This week, positive scenes in the news have inspired me to come up with a dish that brings together some British and European ingredients. It looks like we may now be getting back to being on (at least) speaking terms with our lovely neighbours across the Channel in Brussels.
My take on Cassoulet, the classic French stew, combines British seasonal winter veg, German Bratwurst, and French white wine. It’s a fine taste of cross-border goodwill and co-operation – Rishi and Ursula would love it!
There are many different cassoulet recipes, and most contain garlic, poultry (usually chicken or duck), sausages, a ham or bacon, a pulse (e.g. cannellini or haricot beans), stock and white wine. Outside of these, there is scope to use your imagination, what is in season or (erm, a consideration in some parts of Britain at the moment) what is actually in stock in the shops.
Servings
There should be enough here for 6 generous servings.
Timings
About 20 -25 mins to prepare. It then simmers away on its own for 2 – 3 hours.
You Will Need
- 4 chicken breasts
- 6 Bratwurst (or any other good pork sausages)
- 12 rashers streaky bacon
- 1 onion
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 carrot
- 100g button mushrooms
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- 400g can of cannellini beans
- 300ml chicken stock
- 200ml white wine
- torn basil leaves
- 1 bayleaf
- 2 tbsp cornflour
- 2 tbsp cold water
Method
- Prepare a large casserole dish or slow cooker to cook the cassoulet in.
- Cut each chicken breast in half, then shallow fry each in a frying pan or wok until browned. Transfer to the cassoulet dish.
- Chop the bacon and fry with the sausages till browned. Add to the cassoulet dish.
- Chop the onion, celery, carrot and mushrooms and add to the frying pan. Let the veg soften for a few minutes, then transfer to the cassoulet dish.
- In the warm frying pan, tip in the tomatoes, stock, wine and beans. Give them a stir and, when warm and combined (you guessed it) transfer to the cassoulet dish.
- Tear in the basil leaves and add a few twists of salt and black pepper. Dunk the bayleaf in the middle.
- Let it stew for 2 – 3 hours. I used an electric slow cooker, which sits simmering away in the corner of the kitchen. If you use a casserole dish, put it in the oven at 180C.
- When the cassoulet is cooked, combine the cornflour and water in a ramekin until fully dissolved. Pour into the cassoulet and stir to combine. You should see the sauce start to thicken straight away. It is then ready to serve.
Customise It!
As suggested above, provided you have the core elements that every cassoulet should have, you can feel free to play around. Slices of garlic sausage from the deli can take the place of the bacon, for example, and you can vary up the veg if you wish.
I served this with boiled waxy potatoes and steamed shredded cabbage – both of which are good at soaking up the sauce. Boiled rice is another good call.
Turning to the next track for the ADK Playlist, all this talk about European relations brings me to Kraftwerk. I saw them play a few years ago, in the Royal Albert Hall in London. There aren’t many bands who can go off stage half way through for a nice cup of tea, leaving four robots to play their instruments in their absence. The machines performed We Are the Robots, without any dip in quality.
This is one of my favourite tracks of theirs, taking us on an atmospheric journey from Paris, through Vienna to Berlin, on the Trans-Europe Express.
A Different Kitchen 