French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [223]
When the beans are all but cooked, drain them, reserving their liquid. Discard the onion and the bouquet. Put a layer of the beans, with all the little bits of rind, into a deep earthenware or fireproof china dish; on the top put the sausages cut into inch lengths, and the lamb and the two kinds of pork, also cut into pieces. Cover with the rest of the beans. Moisten with a good cupful of the reserved liquid. Spread a layer of breadcrumbs on the top. Put in a very low oven for 1 hours at least. There should be a fine golden crust on the top formed by the breadcrumbs, and underneath the beans should be very moist and creamy. So if you see during the second cooking that they are beginning to look dry, add some more liquid. Some cooks elaborate on this by stirring the crust, as soon as it has formed, into the beans, then adding another layer of breadcrumbs. This operation is repeated a second time, and only when the third crust has formed is the cassoulet ready to serve.
Naturally, anyone who finds Colombié’s method with the beans more convenient or more satisfactory can cook and present this cassoulet in the same way—or a mixture of the two methods can be devised.
The cassoulet is a dish which may be infinitely varied so long as it is not made into a mockery with a sausage or two heated up with tinned beans, or with all sorts of bits of left-over chicken or goodness knows what thrown into it as if it were a dustbin. And the wise will heed M. Colombié’s advice about eating the cassoulet at midday on a day when no great exertion is called for afterwards.
If you are visiting Toulouse, a lovely cassoulet is to be had at the Restaurant Richelieu-Michel in the rue Gabriel-Péri, but probably it will not be on the menu during the hot summer months.
BECKENOFF
PORK AND MUTTON BAKED WITH POTATOES
As its name implies, this is an oven-baked dish, a meat and potato stew of the kind which used to be sent to be baked in the local baker’s oven. I would not recommend this as a party dish, but rather one to feed a large and hungry family on a cold day. The ingredients and method are reminiscent of the Lancashire hot pot and the Leicester medley pie, except that this dish, native to Alsace, contains the white wine of the country.
Ingredients are 1 to 2 lb. each of lean pork and lamb or mutton. The cuts used vary, but if pork fillet or tenderloin is available, this is a good cut since it is lean and boneless but, failing that, buy sparerib, bladebone or hand of pork. For lamb, use middle neck or a half shoulder, not boned, but cut into sizeable pieces and excess fat trimmed off. The pork should also be sliced up, each fillet making four pieces, or if the shoulder cut or hand is used, sliced through the bone into pieces the size of a small chop. Other ingredients are about 2 to 3 lb. of potatoes, 2 large onions, a bouquet of herbs and a small glass (8 tablespoons) each of dry white wine and clear meat stock, which can be made if necessary from the trimmings of your meat plus vegetables and seasonings, or even from a bouillon cube.
Peel and wash the potatoes, slice them evenly into rounds a bit thicker than a half-crown (do this on the mandoline if you have one). Arrange half of them in a layer in a large wide earthenware terrine or cocotte; on top put some sliced onion; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Arrange the meat neatly in layers. Season it. Bury the bouquet of bayleaves, parsley and several sprigs of thyme, all tied together with a thread, in the middle of the meat. Add seasoning, then the rest of the onions and sliced potatoes and a little more seasoning (I like to include a few crushed juniper berries with the salt and pepper, as the Alsatians do for their choucroûte).
Pour in the wine and the stock. Let it come to the bubble