Classic Cassoulet

This classic cassoulet is a hearty, rich bowl of white beans with bacon, sausage and duck confit, the perfect dish on a cold winter's day.

When I started this blog, it quickly became both a place of experimentation and recording old favorites, a creative outlet where I could explore the food options as I moved from Kuala Lumpur to Cairo and then on to Dubai, even as I cooked and reminisced about family recipes. For all the things I missed when left behind, I discovered new options that had not been available to me. 

Two years ago, we were newly in Cairo and I wrote a post about butchering a whole duck, using the breasts for one meal, making confit out of the legs and thighs and then roasting and simmering the carcass for rich stock. Eventually, when my mother came to visit, that duck confit was turned into a classic cassoulet, one of the tastiest dishes ever concocted, but with some of the ugliest photos ever snapped so it never saw light of day in this space. I’ve since made it a couple of times but somehow never got around to posting those either.

When I saw that the theme for today’s Sunday Supper was Beantastic, I knew cassoulet would have to be revisited yet again. The photos still aren’t spectacular but I think the richness of the dish shines through. Cassoulet is meant to be peasant fare but, unless you have a duck you've hunted for yourself to make confit, that one ingredient is kind of expensive to buy. Let me say this, though, it’s totally worth it, not just for what it adds to the cassoulet but also for the extra duck fat you get that sits around the confit duck in the can or jar. Save that stuff! It’s fabulous!

Classic Cassoulet

Apparently the essential ingredients of a classic cassoulet are hotly debated and depend on the region of France. Although all will include beans, the meat that is added varies. Today’s tasty dish is in the Languedoc-style with confit duck and sausage and bacon. It's my favorite. 

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g dried white beans
1 medium onion
2 large onions
10 cloves garlic
7 oz or 200g slab bacon (I like smoked bacon. Some purists say it should be unsmoked. Pffft to them.)
2 bay leaves
Several fresh thyme sprigs
Olive oil
1 1/4 lbs or 540g fresh pork sausage
4 leg/thighs duck confit  - You can make your own. It’s not hard, just time consuming. Or buy the ones in a big can or jar. For this dish, I used these from Rougié.  <affiliate link
Salt
Black pepper

Method
Soak your dried beans overnight or cover amply with boiling water and leave to soak for one hour.

Meanwhile, cut your medium onion into quarters and cut your slab bacon into chunks.

Pour off the soaking water and put the beans into a large pot with the thyme sprigs, the quartered onion, the bacon chunks and one bay leaf. Cover with fresh water and cook until tender over a low fire. Stir the pot occasionally and add more water, if necessary. You do not want the beans drying out.

Drain the beans and bacon and reserve the cooking liquid. You can discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf but the onion has probably melted away to almost nothing so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Scrape the fat off of the confit duck legs and thighs and save it in a clean jar in the refrigerator.

Slice your other two onions and your garlic and slowly caramelize them in a saucepan over a low heat, with a drizzle of olive oil or, better yet, some of the lovely duck fat you just saved.

If you are just sitting around, waiting on your beans to cook to tenderness, you can wait till the onions and garlic are caramelized and use the same pan to brown the sausage. Or use another pan and get on with it, if your beans are already ready.

When your onions/garlic are well caramelized, eyeball the pan (or the bowl into which you have transferred them to reuse the pan for the sausage) and mentally divide it into three major portions with a little leftover for the final topping.

Brown your sausage in a little olive oil or a little duck fat.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

In a cassole or casserole dish, start with a good drizzle olive oil or duck fat, then add almost one-third of the caramelized onions/garlic. Top with half of the cooked beans and tuck the browned sausage into the beans. Sprinkle with salt and few good grinds of fresh black pepper. Add on some more (perhaps almost one-third again) caramelized onions.

Now spoon on the rest of the beans, the boiled bacon chunks and season again with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

For the final layer, add almost all of the remaining caramelized onions and top with the confit duck and then the very last of the caramelized onions. Pour in some of the reserved bean cooking liquid to cover the beans and come half way up the duck. Not pictured here but you should: Tuck a bay leaf into the liquid.

Bake in your preheated oven for about an hour or until the duck is lovely, golden and crispy on the outside and the beans melt in your mouth.

Serve with a hearty red wine and some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Enjoy!

