni beans, undrained 
  • 4 c chicken stock or water
  • Salt and Pepper to preference

  1. If using Boston Butt, season well on all sides with kosher salt and pepper. Rub it in with your hands. 
  2. Heat oil in a large pot and add the seasoned Boston Butt, or the bacon if using, and the Italian sausages. Cover and cook over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, turning the meat occasionally. My advice - make sure you cover it otherwise you'll be cleaning up oil splatter from the fatty meats EVERYWHERE. 
  3. Add the bratwurst, or Kielbasa, mushrooms, carrots, onion, garlic, thyme and the bay leaf to the pot. Mix well and cook for about another 10 minutes.
  4. Now you can add in the beans (go ahead and pour the entire cans contents in, don't drain it), tomato, water and pepper. The amount of beans I feel is up to personal preference. I opened a few cans and then added more until I liked the ratio of meat to beans/vegetables. Bring it all to a boil. Now, reduce the heat to medium-low and cover to gently simmer for 5-10 minutes. 
  5. It was at this point the meat seemed to be done (the sausages skins were cracking and beautifully browned), so I removed the pieces from the stew, sliced them in thick slices, and set them aside in a large bowl to add back in before serving. I was afraid of overcooking them. 
  6. It was at this point that you could have tasted the stew and seasoned to preference with salt and pepper, sliced the meat and served dinner. However, I had time to spare and stews are always better if you let them stew longer rather than shorter time periods, so I let it continue to simmer and thicken for about another hour. I set a timer to come stir it about every 10-15 minutes and then by the end of the hour it had a beautiful gravy like sauce, not too thick or thin that tasted like the essence of awesome. 
  7. I took it off the heat, discarded the bay leaf, and added the meat slices back into it. Warmed everything right up and served it hot with crusty Italian bread. I thought it would also be very good served well over rice, but we went with the bread for this dinner. 


 We feasted like kings with this dinner : D it was wonderful. However, our consistent thought was it is so rich because of the fatty meats (which are of course tasty for that reason) it's a meal that you don't want to gorge on. Unless you want to have your heart stop during your dinner. Seriously decadent - eat with caution haha. I am still confused on how this was historically a peasant food with all the meat in it, but I guess they are the only ones working hard enough to work off all the calories so they don't drop dead from eating it frequently. David did point out you could use pretty cheap cuts of meat, or hunted game, and perhaps that is why it was peasant fare.

From all the recipe scouring I did beforehand, it seems you can pretty much use any meats you may have on hand, whether it be a form of bacon, sausage, pork shoulder, chicken thighs, breasts, lamb, duck, beef, etc. It seemed many people had gotten creative with this meal.

Anyways, it was delicious and I think you should try it and adjust it to your liking despite the weather turning warmer  :)

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