Cassoulet Preparation - The First WEEK!

The yearly cassoulet preparation is underway. The pitfalls are slowly being overcome and progress being made.

Carol recalled she could purchase confided duck legs. She cannot so she will need to confit the legs. She freaks out the butcher when she orders 10 duck legs or over 2.7kg (nearly 6 pounds); and more importantly about a hundred bucks. He questions if she knows how much this purchase is going to cost.

She has made cassoulet since we first went to France in 1990, so 30 years now. With additional potential ingredients available, she's using purportedly the best recipe in Australia. It is from Cleopatra restaurant in Melbourne. 

https://www.kaleberg.com/cass/cleocass.html

This time she is working with ingredients she's never used previously.

Pork neck stuffed with chopped garlic and parsley. She must create the cavities and them fill then with the cavities with the chopped garlic/parsley mix.

The remaining garlic/parsley mix is then spread across pork skin, rolled and tied as shown. This piece will be used to flavor the pot of white beans during cooking. Once the beans are flavored, this piece is cut into slices and placed in the casserole.

To confit a duck leg. The legs are coated with finely chopped herbs and salt and placed in the fridge for a few days. When ready, the mixture is brushed from the duck legs and then they are placed in duck fat until covered. They are slow cooked for 3 to 6 hours.

After removing the excess fat from the pork belly, the three cuts (belly, neck and skin) is covered with white wine and bouquet garnie (parsley, tyme and bay leaf tied with string). 

This marinates overnight.

It's been over a week and the components of the cassoulet casserole are ready to be assembled. Stay tuned.