Cassoulet - Sixth New Recipe of 2012

The heaviest thing I've ever cooked

Cassoulet is a French dish made of baked white beans cooked in stock with some sort of meat.  This is a very slowly cooked dish, so I cooked it in the stock pot on a day when this could cook for about five hours.  I found recipes with almost every kind of meat.  Many called for duck confit, pork rillades or sausage.  Since I had duck legs confit and sausage, I opted for these, and I pounded some butterflied pork chops into rillades. 

I soaked the beans overnight in water in the fridge.  (Apparently, beans can ferment if you soak them at room temperature.)  I then put the duck legs in the bottom of the crock pot and added in some mirepois.  I poured in the beans and about a quart of ham stock and let it cook away for a few hours.  I then seared the rillades and the sausage and added it to the pot.  Next, I removed the duck legs from the pot and took the meat off of them. 

Ready to add the beans

Topped with bread crumbs, ready to go in the oven

I then let it cook a few more hours until the beans were soft.  A lot of the recipes called for topping the cassoulet with bread crumbs.  I tossed some panko crumbs with butter and sprinkled them on top. 



The crockery in my crock pot is oven-safe and removes from the crock pot, so I put it in a 400 degree oven to toast the crumbs. 

I really liked this recipe, but next time, I think I'll use a little more liquid, toast the bread crumbs separately and serve them on top.