Cassoulet--A French stew

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.  Don't let all the steps fool you, this isn't as difficult as it looks, but there are lots of steps.  And as I learned the hard way, make sure you read the directions well.

First I want to start out with talking about duck confit.  If you've never had it before, I highly recommend trying it.  Confit is actually a means of preserving meat (be it duck, goose, pork, whatever).  It's the preservation method that make is delicious, I think.  Basically the way the meat is preserved is by first salting overnight, then cooking the meat in it's own fat.  That may sound a little off-putting at first, but then think about duck legs roasted in duck fat.  What a combo!  To can it for long preservation, it is then put in whatever vessel is appropriate and submerged entirely in fat and sealed.  If you want to save some effort in this recipe, you could just buy the confit as well.

I will admit, I sometimes do not have enough attention to detail as I should.  This was my main problem in this recipe.  It is a three-day process, so keep that in mind.  The beans require lots of cooking time and water--that's what I ended up messing up...I only cooked them for 30 minutes on the 2nd day.   Then, I forgot to add the cooking water to the cassoulet later.  Result?  You guessed it.  Crunchy beans and no sauce.  I was able to salvage it a little, but most importantly, the duck survived.  I can't even imagine how good this would be if I followed the directions (go figure).  It was still pretty darned tasty, even skipping a few key steps (but I wouldn't recommend it).  I will give it a second chance in the near future, and I think it will definitely be a winner.

So some notes on this recipe...I did not get any pork rind, so I used bacon to line the pan.  I figured bacon makes everything better so this should work.  I also used Cannelini beans, and aside from the above mistake, I think they worked fine.  I used 4 large bratwursts rather than 6 smaller ones.

For your planning purposes, here is an outline of what needs to be done on which day:

Day one (easy)
-Salt duck legs
-soak beans

Day two (most of the work)
-boil beans
-complete confit
-assemble and cook cassoulet

Day three (again, easy)
-cassoulet back into the oven.

Preparation Time:

• For Duck Confit: 2 Days.
• First day, 15 minutes.
• Second Day, 2 hours.
• For Cassoulet: 3 Days
• First Day: 10 minutes, if that
• Second Day: Approximately 3 ½ hours, most of which is oven time
• Third Day: 1 ½ hours, all oven time

Cassoulet
Cassoulet by Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman (as featured on the Travel Channel’s “No Reservations”)
Serves 4 - 8
printable version


Ingredients for Duck Confit

• 4 whole duck legs (leg and thigh), size does not matter
• sea salt, for the overnight (at least 6-8 hours) dry rub (the amount varies depending on the size of your legs, so just know that you need to have enough on hand for a good coating.)
• 2 cups/480 ml/450 gm/16 oz duck fat
• a healthy pinch or grind of black pepper
• 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 sprig of fresh rosemary
• 1 garlic clove

Day One
Rub the duck legs fairly generously with sea salt, place in the shallow dish, cover with plastic and refrigerate overnight. At all times, keep your work area clean and your ingredients free of contamination - meaning don't allow any other food, like bread crumbs or scraps, to get into your duck, duck fat or confit, as they will make an otherwise nearly non-perishable preparation suddenly perishable.

Day Two
1.Preheat the oven to moderately hot 375ºF/190ºC.
2.Render (melt) the duck fat in the saucepan until clear.
3.After seasoning with the black pepper, place the duck legs in the clean, ovenproof casserole.
4.Nestle the thyme, rosemary and garlic in with the duck legs, and pour the melted duck fat over the legs to just cover.

5. Cover the dish with foil and put in the oven. Cook for about an hour, or until the skin at the "ankle" of each leg pulls away from the "knuckle." The meat should be tender.

6. Allow to cool and then store as is in the refrigerator, sealed under the fat. When you need the confit, you can either warm the whole dish, in which case removing the legs will be easy, or dig them out of the cold fat and scrape off the excess. I highly recommend the former. A nice touch at this point is to twist out the thighbone from the cold confit. Just place one hand on the drumstick, pinioning the leg to the table, and with the other hand, twist out the thighbone, plucking it from the flesh without mangling the thigh meat. Think of someone you hate when you do it.


