French Provincial Cooking (92 page)

‘Cut up the mutton and put it in the centre of another dish with the preserved goose flanking it on one side and the sausage on the other. Serve the two dishes at the same time, with very hot plates.

‘With this dish, drink a light red wine.’

 

I have quoted Colombié’s recipe as he wrote it, but anyone who has experienced the dish in its native country, at Toulouse or Carcassonne, will know that it is more usual to find the meat and the sausages buried within the beans, and that it also includes the little squares of pork rind which make it so rich. Probably Colombié’s version was the one current in his native town of Castres in the Tarn; as a matter of fact it is excellent, considerably less exacting both to cook and to eat than the Toulouse version; the manner of cooking the beans without a preliminary soaking works perfectly. And the preserved goose can be replaced, as it not uncommonly is nowadays by Languedoc housewives, with a larger piece of shoulder of lamb—2 lb. instead of 1 lb.—or with more sausages or with a small duck, partly roasted, then jointed. There should be enough for four people, but one never quite knows what other people’s capacity for a cassoulet will be.

To cook the better known version of the cassoulet, in quantities for about eight to ten people, the ingredients would be 2 lb. of medium-sized white haricot beans (butter beans will not do), 1 lb. of Toulouse sausages (a coarse-cut type of pure pork sausage to be bought at Soho shops) or a garlic-flavoured boiling sausage of the kind now sold by most delicatessen shops, a pork sparerib or bladebone weighing about 2
lb., 1
lb. breast or shoulder of lamb (both joints boned), 8 to 10 oz. of salt pork or green bacon, an onion, a bouquet of herbs, garlic and seasonings, breadcrumbs.

Have the rind of the pork removed as thinly as possible. Remove also the rind from the salt pork. Cut these rinds into small squares and put them into the saucepan with the salt pork and beans, previously soaked. Add the onion and the bouquet of herbs, plus 2 flattened cloves of garlic, all tied with a thread. Cover with water and boil steadily for about 1
hours. In the meantime roast the pork and the boned lamb in a gentle oven. If Toulouse sausages are being used, cook them for 20 minutes in the baking dish with the meat. If a boiling sausage, cook it with the beans.

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.

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 on top of the stove. Put a buttered paper or piece of foil over the top layer of potatoes to prevent them becoming dry, and put on the lid of the pan. Transfer to a low oven, Gas No. 3, 330 deg. F., for about 3
hours. By this time both meat and potatoes should be beautifully tender but not cooked to rags, and the stew can be served either direct from its own pot or arranged on a big, deep serving dish with some parsley sprinkled over the top.

If you use cider instead of wine for this dish, do not use an unlined iron pot in which there is a risk of the cider turning black.

Other vegetables won’t be needed with this filling dish, but some sort of green salad afterwards would be welcome. The quantities given for the stew should be enough for six to eight people, and it can be reheated slowly without coming to harm, although it may need a little extra liquid for a second heating.

‘In my youth I saw the
daube viennoise
³⁰
being cooked. There was a family who, as Easter approached, would put a whole quarter of beef and some chickens into a great trough into which they poured abundant amounts of wine and spirits and spices. On Easter Sunday, all their friends were invited to eat the daube in ceremonial state; with it went the charming little wine of Saint-Prin.