French Turbulence: Cahors & Cassoulet

Cassoulet must be the ultimate meat-centric French dish. Vegans, vegetarians, low-calorie-diet-followers please ignore this post as your eyes won't like what they see.... (I suppose that if you are vegan or vegetarian, you are not even bothering with this blog anyway!)

I live in the U.S. and one of the French dishes I miss the most is cassoulet. Even though my only experience with the dish is eating the canned cassoulet that my mom would warm up on the stove as an easy and quick dinner. Even though cassoulet as the nasty reputation of leaving consumers gassy and "belly-aching".

Cassoulet originates from the south of France and is a rich, slow-cooked meat and white bean stew. And when I say meat, I mean quite a selection: duck, lamb, pork, as well as pork sausages and salt pork (a cut from the pork belly cured in salt). It is a peasant dish. The best kind.

And as for bean giving gas, let me tell you that beans properly soaked overnight should not give anyone such trouble. So there.

A few years ago, I found a cassoulet recipe, which I found pretty believable. We are not in France Toto, so, some ingredients may be hard or impossible to find if you don't live in a big international city like New York. But I guarantee that this recipe is a good rendition of a French cassoulet.

Cassoulet:

1 package (16oz) dry Great Northern beans
1/4 pound salt pork (try pork belly if you don't have a Whole Foods next door)
2 pounds boneless fresh pork butt, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
1 pound lamb for stew, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
4 parsley sprigs
2 bay leaves
6 whole cloves
1 kielbasa (smoked Polish sausage), cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks (1 pound)
6 large carrots, cut into bite-size chunks
3 large celery sticks, thickly sliced
2 medium onions, cut into quarters
1 can (6oz) tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 tsp salt

Rinse the beans and discard any stones or shriveled beans. In a large bowl, soak the beans in water. Cover them by 2 inches overnight.
Drain the beans. In a 4-quart saucepan, heat the beans and 5 cups of water to boiling over high heat. Reduce the heat to low. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in an 8-quart Dutch oven , cook the salt pork over medium heat until most fat is rendered. Transfer to a large bowl. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the Dutch oven.

Preheat your oven to 350F. In the fat in the Dutch oven, cook the pork butt and the lamb, in small batches, over medium-high heat until browned. Transfer these pieces to the bowl containing the salt pork.

In a 5-inch square of cheesecloth, tie the parsley, bay leaves and cloves. Return the meats to the Dutch oven. Add the spice bag, the beans with their liquid, the kielbasa, the carrots, celery, onions, tomato paste, wine and salt.

Heat the mixture to boiling over high heat, stirring occasionally. Cover the Dutch oven and bake, stirring occasionally, 1 1/2 hours to 2 hours (until meat and beans are fork-tender).

Before serving, discard the spice bag.

Not chopping broccoli but celery

In lieu of kielbasa, I used a specialty from the Jura where I come from: a Saucisse de Morteau, which also is a smoked pork sausage.

Meat browning

I added to my cassoulet smoked pork fillet, just because I had some on hand

Simmering beans

Marriage of beans and veggies

Oh boy, the Dutch oven is getting too full!

After one & a half hour in the oven: looking good!

The ideal pairing for cassoulet is a solid red wine such as a Madiran or a Cahors (originating from southwestern France as well) to counter all that meat. This was my excuse to try the 2008 Cahors from Clos La Coutale (the estate's 2007 was a hit with wine critics - whatever that means...). Kermit Lynch imports this wine and he is one of my go-to importers. I trust his selection and usually love each bottle.
Mr. Lynch has been importing wines from this domaine to the U.S. for decades. The wine maker is Philippe Bernede, who crafts this Cahors a little bit differently. Cahors wine is based on the Malbec grapes (at least 70%) as well as Tannat & Merlot. It is traditionally one beefy, opaque and tannic wine. Philippe Bernede has been reducing the proportion of Tannat in his wine over the years to make it more balanced and versatile. This Cahors contains 80% malbec and 20% merlot. It is a lighter Cahors than the norm, although still rather full-bodied.

This wine has a deep purple color, youthful, medium plus intensity of aromas, which include baskets of red berries (raspberries, strawberries & red currants), tree bark, earth & minerals, as well as hints of cloves and black pepper.
It is dry with medium plus acidity, tannins and alcohol. Body is medium plus. Tannins are dusty. Flavors have medium plus intensity and cover a wide spectrum of goodness: red berries, wood, cloves, minerals, licorice and black pepper. After some time in the glass, this wine gained some speed with aromas of blackcurrants, roasted mushrooms and meat. The finish is medium plus and mineral. A good match for my cassoulet.