Ingredients for Cassoulet

• 5 cups/1200 ml/1100 g/39 oz dried Tarbais beans or white beans such as Great Northern or Cannelini (if you use canned beans be aware that you will need double this amount!)
• 2 pounds/900 gm fresh pork belly
• 1 onion, cut into 4 pieces
• 1 pound/450 gm pork rind
• 1 bouquet garni (tie together two sprigs parsley, 2 sprigs thyme and one bay leaf)
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup/60 ml/55 gm duck fat
• 6 pork sausages
• 3 onions, thinly sliced
• 1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
• 4 confit duck legs

Day One
1.Place the beans in the large bowl and cover with cold water so that there are at least 2 or 3 inches (50mm or 75mm) of water above the top of the beans. Soak overnight. That was hard, right?  (Beans will double in size upon soaking, so use a big bowl!)

Day Two

1. Drain and rinse the beans and place in the large pot.
2. Add the pork belly, the quartered onion, 1/4 pound/115 gm of the pork rind, and the bouquet garni.

3. Cover with water, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 30 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and continue to simmer until the beans are tender, about 30 minutes more.

4. Let cool for 20 minutes, then discard the onion and the bouquet garni.
5. Remove the pork belly, cut it into 2-inch/5-cm squares, and set aside. (If you plan to wait another day before finishing the dish, wait to cut the pork belly until then.)
6. Strain the beans and the rind and set aside, reserving the cooking liquid separately.
7. In the sauté pan, heat all but 1 tablespoon/15 ml/15 gm of the duck fat over medium-high heat until it shimmers and becomes transparent.
8. Carefully add the sausages and brown on all sides.

 9. Remove sausages and set aside, draining on paper towels.
10. In the same pan, over medium-high heat, brown the sliced onions, the garlic and the reserved squares of pork rind from the beans (not the unused pork rind; you'll need that later).

11. Once browned, remove from the heat and transfer to the blender. Add 1 tablespoon//15 ml/15 gm of the remaining duck fat and purée until smooth. Set aside.
12. Preheat the oven to moderate 350ºF/180ºC/gas mark 4.
13.Place the uncooked pork rind in the bottom of a deep ovenproof non-reactive dish. You're looking to line the inside, almost like a pie crust. Arrange all your ingredients in alternating layers, beginning with a layer of beans, then sausages, then more beans, then pork belly, beans, duck confit and finally more beans, adding a dab of the onion and pork rind purée between each layer.

14. Add enough of the bean cooking liquid to just cover the beans, reserving 1 cup/240 ml in the refrigerator for later use.
15. Cook the cassoulet in the oven for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to very slow 250ºF/130ºC/gas mark ½ and cook for another hour.
16. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Day Three

1. Preheat the oven to moderate 350ºF/180ºC/gas mark 4 again.
2. Cook the cassoulet for an hour.
3. Break the crust on the top with the spoon and add 1/4 cup/60 ml of the reserved cooking liquid. (Don't get fancy. Just pile, dab, stack and pile. It doesn't have to be pretty.)
4. Reduce the heat to very slow 250ºF/130ºC/gas mark ½ and continue cooking another 15 minutes, or until screamingly hot through and through. Then serve.

Spinach Soufflé

It's time again for my Daring Cooks' Challenge (which I missed last month).  This is my 3rd one and I think the most challenging in terms of blogging and photographing.

Dave and Linda from Monkeyshines in the Kitchen chose Soufflés as our November 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge! Dave and Linda provided two of their own delicious recipes plus a sinfully decadent chocolate soufflé recipe adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s recipe found at the BBC Good Food website.


I chose to make the Spinach (well actually it was watercress, but spinach was easier for me to acquire) Soufflé.  Now, I have always been intimidated by the thought of soufflés.  They were this "gourmet" super time consuming dish that should be left to the professionals.  But the only truly difficult thing about this dish was taking the photos for the blog!


Before I began my soufflé adventure, I watched this video by Julia Child, it's about 20-25 minutes long.  Amazing.  She has a way of breaking things down in such a way that it no longer seems like a daunting task.  After watching this, I was no longer afraid of the soufflé.  I highly recommend you watching this episode of The French Chef before starting out.  Any recipe notes I could give you would be straight from this episode anyway.

So without any further ado, here is the recipe...


Spinach Soufflé
printable version

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp  butter plus additional for the soufflé dish
3½ Tbsp plain (all purpose) flour
1 cup milk
½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated plus additional for the soufflé dish
1 cup finely chopped spinach

4 large eggs, separated
½ tsp prepared mustard
¼ tsp cream of tartar*
Salt and pepper to taste
* If you can’t find cream of tartar, a dash (~ ½ tsp) of lemon juice can be substituted

Directions:

1. Butter the soufflé dish(es) thoroughly, then grate a small amount of cheese in each dish and tap so that the sides are evenly coated with the cheese. Place the dish(es) in the refrigerator until needed (according to some sites, this helps the soufflé climb). 