Check out all the Beantastic recipes we have for you today!

Beantastic Beginners

• Avocado Hummus by Our Good Life
• Bean Ragoût and Crisped Mushrooms by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Black Bean Chili Nachos by Brunch with Joy
• Chickpea Fries (Panisse) by Curious Cuisiniere
• Five Layer Greek Hummus Dip by Food Done Light
• Pizza Roasted Chickpeas by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• White Bean and Basil Spread by Peaceful Cooking

Bean-a-rific Soups and Stews

• Butternut Squash White Bean Soup by Magnolia Days
• Chickpea and Bean Soup by Momma's Meals
• Classic Cassoulet by Food Lust People Love
• Navy Bean & Kale Soup by An Appealing Plan
• Navy Bean Soup by The Messy Baker
• Slow Cooker Pork and Bean Stew by Nosh My Way
• Kielbasa and White Bean Soup by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Spicy Sausage, White Bean and Spinach Soup by Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen

Bean-a-licious Sides

• Bean and Cornbread Salad by MealDiva
• Clams with Black Beans by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Gold Rush Baked Beans by Lifestyle Food Artistry
• Maple Brown Sugar Baked Beans by Carrie's Experimental Kitchen
• Pinto Beans With Cornbread Croutons by Nik Snacks
• Whiskey Bacon Baked Beans by Sew You Think You Can Cook

Incredi-bean Main Meals

• Arugula Tomato and Beans Flatbread by Family Foodie
• Bean and Bacon Tacos by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Beefy Lima Bean Casserole by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Colombian Red beans - Frisoles Antioquenos by Palatable Pastime
• Italian Beans and Greens by Simply Healthy Family
• Honey-Lime Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos by The Chunky Chef
• One Pot Tuscan Style Garlic Herb Pork Chops by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Orecchiette with White Beans and Swiss Chard by Delaware Girl Eats
• Skillet Black Beans and Pork by Cooking Chat
• Ultimate Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes by Pancake Warriors
• White Bean Ragout, Frisèe, and a Fried Egg by The Wimpy Vegetarian

Amaze-beans Sweet Endings

• Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean Bark by Love and Confections
• Flourless Almond Joy Cookie Dough Ball by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Flourless Mocha Brownies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies by Wallflour Girl
• Gluten-Free Donuts by NinjaBaker
• Pecan Praline Black Bean Brownies by Rhubarb and Honey
• Soy Awesome Cookies 2.0 by What Smells So Good?
• Strawberry Coco-Cacao Bean Smoothie by Dandelion Greens
• Sweet Bean Pie by Shockingly Delicious
• Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee by Noshing With The Nolands

Pin this Classic Cassoulet! 

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Quick Duck Confit, Relatively Speaking

Yeah, it's not gorgeous like this but it will be succulent and delicious.  

In our house, many of the conversations focus on food.  Preparing it, eating it, shopping for it, planning the meals.  Last summer my mother and I had a long and interesting discussion about confit du canard and cassoulet.  I don’t remember which of my cookbooks she was deep into, or perhaps it was something she had read before she got to KL, but the dialog then required further research in other cookbooks and on the internet, but, frankly, it was more of a scientific exercise because the only ducks I had ever seen in KL were 1) already roasted in the Chinese style or 2) scrawny frozen specimens that didn’t look like they’d have enough fat to render to cover their thighs and legs for cooking the confit.   As much as we wanted to try a genuine cassoulet, full of pork and beans and duck confit, we were discouraged, so we never got to the planning - forget buying - stage.

At my nearby Carrefour here in Cairo, the ducks are fresh and fat and healthy-looking – well, apart from the being dead part.  My first thought was to roast one whole, because I have a new Jamie  Oliver cookbook and he roasts a whole duck.  But there are just two of us and my mind wandered back to last summer’s conversation and research. 

I decided that this duck would be at least two meals:  boneless duck breasts to pan-fry for dinner, legs and thighs to make into confit and a future cassoulet, and then I could even roast the carcass and wings and simmer them to make a rich duck stock, thereby using everything but the quack, which wasn’t included anyway.

The duck breast dinner went pretty much like this, so I won’t repeat that part.  But here’s how to make a simple duck confit with the legs and thighs.

