Category: From the oven

Cassoulet

August 24, 2014

Cassoulet on Plate closeup

I didn’t set out to create my own cassoulet recipe, but when I started to prep for the recipe I pulled off the internet I soon realized how off the recipe was. I knew it wouldn’t turn out right – the recipe quantities just didn’t add up. It was then that I decided that I would make my own cassoulet. I chucked the internet recipe in the trash, got out my notepad, and started working my recipe.

The star of a cassoulet is the duck leg confit. I couldn’t find fresh, local duck legs to make my own duck confit. D’Artagnan sells their packaged duck breasts at small markets and at Whole Foods, but not fresh duck legs. Fresh are nearly impossible to find. And so, after some frustrated sighs, I decided that I would put my duck leg search on hold and start searching for an online source. I quickly found THE duck website: D’Artagnan. They sell hard-to-find game meats, source organic and natural, and they deliver quickly and inexpensively. Perfect. I ordered their duck confit, garlic pork sausage, duck sausage, and duck fat. Shipping only cost $8.95 for my entire order and it arrived packed on ice in only two days.

My family loved this dish and I think you will too. I served it with a side of braised kale with garlic.

CassouletIn Oven

Cassoulet

Ingredients:

  • 4 duck legs confit
  • 1# Great Northern white beans
  • ½# duck sausage, sliced into 1” pieces
  • ½# pork garlic sausage, sliced into 1” pieces
  • 1 yellow onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, minced
  • 3 carrots, peeled and sliced into 3/4” pieces
  • 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 3C chicken stock
  • ¼C duck fat
  • 1t dried thyme
  • sea salt to taste
  • fresh parsley to garnish

Crumb crust: 1C fresh breadcrumbs (I made mine with crackers) + 1T melted duck fat. Do NOT use store-bought breadcrumbs here.

Directions: Soak the Great Northern beans overnight. After 24 hours put the beans in a large stockpot and cover with water at least 3” above the beans. Add 1 tablespoon of salt to the water. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-high to keep them on a low boil for about 45 minutes. The beans should be tender, but still a bit firm; they will continue to cook in the cassoulet and you don’t want them to fall apart because they were overcooked. Drain the beans, and pour into your cassoulet pan or large Dutch oven.

In a large, cast iron skillet, brown the duck and pork sausages in half of the duck fat. Remove the sausage from the pan and add it to the beans. Make sure you scrape off all the burnt sausage bits from the bottom of your skillet – that’s where all the flavor is. Add the grease drippings, too. It will keep your cassoulet moist. Add the diced onion, minced garlic, chopped carrots, diced tomatoes, thyme, chicken stock, and all but 1T of duck fat to the beans and sausage. Place the 4 duck confit legs into the mixture. If the mixture isn’t covered by the chicken stock, add just enough to cover.

Bring the mixture to a boil and then lower the heat to simmer. Cover, and let simmer for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the duck legs and place them on a cutting board to cool down. Keep the cassoulet on simmer while you pick the duck meat off the bone. Return the duck meat to the cassoulet, discard the bones, and continue simmering on low heat, covered, for another 1.5 hours. If the cassoulet looks too soupy, take the cover off while it simmers. The stock will cook down and the flavors will become more concentrated, but be watchful so you don’t let it get dry.

Preheat oven to 375°.

After simmering on low heat for two hours on the stovetop, place the cassoulet into the oven with the cover off. Check periodically to see if the cassoulet is getting too dry. If it is too dry, add a bit more chicken stock.

Bake the cassoulet for an hour at 375 degrees. While the cassoulet is baking, prepare the crust, and have a well-deserved glass of wine.

To make the crumbs, place 2 cups of saltines or chowder crackers in a baggie. Roll over the baggie with a rolling pin until the crumbs are coarse. Pour the crumbs into a small bowl and stir in the leftover tablespoon of melted duck fat. After the cassoulet has baked for an hour, remove it from the oven and top with the crumbs.

Bake for another 30-45 minutes or until the crust is a nice, golden brown.

Bon Appetit!

Cassoulet on Plate

Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese

November 10, 2013

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After a day spent cleaning the yard and the house this was just what my husband and I needed. We ate this cheesy, comfort food by the warmth of our fireplace. It was comfort food on a fall evening. You can substitute gluten-free pasta, but I don’t recommend it – the pasta can get too mushy. Stick to regular Prince pasta and you can’t go wrong.