2. Preheat the oven to moderate 350º F 

3. Wash and chop the spinach if you haven’t already.

4. In a medium sized saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat, then stir in the flour to make a roux. Cook 1 minute, then add the milk, a little at a time, and stir until just thickened, about 1 minute. Add the cheese and stir until it’s just melted. Remove from heat then add the spinach, mustard, salt and pepper.

Roux

5. In a larger pan, bring water to a gentle simmer. Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl set just over this water until pale and slightly foamy – about 6 minutes. 

6. Mix the egg yolks into the spinach sauce.
7. Beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until they form stiff peaks yet are still glossy.

8. Fold the egg whites into the sauce in 3 additions so that it’s evenly mixed, but you don’t lose too much volume.

9. Remove the soufflé dish from the refrigerator and spoon the mix into it. Use a spatula to even the tops of the soufflés and wipe off any spills.

10. Bake 25 minutes for small dishes or 40 minutes if using a large soufflé dish, then serve immediately with a nice green salad and a glass of wine.

Apple Butter

It's time again for my next Daring Cooks' Challenge-one that I was very excited to try.  It was all about food preservation and how to get the most out of in-season produce. One of the options was to make apple butter.  Now, apple butter is one of those things that I've heard about, tasted only a few times and have never actually made. 

Apple butter also reminds me of my days in high school in Ohio.  When I was in high school, one of the neighboring towns held an Apple Butter Festival every October.  It was one of those old-fashioned, participants-dressing-in-19th-century-clothes, everyone-drinking-hot-apple-cider and sitting-on-hay-bales sort of fest.  The big difference there was that their apple butter was made in big black cauldrons over an open flame, churned mainly by ladies in aprons and bonnets, but they did give everyone a chance to churn the butter.

That was also when I realized there is no actual butter in apple butter.  It's just a consistency thing.  Basically, it's just a spiced and thickened apple sauce. It can be used for many different things.  The most basic is as a spread on toast or a bagel or whatever you'd like.  But you can also use it as a condiment with pork chops, as part of a marinade or in an apple quick bread.

Now, there probably won't be a big black cauldron over a fire in my kitchen in the near future, especially since we're renting right now.  All we've got here is an electric stove and an immersion blender, so that's how I'm going to roll with this.  I do have some notes though about this recipe.

• If you want to be a little more "authentic" about it, you can use the whole apple: core, peel and all that goodness.  Just chop the apples into eighths before softening them.  Once softened, put them in a food mill and mill away (I don't have one, so hence all the peeling and coring).  Add sugars and spices and continue with the rest of step 2.
• This recipe is suitable for canning.  I've never canned before, so I'm just going to freeze or give away what I can't use immediately.  But if you can can, more power to you!  I'll have a canning blog sometime in the future, once I have the equipment and have it figured out.
• I can't recommend which type of apples to use.  I just used the ones I bought from a lady selling them on the side of the road.  Seemed to work out pretty well.  But, from what I understand, if you use a sweet apple like Golden Delicious, you won't need to use as much sugar, tart apples like Granny Smith will require more sugar.

The September 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge was hosted by John of Eat4Fun. John chose to challenge The Daring Cooks to learn about food preservation, mainly in the form of canning and freezing. He challenged everyone to make a recipe and preserve it. John’s source for food preservation information was from The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

Apple Butter

5 lbs Apples, peeled, cored and cut into eighths
1 C apple juice or cider
1 C sugar
1/2 C brown sugar
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves

1. Combine apples and juice (or cider) in 8-quart pot. Cook slowly and stir occasionally to prevent sticking. Cook until apples are very soft and falling apart.  At this point, you have some pretty tasty apple sauce.  If you want to stop here, you can, but if you continue on, you will be rewarded with tastiness...
2. With a potato masher, mash the soft apples.  Add the sugar and spice (and everything nice).  At this point I used a stick blender to blend to a smoother consistency.  If you would like it a little chunkier, by all means skip this step, but make sure to stir in all the spices well.
3. Bring to a simmer and turn down the heat to keep it at a slow simmer.  Cover with a splatter screen or use 2 wooden spoons to support the lid open.  It is important to let the water evaporate to thicken the butter. Simmer for at least 2 hours, until it is thick and stays mounded on a spoon when it is scooped out.
4. Let it cool a little, then put into the desired storage container or containers.  It will keep for up to 2 weeks in the fridge or up to a year in the freezer.  I would recommend using smaller containers if you don't think you will use up everything in a larger one fast enough.

Yields about 5 cups.

