cassoulet vegetariana / vegetarian cassoulet

Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.

You can find information on cassoulet, details about the challenge and the recipes provided on this page. Among the options offered, I chose to make the Vegetarian Cassoulet, which is basically a bean stew. The recipe from Gourmet is excellent, so much so that I made it three times in the span of a couple of weeks. And I also made the Leek Confit (more on this below).

For the cassoulet, I always started with dry beans (fagioli secchi). I haven't been using canned beans for years and there is no coming back. The beans I cook are much tastier than the canned ones and cooking a pot of them is no trouble at all. Plus, there are a limited number of bean varieties that are available canned, so purchasing dry beans allows you to expand your horizon. If you have not yet decided on a New Year's resolution, I suggest this one: preparing beans from scratch at least once a month.

My three renditions of the vegetarian cassoulet had some variations. However, in all cases:

• I roughly halved the original recipe
  
• I used one cup of beans, soaked overnight in 4 cups of water, then cooked with aromatics (see this post for details on how I cook dry beans)
• instead of water, I used the bean broth, adding water to it as needed to obtain the specified amount of liquid
• I used my own homemade bread to make the breadcrumbs instead of a baguette (sfilatino)

Here are the variations (the numbers refer to the relevant rendition of the recipe):

1. I used canario beans
2. I used black-eyed peas (fagioli dall'occhio) and cut the vegetables (leeks, celery and carrots — porri, sedano e carote) into pieces smaller than specified in the recipe; I did not mash the beans once they were cooked and forgot the breadcrumbs when I served the dish to our guests (sorry, Christine!)
3. I used canario beans again, and again cut the vegetables into pieces smaller than specified; also, I used baby carrots (1/2 lb.) instead of adult ones

The two photos portray the third incarnation of the recipe. 

I personally prefer the dish without breadcrumbs, with a side of polenta. (I am playing with the cornmeal that I received as part of my most recent grain CSA share, and I may soon tell the story.)

Back to cassoulet, the word itself intrigues me for its definite resemblance to cassoeula, a dish typical of Lombardia, the region where Milan is located. The two dishes contain different ingredients. According to the Larousse dictionary, cassoulet is:

nom masculin
(languedocien cassoulet, de cassollo, terrine)
Ragoût de haricots blancs secs avec de la viande de porc, du confit d'oie ou de la viande de mouton.

Cassoeula is made with pork meat (ribs, feet, a type of small salami, rind, etc.) and verza (Savoy cabbage), besides onion, carrots and celery (no beans). If you are interested, on this page there is a recipe.

As it has happened to me before, close to the deadline, I realized I misread the challenge and missed the confit requirement. The recipe I followed did not ask for a confit, so it was easy to overlook that part. Last night, I made Leek Confit. I adapted the recipe given for the challenge to our household's dietary needs using olive oil instead of butter to cook the leeks. I don't have a photo of the leeks, so I will share a recent image of sky and ocean instead.

The days around the Holidays were stormy along the California coast. We did not have snow storms like elsewhere in the country, but we had our kind of winter weather. In between fronts, the sky (cielo) can be remarkably beautiful and the ocean (oceano) amazingly calm, like on the first morning of the New Year.

You will see many variations of the theme of cassoulet, when you browse the creations of my fellow Daring Cooks. A special thank to Jenni and Lisa for an interesting and fun challenge.

Click on the button to hear me pronounce the Italian words mentioned in the post:

cassoulet vegetariana

or launch the cassoulet vegetariana audio file [mp3].

[Depending on your set-up, the audio file will be played within the browser or by your mp3 player application. Please, contact me if you encounter any problems.]

Comments

[Ruth H.]

This looks and sounds amazing. I, too, prefer to cook my own dried beans, though I have not abandoned canned yet... maybe soon? I love the three different versions you made. And serving with polenta sounds fabulous! Thank you so much for sharing your creativity with us!!

[Lisa]

What an absolutely gorgeous veggie cassoulet. Love the photo of the ocean and sky to replace the leek confit - very clever because you end up staring at the beauty and forgetting how hungry you are (well..that's me) LOL Thanks for taking part in our challenge!

[Miss Nirvana]

I love how your carrots pop in your photos of the cassoulet. Great job on this challenge.

