TWO MID-WINTER IDEAS

So far it's been a cold and snowy winter here in ' da Nort ' ...so what better time to warm things up with a fantastic dinner with your friends ...and a non-intensive project that will pay dividends all year.The first is one we wrote about last January at length, a cassoulet based dinner, and the second, making your own homemade wine.

The cassoulet (the pot you make it in is called a cassole) can be as complicated or simple as you wish. This is a traditional French bean "stew" which would have been made, over a series of days, as ingredients were acquired as parts of other meals.

There is ongoing argument over what is the most authentic, and we won't get into that one. See an article in "Departures Magazine" where Sylvie Bigar has done her best to walk the middle ground.

We have made Paula Wolfert's recipe twice, once with simplifications, and then the full recipe including homemade sausage and duck confit. Doing it the full way made a big difference.

Paula swears the angle sided bowl that we make, also makes a big difference. Others use a pot more like our standard casserole. For other recipes. just Google "Cassoulet" and you'll get a bunch. Once you get the basic idea, make up your own with what you have.

Then invite some friends over, open a bottle of wine, some french bread and maybe a bit of salad and you'll have an evening to remember.

WINE VINEGAR

The second project is even easier, but takes some time and patience. Make your own wine vinegar. A pottery crock, like the Clay Coyote Vinegar Crock is perfect, but you can do it in other containers if you want. First check out this Sunset Magazine article that appeared last year.

/VINEGAR%20SUNSET%20ARTICLE.pdf
I'd suggest starting with at least one bottle and then topping it off later with more. You can get a mother from Beer-Wine.com. Once you have one, that's all you'll need as you can keep a bit in a jar for your next batch. We've experimented with freezing it and that appears to work, just as it does for sourdough.
It'll take about 10 weeks for your first batch of red wine vinegar and 16 to 20 for a white wine batch. You'll never find a commercial product that comes close. Use it in making sauces, a bit in almost anything to enhance flavors. Pasturize it and you can store it forever and make herbal vinegars, too.

HAPPY NEW YEAR...CASSOULET DAY 2

The second day (Thursday) is a light schedule. The process is to imitate duck confit. A confit is an old method of storing meats by rendering out fat and storing the meat covered with fat. In this case, we are not using fat, but the cooking method known as sous vide to tenderize the duck meat. After cutting up the duck (this was about the only part where we purchased an ingredient), it is placed overnight in a bag with herbs. Paula Wolfert gives full instructions in her book "The Cooking of SW France". The beauty of this is that it takes 2 days instead of weeks.

The result was excellent. The duck meat becomes silky smooth instead of stringy. Betsy did cheat the instructions a bit. The recipe calls for using just the legs, but she used pretty much the whole thing.

HAPPY NEW YEAR CASSOULET- DAY 3

Now the action starts! The duck has marinated overnight, the pork is ready, beans at hand, vegetables cleaned, start early.

First we sealed the marinated duck into vacuum pouches. Last year we tried to make do with zip closure bags, but the vacuum sealer was the secret.

The duck pouches are then cooked at 180 degF for 6 hours.

Then the rest of the pork gets cut into cubes, veggies chopped...beans are washed and set to soak overnight.

And perhaps the most interesting part of this whole caper, and the reason for being really good friends with a great butcher, you need a piece of pig skin...hair attached is optional, and the NON option is really preferred if available.
But since the butcher in Gaylord only had fresh pork, we got to scald and scrape off the hair, and singe the last little bit, then roll the skin into tight rolls, much easier said than done.
All this goes into the pot, with herbs, to make a pork ragout. It cooks awhile while the duck is in hot water.


The ragout is placed to cook for several hours. This is really a great picture!
















Now the beans and meat ragout are brought together and

simmered for seeral hours. Then chill it down for overnight...easy to do on the porch here in Minnesota winters! This reduces thee sauce and blends the flavors.

More from cassole lovers...

It is amazing what you can find on the internet! eGForums is the "eGullet Society for Culinary Arts and letters" here is one that I found interesting...
(Scroll to the bottom of the page for the photos and letters)
As for the question posed by "chrisamirault" no seasoning needed, just give it a rince and go for it!