Ingredients for crumb crust:

  • 1 sleeve of low-fat butter crackers (Nabisco, they’re crispier)
  • 3T unsalted butter (Kerrygold), cut into 6 pieces
  • 1t sea salt

Ingredients for cheese sauce and pasta:

  • 1# elbow macaroni (I like the good old standby Prince brand)
  • 5T unsalted butter (Kerrygold)
  • 5T flour
  • 3T dry mustard powder
  • 1t sea salt
  • 1t white pepper
  • ½t cayenne pepper (or more)
  • 5C whole milk
  • 8oz. Monterey Jack cheese, shredded (I like Cabot)
  • 8oz. cheddar cheese, shredded (Kerrygold or Cabot extra sharp)
  • ½ of an organic butternut squash, cubed, about 3-4cups

Directions for crumb topping: Put the crackers in a baggy and using a meat tenderizer mallet, crush the crackers into crumbs. Melt the butter and set aside. In a small bowl, add the cracker crumbs and melted butter. Stir to combine. Set aside.

Directions for the cheese sauce and pasta: Preheat oven to 400°.

Steam the cubed butternut squash for 3-5 minutes until barely tender. It will continue to cook in the oven so don’t overcook it.

Boil the pasta just shy of al denté. Drain and set aside.

In a large pot, melt the butter over medium-high heat and add the flour, dry mustard, and cayenne. Whisk well to combine. Continue whisking until mixture becomes fragrant and deepens in color, about one minute. Gradually which in milk; bring mixture to a boil, whisking constantly (mixture must reach full boil to fully thicken). Reduce heat to medium and simmer, whisking occasionally, until thickened to consistency of heavy cream, about 5 minutes. Add the salt and pepper. Turn heat off and whisk in the cheeses until melted. Add the cooked pasta and butternut squash. Stir to combine. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Pour into a 3-quart casserole dish. Top with the crumbs. Bake on the top rack for 15 minutes until the topping is browned. Garnish with fresh parsley sprinkled on top.

 

Orange Scented Granola

September 30, 2012

Granola doesn’t last very long in our house. My husband and daughters put it on Greek yogurt, eat it like cereal with raw milk,  or just reach into the jar and scoop up a handful. Todd used to tackle the job of making granola and he’d create a Project out of it. You know, the kind of weekend project that was supposed to take an hour to do but ends up taking two weeks and is henceforth deemed “The Project“. That’s the kind of Project his granola was. It really was delicious, BUT! to make it he would start by soaking the rolled oats overnight and dehydrating the mushy mess in our dehydrator over the course of three to four days. Next, he’d soak and sprout the nuts overnight, and then proceed to dehydrate the nuts another couple of days. Finally (yay, home stretch of The Project), Todd would combine the ingredients and dehydrate the sticky mixture one last time. After years of these two-week messes in the kitchen, tolerating the smell of oatmeal dehydrating (it’s not good), I’ve decided to make it my way – and it’s gotten rave reviews from all. <insert angel choir>

This recipe can be made in an afternoon, fills the house with the sweet aroma of honey and oranges, and can be eaten all in the same day!

Makes about 8 cups

Ingredients:

4 C rolled oats

1½C chopped mixed nuts (no peanuts)

1½C unsweetened, shredded coconut1

1C honey (I used my own delicate spring honey)

⅔C currants or ½C raisins

⅓C melted coconut oil

pinch of sea salt

Zest of 2-3 oranges

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Combine the rolled oats, mixed nuts, coconut, currants, pinch of sea salt, and orange zest in a large bowl. Melt the coconut oil in a small saucepan and remove from the heat. Add the honey to the saucepan and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture over the dry ingredients and stir to combine and coat the ingredients. Scoop the granola mixture onto a large, rimmed cookie sheet. You may need two depending on the size of your cookie sheets. You want a thin layer.

Bake, stirring a couple times during the baking process, until the top is golden, about 40-45 minutes. Watch it carefully; there’s fine line between toasty granola and scorched granola. Let it cool a bit, and using a metal spatula to scrape up all the bits remove the granola from the cookie sheet and store in an airtight jar. Good luck keeping it longer than a few days, but it should last a long time if sealed.

Variation for Tropical Granola: ½C chopped candied ginger, ½C chopped dried pineapple, 1½C chopped walnuts, 2C shredded unsweetened coconut, orange zest

 

Gâteau à L’Orange for my birthday!

