This dish didn't sound very appealing to us but we did have some amazing cassoulet during our travels in France. I saw one recipe that used duck confit. Now I bet that would have been good! I guess it's rather like chile in some ways. I always find chile easy to make and I like that there are vegetables as well meat.
"In parts of the south and southwest France, people are crazy about Cassoulet.
It’s a rustic and robust French country stew that typically includes white beans, pork and poultry. It’s been a favourite for hundreds of years in France and legend has it that the origins go back to the Hundred Years War (1337-1453). During a siege at Castelnaudry, Languedoc, the inhabitants pooled their resources and came up with a casserole. The soldiers ate it and found the strength to fight off the English invaders. The legend of cassoulet was born! Or was it born in Toulouse? Or Carcassonne? Much like the ingredients, stories vary wildly from one area to another and families hold dear to recipes that have passed down the generations. Restaurants can make their name on the back of a delicious cassoulet. At markets, queues form at the most popular stalls.
Making it at home isn’t that difficult, but sometimes it’s not easy to get all the classic ingredients so I’ve given easy alternatives in this recipe. Besides, what’s a classic ingredient in one place, isn’t somewhere else. Some say goose, some say mutton and some say duck… some say breadcrumb topping – other don’t. And, though this dish is all about slow cooking, some recipes call for 3 days of preparation.
There are different ways to approach making cassoulet. Either it’s the epochal recipe of your region or family and involves only using specified ingredients which can be hard to get. Or you can think of it as a sausage and bean casserole…
Most of us don’t have that long, so this recipe takes much less time to prepare.
Ingredients for cassoulet for 6 people
Here, I’ve gone for an easy cassoulet dish that you can make at home."
-from The Good Life, France
https://thegoodlifefrance.com/easy-cassoulet-recipe-with-chicken-and-sausages/
Update: We didn't have cassoulet but we had a wonderful dinner and evening with Donna last night. Good friends make everything wonderful. Thank you, Donna! You are very special to us.