Ingredients

1 large duck with lots of extra skin (choose the biggest one you can)

A few sprigs of thyme

3-4 bay leaves

Sea salt

Black pepper

Method

Separate your legs and thighs from the rest of the duck.  Cut off all the excess skin and fat.

Cut the extra skin and fat into little pieces.  The more surface area there is, the better the fat will render out of the pieces.  Pop them into a small pot and turn the fire on low. 

Put a lid on but have some folded paper towels nearby on which to drip the condensation from the lid when you remove it.  As the fat starts to render, you will not want water dripping into it and causing a big popping, greasy mess on your stove.

Salt the legs and thighs generously on both sides and give them a good few grinds of fresh black pepper.  Tuck in the bay leaves and sprinkle them with lots of thyme leaves.   Cover them with cling film and leave them in the refrigerator overnight, or at least five or six hours.

Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C for roasting the bones.

Meanwhile, trim your duck of fat and skin, all around the neck and innards cavities, and keep adding these, cut into small pieces, into the rendering pot.  Remember to drip the condensation on the bottom of the lid into your folded paper towels, not into the pot.

Starting at the breastbone with your sharp pointy knife, carefully cut the breast meat free from the bones.  

Trim the breast of extraneous skin and add this, finely cut, to the rendering pot.   Remove any tough fibers by inserting the knife below them and gently easing the knife along under them.  These can be discarded.

You can score the breasts now or when you are ready to season them.

Your breasts are now ready for cooking so they can be covered and put in the refrigerator until needed.  Instructions for cooking the duck breasts can be found here.

Pull all of the skin off of the back and rest of the carcass.  Add this to the rendering pot as well. 

By now that pot should be getting quite deep with beautiful golden duck fat.  At this point, you should rub your hands together in glee.  Happy dance optional. 

Now on to the stock.  Put the carcass, including the wings, in your preheated oven and roast until lovely and sticky and brown.  The more you roast, the more flavor you will get from these bones.   

When the bones and wings are sufficiently browned, put them in a stockpot covered with fresh water and heat them to boiling on the stove.  Add a little hot water from a kettle into the baking tray and make sure to get all the sticky goodness off and into the stockpot as well.   You can add salt and onions and carrots if you would like but I chose to keep the duck stock pure.  That way I can add salt to taste in whatever recipe I ended up using it, without worrying about too much salt.  This stock is rich and luscious, even without salt.   Once the bones and wings are boiling, reduce the heat to a slow simmer and cook for as long as you have patience for, but at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Apparently, I forgot to take a photograph when the bones came out of the oven.   Sorry!

Place a colander over a large bowl and strain the stock into it.  Allow the stock to cool before putting it into a well-marked freezer bag and popping it into the freezer.  If you (or a neighbor) have an animal that would love the scraps of meat left on the bones, take the time to pick all the little pieces off – especially from the wings which are still full of meat – and add those treats to his or her bowl.  

Once the oil has completely rendered from your skin and fat, turn the fire off and allow it to cool a little bit.  You want it still liquid, just not scalding hot.  Take a piece of paper towel and separate the two plies of the one towel.  Use this as a strainer to clean the duck fat as you pour it through a funnel into a heat-resistant bowl. 

Golden nectar!  If you have never had potatoes roasted in duck fat, you haven't lived yet.  I had to give a jar away when I left KL and it would have broken my heart except I gave it to a good friend.   

Set the duck fat aside in a cool place (the refrigerator if you live in a warm climate) until you need it to cover your thighs and legs for the confit.

And on to the confit.  Preheat your oven to a slow 300°F or 150°C.   Wipe the salt off gently with a paper towel and put the duck into a close fitting pan.  Warm the duck fat gently if it has solidified and pour it over to cover.

Bake at this gentle temperature for at least 2 hours.  Remove from the oven and allow to set.  This can be kept, carefully covered, for a couple of months in the refrigerator until you are ready to use it.

Completely cooked and just out of the oven

Fat is starting to set

Almost set

Set! 

My mother is supposed to come visit, possibly in March or April so this is standing by in the refrigerator and the conversation begun last June can finally be completed.

So soon, someday soon: cassoulet. 

Update:  I did make the cassoulet but have yet to post it.  I'll add the link as soon as I do.