July 19, 2012

The best thing about a birthday is the cake. I’ve been searching for 20 years for the perfect cake. Why 20 years? Well, 23 years ago I hired Ruth Angorn to bake my wedding cake…then she made our daughters’ Christening cakes and then their birthday cakes until she retired and limited her cakes to only weddings. We could barely afford to go out for a fancy dinner back in those days when Todd was a new auditor at KPMG and I was home with two daughters, but we certainly splurged on good cakes. It was a sad day when I made the call to order a birthday cake and she said she was cutting back on baking. Tears were shed. Some minor hysterics ensued, but I vowed to find a replacement. I haven’t found it yet. Her cakes were magnificent. TRULY. They were as delicious as they were creative and beautiful. I haven’t had cake like that since. And I’ve tried. and tried.

My love affair with cake began on this day 6/10/89: Two lemon cakes with raspberry filling and one groom’s cake that was chocolate with raspberry filling.

Cake needs to be the perfect combination of moist crumb and delicate flavor. The icing needs to be an all-butter buttercream, but most bakeries don’t use butter because of the cost; they use shortening or a combination of butter and shortening. It’s easy to tell if your eating buttercream (100% butter) or a shortening “buttercream” frosting. yuck. The frosting is slimy and leaves a nasty coat in your mouth. Buttercream simply melts and releases flavors with each bite – real buttercream tastes sooooo much better.

Here’s a few or Ruth’s cakes she baked for us before she retired.

A Christening cake.
Kelsey’s 1st Birthday. I asked Ruth for a basket of roses.
Kate’s 1st Birthday. Big Bird was a cupcake.

After some time off (years) from baking my family’s birthday cakes, I’ve decided that I’m getting back into it. Forget about finding the elusive perfect bakery cake. I’m going to make my own.

As my dad used to tell me: “If you want something done right do it yourself.”

This is the best part, but don’t over mix or you will create gluten with the flour and the crumb won’t be light and fluffy.

My 45th birthday cake is Julia’ Child’s Gâteau à L’Orange à la Crème d’Orange ( Orange spongecake with orange-butter filling) from Mastering The Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck. The cream cheese icing is my old recipe. I doubled Julia Child’s gâteau recipe and baked two 9″ round cakes so that I could make a double layer cake. You can also split the cake using a serrated knife to get your layers, but the layers will be very thin. The Crème d’Orange is so delicious. It’s like lemon curd only better. You will have plenty for another cake or to plop on some scones.

 

Make one 9″ round cake

~ Gâteau à L’Orange Ingredients:

9″ round cake pan

⅔C + 1T sugar

4 egg yolks

4 egg whites

The grated rind of 1 orange

⅓C strained, freshly squeezed orange juice

pinches of salt

¾C cake flour (scooped and leveled, turned into a sifter)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour the cake pan. Measure out ingredients.

Gradually beat the sugar into the egg yolks and continue beating until the mixture thickens to form the ribbon. Add the grated orange peel, orange juice, and pinch of salt. Beat for a moment or two until mixture is light and foamy. Then beat in the flour.

Beat the egg whites and salt together in a separate bowl until soft peaks are formed. Sprinkle on the sugar and beat until stiff peaks are formed. Stir one fourth of the egg whites into the batter, delicately fold in the rest. Immediately turn into a prepared cake pan and run the batter up to the rim all around. Bake in middle position of preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Cake is done when it has puffed and browned, and shows a faint line of shrinkage from the edge of the mold.

Let cool for 6 to 8 minutes. Run a knife around the edge of the pan and reverse cake on a rack. If not to be iced, immediately reverse again, puffed side up. Allow to cool for an hour or two. When cake is cold, sprinkle it with powdered sugar or fill and ice the cake.

~ Crème d’Orange Ingredients:

6T butter

1⅔C sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

The grated rind of 1 orange

¼C strained, freshly squeezed orange juice

1T orange liqueur

Directions:

Place all ingredients in a saucepan and beat with wire whip over low heat or no-quite-simmering water until mixture thickens like honey. When it is cooking properly, the bubbles that first appeared on its surface as it is heated will begin to subside, and if you look closely you will see a little whiff of steam rise; it will be too hot for your finger. You must heat it enough to thicken, but overheating will (of course) scramble the yolks.

When ready, set saucepan in cold water and beat for 3-4 minutes until filling is cool. (8) May be refrigerated for 10 days, or may be frozen.

My note: When assembling the cake, spread the crème between the two layers but leave at least ½” from the edge of the cake or it will leak over the sides.

 ~ Cream Cheese Icing Ingredients:

8oz. cream cheese

4C confectioners’ sugar

6T unsalted butter

1t orange extract

Directions:

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy and the smooth. Add the orange extract , then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar, beating in between additions until smooth and creamy. Ice the cake.

Store extra in the refrigerator for a week.

You can see little bits of orange zest. I added a scoop of the Crème d’Orange to the cream cheese icing.
Pretty and simple. It’s perfect.