CASSOULET KNOW-HOW

A traditional French cassoulet is a marriage of beans and meats, cooked slowly in a vegetable- and herb-enriched broth. Such is its place in the cuisine of southwestern France it even has its own special earthenware pot known as a

cassole, which is used to cook it in. Kate Hill’s book gives several recipes including the classic cassoulet where the method and the ritual is as important as the ingredients. This is true slow cooking – a dish to make over the course of a couple of days and to be enjoyed for a couple of days more.

The multiple meats that can be included in the one pot include confit of duck, ham hock, salt pork and a good Toulouse sausage. This may seem like a meat overload but the flavours all mingle and contribute to a significantly hearty dish that would be the poorer for omitting any one of them. The simplicity of the dish means it relies on the quality of the ingredients to make it great.

My Kiwi cassoulet with homegrown beans, homemade lamb sausage, and the lightly pickled pork belly, back fat and foot of a happy free-range pig went well with some winter veges and herbs from the garden. The only import was some duck confit from France.

On a wet winter’s day, I thoroughly enjoyed the preparation and then finally the consumption of this classic bean dish. Even though the meat is significant this dish is really all about the beans.