[astrofiammante]

devo dire che da quando ho il blog ho assunto una forma di consapevolezza maggiore verso i prodotti, non facevo gran uso di cibi pronti se non proprio per i fagioli in scatola, ma ora nemmeno quelli, preferisco la versione home made sia per una questione di salutare impiego sia per la possibilità di spaziare nella scelta, come hai detto tu.
i porri confit mi incuriosiscono...e pure l'uso della polenta....quindi aspetto risultati in merito ^______^
In quanto a grigiore del cielo ce la battiamo bene anche qui, nonostante ci dessero previsioni di sole.....speriamo, la giornata è appena iniziata, baciuzzzzzzzzzz

[Ivy]

Have never tried cassoulet before and maybe this would be one of the dishes I must try during 2011 but I will definitely make it vegetarian as I don't like mixing meat with dried legumes.

[Jenni]

Wonderful job! Your vegetarian cassoulet is beautiful!

[Cynthia]

D'accordissimo che una volta che usi i fagioli secchi rinunci per sempre alle scatole.

"fagioli dall'occhio"? Io ho sempre detto "fagioli all'occhio". Sara' una differenza regionale? (io sarei veneta di adozione)

Se ami i fagioli dall'/all'occhio :-) ti consiglio i bollos, piccole polpette fritte che sono appunto a base di questi legumi. Io li mangiavo a Key West, dove mio padre e' nato e cresciuto e dove ho vissuto qualche anno da piccola. La ricetta la trovi qua: http://www.conchs.com/recipes/bollos.html.. A Key West preparano anche un piatto a base di questi fagioli che chiamano Hoppin' John.

[Simona Carini]

Hi Ruth and thanks for your kind words. Canned beans are certainly useful when time is scarce, so they still have a place in the emergency supply section of the pantry.

Thanks, Lisa, for your kind words. This is a challenge I won't forget.

Thanks, Miss Nirvana. I love carrots and I guess it shows.

Ciao Astro. La mia polenta e' un "work in progress" nel senso che non la faccio mai due volte di seguito uguale. Appena riesco a fare delle foto decenti, scrivero' i dettagli. Pare che abbiamo bisogno di un po' di danza del sole, eh?

Ciao Ivy. The recipe I used is truly excellent and also versatile: I totally recommend it.

Thanks, Jenni!

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Cinzia. Grazie dell'osservazione. Se fai una ricerca su google, trovi diverse accezioni. Dall'occhio e' quella che da' il dizionario Garzanti. E' possibile che le varianti siano regionali. Questo tipo di fagioli li ho conosciuti qui. Conosco Hoppin' John perche' e' tradizione prepararlo per Capodanno. Nel riepilodo dell'evento sui legumi ce ne saranno un paio, dato il periodo. Grazie della ricetta sui bollos: non ne avevo mai sentito parlare.

[Paz]

Hmmm... dry beans over canned? Okay... I'll try. ;-)

[chef_d]

I don't use canned beans too! It's so much easier and tastier to use dried beans. I love your vegetarian cassoulet. Great job!

[Simona Carini]

I recommend you do, Paz. One of the reasons I started was that we have a local bean grower and I couldn't resist his offer of several varieties of dry beans.

Thanks, Chef D. Once it becomes part of a routine, it is quite easy, I agree. This recipe is really nice and in fact I have already made another version, about which I hope to write soon.

[Lana]

Cooking your own beans is really easy, you are so right. It just takes a bit of planning.
I am intrigued by the vegetarian cassoulet, especially knowing that you made it three times:) The regular cassoulet was delicious, and the family loved it, but it took a lot of organizing and planning. Plus, it was not the right dish for the New Year resolution list:)
Thanks for reminding me of tutte le parole che ho dimenticato:)

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Lana. I recommend you try the recipe: it's excellent and does not take much time to prepare, once you have the beans. I like legumes with lots of vegetables and this dish matches my taste perfectly. I actually made it a fourth time and will soon describe what I did differently for it.

[Susan]

I've been thinking of a vegetarian cassoulet for a while. Thanks for pointing up a reliable recipe ( I missed your initial post on it.) I hope to make it for my second MLLA dish for you this month. I'm so excited about it, that I might go out today in the single-digit deep freeze for a few of the ingredients.

This really looks lovely, Simona. Very warming and special.

[Simona Carini]

Ciao Susan. I hope you will be able to adapt the recipe to your taste. I also hope that this winter will soon turn into spring for you: you've had a fair amount of snow and cold for one season.