Cassoulet (Meat Surprise!)

Last month I decided on lazy Sunday to try and make a French Cassoulet. Pretty much it is a peasant dish consisting of slow-cooked meat and beans. What kind of meat? All kinds of meat. Fatty ducks and fatty lamb and fatty pork and beans. I tried to lighten it up as much as I could. I replaced pork shoulder with trimmed pork stew meat, and I used skinless chicken thighs instead of skin-on duck legs.

First you cook up a couple slices of bacon and set them aside. I did not try to lighten up bacon.

Next is the stew pork! You could use chunked leg of lamb if you'd like to have a heart attack.

Boneless, skinless, chicken thighs! I wish I could afford that much duck confit.

Cast iron is getting all dark brown and meat sear-y. Mmmmmm.

Onions and garlic go in to scrape all of the brown bits off the bottom.

Tomato paste, too. For more brown-bit scraping.


Then you toss the meat back in. I didn't take a picture, but at this point you also add about 4 spicy chicken sausages, cut in half down the length of them. So many different meats.

Four cups of chicken stock are next. I like to use the chicken stock concentrate from Trader Joe's, that way I don't have to lug heavy broth up to my apartment where I have no room to store it.

Meats in meat water. You also add a whole ton of great northern beans in here now too. Four cans.


Top with panko breadcrumbs and bake for like, 4 hours.

The finished product deceitfully looks like it's covered with a thick layer of cheese.

Scoop out some into a bowl- you never know what kind of meat you'll get, so it's an exciting gamble.

Cassoulet (adapted from a Cooking Light recipe- no really, I had to lighten a Cooking Light recipe):

• 6 boneless skinless chicken thighs
  
• 4 bacon slices, chopped into pieces
  
• 1 lb of chunks of pork
  
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1/4 cup tomato puree
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 4 cans Great Northern beans, drained
• 4 spicy Italian chicken sausages
• 1/4 cup panko

Brown meats and drain. Sautee onion and garlic and tomato paste. Add meats back to pot. Cover with chicken broth. Bake at 300° for 2 1/2 hours. Stir in beans. Sprinkle breadcrumbs over the top of the casserole. Bake at 375°for 1 hour covered, then uncover and cook until brown and bubbly, about 15 minutes.

Meats.

Mario Batali's father owns a meat curing company, called Salumi Artisan Cured Meats.
You can order some of the items online from their store based in Seattle, Washington.

Everything they make looks super delicious. Lamb "Proscuitto"? Salumi Salumi? Sigh.