How to Make French Cassoulet, Part 1

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Hi, I'm Tanya Steel,

editor-in-chief of epicurious.com.

You are watching Around the World in 80 Dishes.

Today we're going to south-western France

to make cassoulet,

and I'm here with my friend, Chef Henry Rapp,

who's gonna show me how to make

a traditional cassoulet.

Now, Chef, cassoulet is one of those things

that you always read about

that any cook worth its salt

should really master how to make a cassoulet.

Is that right? Correct.

Especially if they're French-trained.

Cassoulet, bouillabaisse are just

items that are really

top of the line, and it

requires skill and

finesse to do those dishes.

And yet, this recipe we're gonna do

is something that a home cook can do.

It takes a couple of steps,

it's not-- Right.

It does come from

the olden days, where, if we had a big casserole,

we'd put some beans in it,

we'd put the meats in it,

we'd put some smoked items in it, some sausage,

and basically put that all in an oven,

like a hard oven in the old days,

and they just got baked and baked

and baked and baked and,

hours later, we took it out,

put it on the table, and sat around it and ate.

In restaurants, we make it smaller,

we make it more appealing, we

tweak it here and there a little bit so

it looks prettier.

Okay, great, so let's make some cassoulet.

It's basically like a bean stew.

So we've got some navy beans

and bacon that's been cooking

in chicken stock for about 40 minutes, right?

[Henry] Correct.

[Tanya] And, to that, we're gonna add

a whole bunch of things.

So, it's been pre-soaked.

We soaked those beans overnight.

Then we added bacon to it, we can smell that bacon.

It really is good.

So now we add the bouquet garni.

That's a little celery,

leeks, there's some parsley

and a bay leaf in the middle.

And you just-- And it's all just

tied together so it's easier to take out again.

And that's just giving a little aromatics, right?

Correct, and then we put an onion in there

so we don't have that much space in that.

Then we cut it in half

and put these two in there.

We put a little garlic in there,

and then we put some garlic sausage in there.

Mm, garlic sausage.

We just made that the other day

with our students, and we can put just the whole

thing around-- Right in there?

Right in there. And you could actually

put any sausage in, is that correct?

Yeah.

We can do andouillette,

the French make andouille

a little different from Louisiana.

Make less heat, but they make andouilles,

they cook it nice.

Uh-huh.

But garlic, sometimes you find this way,

or smoked garlic sausage.

[Tanya] Okay, great, so we're gonna let this now cook.

Maybe a little slower

and then put a lid on and let that cook.

So, for how long are we gonna let this cook?

About 20 minutes? About 30 minutes.

Okay. The chefs say 'till done.

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That's what I tell my students.

How long you cook?

Until done.

Yeah, about 30 minutes.

Okay, alright, great.

So, we're gonna let this cook.

Just let this close to a simmer,

maybe shake it every now and then

so they don't settle, it doesn't burn on the bottom,

check the liquid every now and then,

but that's about it.

Okay, great.

Okay, chef, so we've simmered this now for 30 minutes.

I can smell it already. You can?

Okay, that's a good sign.

Looks great. That looks good.

So, we cooked that nice and tender.

Look at that, we have bacon and sausage.

But now the vegetables are cooked out,

they gonna fall apart if you leave them too much longer.

I see. So we can remove that.

We can use a fork and just...

Okay, so I take out

the bouquet garni. The bouquet garni.

That's good.

'Kay, fish out those onions.

Of course, in a family, the grandpa might eat them

and then the natural Oh my gosh,

I would totally eat that. Nice and tender garni,

but in a restaurant, we try to make this nice and classy.

Yes.

So, if you see how the

consistency of the beans are getting thicker,

the beans are getting cooked,

and we're gonna take out that

bacon now, here,

so we have a nice piece of bacon here.

And we have the sausage,

it's nice and warm and cooked.

So we get that out,

and what we're gonna do is we're gonna slice that up

and put it in a little casserole

to keep it warm.

Meantime, we need to cook that a little longer

until the liquid reduces and they get really tender.

Alright, so we

have a sausage, we start to slice that,

and garlic sausages come in different

shapes and forms.

This is cured, we can see it is nice and pink,

but it's not smoked, and sometimes we smoke 'em.

Then it will be a browner exterior

and have a little smokey flavor to it, which is fine.

It would look more like a kielbasa then.

[Tanya] Oh, I see.

And then, just keep that warm,

and then, when we assemble...

And the reason why you're doing it,

why the cassoulet is actually assembled

in different parts, kind of cooked in different parts,

and then reassembled and cooked again,

is so that it's not all just

one kind of big, stewey mess, right?

It's all-- It's mainly for appearance.

Then we slice some bacon,

some of that bacon goes in there.

[Tanya] Mm, bacon.

[Henry] How can you live without bacon, right?

[Tanya] You can't.

Well, I mean, I guess you could.

I dunno, what's the point, really?

The bacon is delicious, and...

I don't know, we figure lately

eat in modesty and you can even have a little bacon.

Yeah, eat in moderation.

Give a couple bites instead of the entire thing.

That's correct.

That's kind of key in life, I think,

after everything I agree.

Is said and done. Totally.

Alright, so we just keep on cooking that a little more

until that is finished,

and then-- Okay, so this is gonna

simmer for about

20 minutes. The next step,

we start with the meat stew.

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