Birthday Cassoulet

A Sunday trip to Falkenberg furnished a pair of duck thighs, and a normal provisioning trip to a big-box supermarket provided raw Italian sausage, and since it was my birthday, and I had the time, I decided upon a birthday cassoulet. Below, the meats readied for roasting. Clockwise, from top left: French duck, German pig (I took about 100 grams of this Schwartzwalder ham), Italian pig (salsiccia dolce, 300 g) Danish pig (a chunk of ham I had, about 50 g), Swedish pig (a bit of tenderloin I had, about 250g), Swedish lamb (about 400g). A regular Animal Farm EU summit.

I had soaked a pound (450g) of white beans over night, the proper way, rather than my usual method of pushing them with boiling water. No appreciable difference, but the beans were ready to go first thing in the morning. I replaced the soaking water and added a nice can of tomatoes and let cook. Meanwhile, I roasted the meats, salted and peppered and dressed with olive oil under the broiler until nicely browned. When they were ready, I threw them in the pot, and turned the burner off to let them cook together on the residual heat. Meanwhile, two chopped carrots, two chopped onions, and three cloves of garlic got tossed in the rendered fat of the meat roasting pan and were thrown under the broiler for ten minutes or so. When they were ready I lowered the rack and turned the oven down to 125 C, put the veggies in the soup pot together with a healthy dose of thyme and a bay leaf. The whole pot got put in the oven with its heavy lid on tight for a couple of hours. I pulled it out, let it rest, and threw it in the fridge before my mid-day bike ride.

Two hours before dinnertime I fished out the sausage and cut it up, and picked the duck meat off the bone, and threw the pot back in the oven at 125 C. A fine cassoulet.