Changing Gears!

Well, I said it a few weeks ago, the seasons are changing and we are rapidly approaching the fall/winter season. The seasons here in Vermont sneak up on you. Like the old timers say,"If you like the weather now, wait ten minutes." We are lucky to have hit 55 today! The fall in New England is my favorite! The smell of wood stoves and mulled cider permeate the air, and all I can think about is slow cooked food. During the summer I was making vegetable cassoulet for the guests at The Tyler Place. This was so out of place in the season! Can you imagine eating cassoulet on a 95 degree day? Skip the food and just give me a heat stroke! To my surprise, veggie cassoulet caught on in a big way! This dish prides itself on being hearty and very filling! The recipe you are about to read is very, very rich! If you are on a diet, your computer screen may catch fire by the time you finish reading this! So, here we go!

There are so many variations to this dish it's amazing! My basics are chicken/duck, pork belly/bacon and fresh garlic sausage. Today, I'm using roasted chicken, seared pork belly and hand made garlic sausage. First you need to season and roast one chicken. Keep it simple! Truss the chicken, rub with olive oil, season and roast at 350 for 1.5 hours.

While the chicken is roasting, cut the pork belly into 1" squares and render in a small rondo.

You want the pork belly to be browned on all sides. The color should be dark but not burned! Remove the pork from the pan. In a separate container pour the fat off leaving a small amount left in the pan. Reserve the fat for the panko. We'll cover this later.

Keep the heat high and add one sliced large onion and five stalks of celery sliced. Saute this in the pork fat until golden brown. Remove this from the heat and let rest. Now it's time to work on the sausage. Prepare your meat grinder.

Dice five pounds of pork shoulder and grind on the smallest die.

The ratio for garlic sausage is five pounds of ground pork with three tablespoons of fresh garlic and three teaspoons of salt. My new best friend is my mini-prep.

Add the garlic, salt and one cup of red wine to the ground pork.

Once it's mixed, refrigerate for at least one hour. This gives it time to mingle and get comfortable with the the other ingredients. While it's resting, rinse ten feet of hog casings to make sausage. I always rinse it out twice and soak in tepid water for thirty minutes. When you are finished, set up your sausage maker!

Pack the stuffer with the garlic pork mixture and roll it out. Once it's finished, make individual links as described in the "Meat Candy" post from last month.

If you made it this far have a glass of wine! You deserve it! At the moment my new favorite wine is a Louis Jadot, 2007 Pinot Noir.

Now that everything is close to being done, shred the chicken with your hands. Pour off the fat from the chicken and save! If you freeze it, this stuff will last until the apocalypse. Once the chicken is shredded, quarter eight mushrooms and set aside.

The next part is one of my pet peeves. Using a store bought foil roasting pan is great, but it should last you at least a year! If you take care of it, the pan may last even longer! So many people just use them once and just throw it away.

Next step is to set the chicken, sausage, onions, mushrooms and celery back into the roasting pan. Pour in one cup of white wine, two cans of white beans(drained, and rinsed) and one large can of fire roasted tomatoes.

Cover with foil and bake for two hours at 375. This is just the first part of the process. After two hours are up, keep it covered and let it sit on the counter until room temperature. Place it in the fridge overnight so the flavors can meld.

The next day heat the oven to 375. Using a pair of tongs, remove the sausage and sear hard in a shallow rondo while the oven heats. In the same covered roasting pan cook the cassoulet for 1.5 hours. Slice the sausages and set aside.

Take the veggie, chicken and pork mixture out of the oven, let it rest for ten minutes and spoon it into your desired vessel. In this case it is an oversized soufflé cup. This recipe serves at least eight and is very heavy. I don't think you will have to worry about second servings with this one.

Reheat the fat from the pork belly in a small sauce pan. When it is hot, kill the heat and add enough panko till it resembles wet sand. Spoon this over the top and bake for 10 minutes at 375.

I think everyone in the world has heard of "Stick to the ribs," kind of meals, but this is a stroke waiting to happen. One and a half cups is all the human body can handle of this evil concoction.. Just think of it as the tasty little minions of Satan in a cup.

~Peace!