Maultaschen...for the August Daring Cooks' Challenge

The August 2010 Daring Cooks' Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen.  They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

Since I am a recent transplant to Germany, I decided to opt for the local specialty part of the challenge.  The region I'm currently living in is near Stuttgart, in the southwestern state of Baden-Württenberg.  There is are several dishes that are unique to southern Germany, one of which is maultashen, also known as Swabian meat pouches.

Legend has it that maultaschen were invented by the monks at the Maulbronn Monastary (about an hour from our house) to hide the fact they were eating meat during lent, which was forbidden.  They believed they were hiding the meat in little pasta packets, similar to ravioli, and God wasn't able to see them eating it.  Which I just find hilarious on many different levels.


Maultaschen can be served in several different ways.  I've had them served in a tomato sauce with cheese melted over top, again reminiscent of ravioli.  I've also had them sliced and scrambled into eggs (geröstet) or sauteed in butter and topped with caramelized onions (geschmälzt).  But, my favorite preparation is in der Brühe, or in broth, which is how I decided to approach this challenge.

Since this is a regional dish, there are about as many recipes for the filling as there are grandmothers who make it, so I ended up combining all sorts of recipes down into one.  But the basic ingredients are hand-made pasta dough with a filling of ground meat, spinach and onions.

Now for some recipe notes...

• First and foremost, don't let the fact that I hand-made the pasta fool you...I'm NOT good at making pasta pouches of any sort.  In fact, this is the 2nd time I've ever made them.  The first time is now referred to as "The Ravioli Incident" and much of the pasta ended up on the walls (because I was so angry I threw them).  You can easily substitute wonton wrappers and save yourself some time.  How to make ravioli will be a future blog, once I get a better handle on making them.
• If you do decide to make the pasta, lay all the finished maultaschen in one layer on floured waxed paper if you aren't going to cook them right away.  I didn't do that on my first ravioli attempt and it all ended up sticking together in a clump of pasta and filling and me getting mad, resulting in the aformentioned "Ravioli Incident".
• The recipe I came up with didn't work entirely, so I changed up a few things to come up with the recipe I now have below. I had way too much bread and spinach and didn't cook the onions well enough before adding it all together, so I'm going to call that one a lesson learned, which is the whole point of me doing this blog and this challenge, so I guess I can put that in the win column.
• Feel free to use whichever meats you want...I used equal amounts of ground veal, beef and pork, but I think it would work with ground turkey if you want to lighten things up, or all beef if that's just easier.

OK...now the recipe...

Maultaschen
Click here for printable version

Pasta

3 eggs
pinch of salt
1/3 c water
360-400g wheat flour

Mix eggs with salt and water. Sift flour into a bowl and make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into it and blend all the ingredients together. Take out of the bowl and then knead the dough on a board until air pockets can be seen when the dough is cut. You can knead by hand or with a mixer.

Depending on the flour, if the dough is too thick add a little water or an egg white, add more flour if too sticky. The dough shouldn't be too soft. Form a ball and place on a board. Cover with a cloth and leave to rest. Now you can prepare the filling.

 Meat filling
5 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained
2 strips of bacon, diced
20g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 stale rolls (or the equivalent of stale bread), crusts removed
5-6 oz ham or cold meat, diced
8 oz ground meat (pork, beef, or veal or any combination)
2 eggs
a pinch of salt, pepper and nutmeg

Cook the bacon in butter for a couple of minutes (I know this just seems wrong and delicious at the same time, but that small amount of bacon does not provide enough fat to saute the onions).  Add the chopped onion and cook until translucent and soft. Soak the stale rolls in water until soft. Squeeze out the excess water and chop the rolls into pieces.
In a large bowl mix the above prepared ingredients with the spinach, ham and ground meat. Add the eggs and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Assembling

Beef broth (about 64 oz or enough to cover the filled pasta when in the pan)
1 onion, diced
1 onion, sliced
butter or olive oil


On a floured surface, roll out the noodle dough into rectangular sheets (about twice as wide as you want your Maultaschen to be). Use a tablespoon of filling at equally spaced 3 inch intervals all down the middle of one side of the sheet of dough. Fold the plain half of the sheet of dough over to cover the filling and press firmly on the spaces around the pockets of filling. Use a pastry wheel or cookie cutter to cut into 3 inch squares.

Put beef broth and diced onion into a pot and bring to the boil.   Add as many maultaschen to the pot as you can without them sticking together, let simmer (not boil) for 10-15 minutes depending on the size.

