Cassoulet

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 2 duck legs or goose legs
• 2 sausages (beef sausages), coarse
• 750 g white beans
• 2 carrots
• 3 onions, red
• 6 carnations
• 8 prunes, pitted
• 1 bunch of thyme
• 1 cl port wine (or sherry)
• 2 bay leaves
• 600 g tomatoes, fresh, with flavor
• goose fat
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 slices smoked bacon (dried meat – the southwest German bacon variant, i.e. treated pork belly meat)

Instructions

Working time approx. 3 hours; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Cooking/baking time approx. 14 hours; Total time approx. 1 day 5 hours

Soak the beans in plenty of water the night before and the prunes in the port wine. The next morning, drain the water from the beans and add fresh cold water. Pierce an onion with 4 cloves and add it to the beans. Add salt, a bay leaf, and thyme, and simmer for a good hour. Then drain the beans in a sieve. In a large pot, bring water to a boil with the carrots, the remaining quartered onion, cloves, a few peppercorns, a bay leaf, and non-iodized sea salt. Then simmer the legs in it for about 45 minutes. Then remove the legs, drain well, and pat dry. Strain the stock through a sieve and remove any excess fat. Place the onions and carrots in a blender along with some of the stock (without the cloves, bay leaf, and peppercorns). Brown the legs, sausages and dried meat in hot goose fat in a large roasting tin, then remove and set aside. Deglaze with a little of the stock to loosen the juices. Allow to reduce slightly, degrease and then add to the blender. Halve the tomatoes, remove the stalks and fry in the goose fat. Deglaze with the rest of the stock and simmer until the skins loosen. Remove the tomato skins and add the tomatoes and stock to the blender. Blend everything in the blender for around 10 minutes. Then pour into a saucepan, bring to the boil again and season to taste. This stock or tomato sauce should have a lively tomato acidity. First add a layer of beans to a large roasting tin, then the legs, sausages, dried meat, prunes and then the rest of the beans. Finally, pour in the tomato stock. Cook with the lid closed at 90°C top/bottom heat for around 14 hours or e.g. For example, cook covered in the oven at 110°C (230°F) top/bottom heat for 8 hours. Then increase the heat to 250°C (480°F) and cook uncovered for about 15 minutes if you want a crust. A Bordeaux from Margaux (as opposed to the usual black wines) goes well with this dish. Cassoulet originates from the South of France and exists in many variations. This version is more refined, omitting garlic and other more “pungent” ingredients, such as lamb. It’s also not nearly as fatty as is often the case with this dish.