Foodwise > Eat Seasonally > Recipes > Spring Cassoulet with Rancho Gordo Beans

Spring Cassoulet with Rancho Gordo Beans

Source: Dominique Crenn of Luce at the InterContinental San Francisco

Recipe Type: | Seasons:

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

Sausages
2 lamb sausages, sliced into chunks
2 pork sausages, sliced into chunks
4 ounces pancetta, chopped
1 ½ cups red wine
2 yellow onions, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 cup chicken stock
Salt and pepper to taste

White runner beans
4 tablespoons olive oil
6 ounces bacon, chopped
1 shallot, chopped
3 garlic gloves, crushed
1 celery stock, diced
1 carrot, thinly sliced 
1 cup white wine
1 sprig thyme
1 tablespoon whole black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
2 pounds white runner beans (picked over and soaked in cold water for 24 hours and drained)
4 cups chicken stock
4 tablespoons salt

Pea sprouts
Edible flowers
8 ounces morel mushrooms, lightly sautéed with shallots and deglazed with sherry.

PREPARATION

For the sausages

  1. Sauté sausages and pancetta over medium to high heat to render the fat. Add 1 cup red wine, onion, garlic, and bay leaf. Sauté until onion and garlic are tender.

  2. Add the remaining ½ cup red wine and deglaze the pan for about 2 minutes.  Add chicken stock and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes. 
  3. Remove from heat and set aside.  Taste and season to taste with salt and pepper.

 

For the beans

  1. Heat oil in a large pot, when the oil starts to smoke, add bacon and render out the fat.

  2. Add shallots, garlic, celery, carrot, and cook until browned but not burned, scraping the bottom of the pan as the vegetables cook.  Deglaze pan with white wine and scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.
  3. Wrap the cooked bacon-vegetable mixture, thyme, peppercorns, and bay leaf in cheese cloth and tie tightly with twine.  Place it in a large pot.  Add beans and chicken stock and cook for 25 to 30 minutes at simmer.  Once beans are cooked, bring to a gentle boil and add salt.  Cook for 5 more minutes.
  4. Remove sachet and put beans in a bowl over an ice bath, keep beans covered in their own juice or they will peel.
  5. When ready to serve, gently reheat the beans over low heat, adding chicken stock as necessary to keep moist.

 

To serve

  1. Spoon beans on a plate, add lamb and pork sausage using a slotted to spoon.

  2. Garnish with pea sprouts, flowers, and mushrooms.

 

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