Saute the onion slices in butter until brown.  Serve by placing 2-4 maultaschen in a bowl, pour both over and garnish with sauteed onions.  Serve with a nice green salad.

If there are any left over, they can be used the following day. Cut them into one inch slices, fry in oil or butter, add slightly beaten eggs and milk to the pan and cook through.

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Butter--My first Daring Cooks' Challenge

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

I just joined the Daring Kitchen (see the link to the left) recently and this is my first experience with their challenges.  Basically what they do is a monthly challenge recipe that all members have to make and then blog about if they are bloggers.  It isn't a competition, but more like a way to experiment with new dishes/ideas that are a little bit out of the ordinary, things that most people wouldn't think to make on a daily basis and share experiences.  It's a monthly challenge, so be on the lookout on the 14th of each month for my monthly challenge post (I do realize I'm a day late, I misread the directions).

The first key ingredient in nut butters (aside from the nuts themselves) is a really good blender or a food processor to grind the nuts up to a spreadable consistency (Thanks to my neighbor Marie for the use of her--I don't have a good one, yet).  They'll turn grainy and pasty first, but then will eventually (after 2-4 minutes) smooth out to a creamy consistency.  I like my butters a little more chunky, so that's just a matter of blending for a shorter amount of time.

Some other things to keep in mind:

• You may need to add a little oil as well, but do so in small (1 tsp) increments so you don't end up with an oily mess.  You can use the corresponding oil, or something with neutral flavor like canola oil.
• Nut butters can be made out of any nut, raw or roasted, salted or unsalted.  If you do use salted, make sure you account for it in your recipe, you don't want to have yourself a salt bomb instead of a creamy sauce.
• You can roast the nuts yourself for 10 minutes in a 350F oven.  Just lay them out on a baking sheet in a single layer.
• You'll get half the yield of butter as volume of nuts. So 1 cup of nuts will make 1/2 c of butter
• I could go on and on, but click here for even more information on nut butters.

For this dish, you can customize it by adding your own favorite vegetables like shredded cabbage, bean sprouts or slivered carrots (I left out the cucumber mainly because I forgot to buy it at the store).  You can also omit or substitute the shrimp with the protein of your choice.  I used packaged, roasted and salted cashews, and that worked well.

Asian Noodle Salad with Cashew Dressing
Click here for a printable recipe 

Yield: 4 servings


Cashew Butter:
1 cup (240 ml) cashews*
Cashew Dressing:
½ inch (1 cm) slice of fresh ginger, chopped
8 cloves garlic, more or less to taste, chopped
½ cup (120 ml) cashew butter
¼ cup (60 ml) soy sauce
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) sugar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) vinegar
3 Tablespoons (45 ml) toasted sesame oil
¼ cup plus 1 Tablespoon (75 ml) water
Hot sauce to taste (optional)

Noodle Salad:
1/2 pound (225 g) linguine or thin rice noodles
1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
1/2 pound (225 g) small or medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large red bell pepper, cored and seeded, cut into thin strips
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, sliced
1/4 cup (60 ml) sliced green onions
1/4 cup (60 ml) chopped fresh basil
1 tablespoon (15 ml) chopped cashews (optional garnish)
Lime wedges (optional)

1. Make cashew butter: Grind cashews in food processor for about 2 minutes until smooth. (*Or start with ½ cup (120 ml) prepared cashew butter.)
2. Prepare cashew dressing: Combine ginger, garlic, cashew butter, soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, sesame oil, and water in food processor or blender. Process/blend until smooth. Be sure to process long enough to puree the ginger and garlic. The dressing should be pourable, about the same thickness as cream. Adjust consistency – thinner or thicker -- to your liking by adding more water or cashew butter. Taste and add your favorite hot sauce if desired. (If the cashew butter was unsalted, you may want to add salt to taste.) Makes about 1 ½ cups (360 ml) dressing. Store any leftover dressing in the refrigerator.
3. Prepare noodles according to package instructions in salted water. Rinse and drain noodles. Set aside.
4. Heat oil in large non-stick pan over medium heat. Add shrimp to the pan and sauté for about 3 to 4 minutes or until opaque throughout. Alternately, cook shrimp in boiling water for about 2 to 3 minutes or until done.
5. Slice basil into thin ribbons. Combine noodles, bell pepper, cucumber, onions, and basil in a large bowl. Add about ½ cup (120 ml) cashew dressing; toss gently to coat. Add more cashew dressing as desired, using as much or as little as you’d like. Scatter shrimp on top. Squeeze fresh lime juice over salad or serve with lime wedges. Sprinkle with chopped cashews if desired.