Cassoulet de canard confit

Cassoulet is of course the ultimate bean dish. For those of us who cut our gastronomic teeth on Julia Child's books, her arduous three-day recipe for cassoulet was the mountain you had to climb. It's a great recipe, and like all of her recipes, really works if you methodically follow all her steps.

But her recipe using pork, lamb and "sausage patties" was concocted at a time when many ingredients weren't widely available in the U.S. and is just one variation of a dish that has many, many variations. She lists confit d'oie as an option in her recipe, whereas most cassoulets in France and nowadays here in French restaurants would consider confit an essential ingredient.

So I was very happy when a friend sent me this recipe, which he extracted from a studious reading of the more interesting sections of The Wall Street Journal. It says it is adapted from the Bouchon Bistro in Yountville, Calif. It is a much simpler version of cassoulet, heavy on the garlic, and without Julia's addition of tomato, a controversial choice among cassoulet enthusiasts. It turned out extremely well and was a big hit with our dinner guests.

The key here, not surprisingly, is the beans. The recipe calls for 1-1/2 lbs. of tarbais or runner cannellini beans. Dreamer that I am, I somehow thought I would come across tarbais beans at Balducci's or Whole Foods. I didn't and toyed with the idea of just getting cannellini or navy beans, but a little research showed that what tarbais and runner cannellini have in common is that they are a good deal bigger than regular cannellini beans.

I still had time to order from my favorite bean supplier, Rancho Gordo, and had them rush 2 1-lb bags of their runner cannellini beans. Steve Sando's beans have never disappointed us and I'm very glad I took the trouble to get these beans. They were plump and meaty, they held their shape but were melt in your mouth tender. They of course absorbed all the wonderful flavors that go into cooking a cassoulet.

You start two days ahead of time by covering the beans with room-temperature water to soak overnight. The day before dinner, you drain the beans and put them in a large pot with a bouquet garni of peppercorns, bay, garlic and thyme, as well as 1 peeled and halved onion, 1 peeled and crosswise halved carrot, and 1 split leek. The recipe calls for 1 2 oz. piece bacon skin or trimmings, which may be easy to find in Yountville, but I wouldn't know where to find it here. So I just put in a small ham hock. You cover the beans with up to 4 qu. of no-salt chicken or duck stock (I used 2 qu. of low-sodium chicken stock and added 1/2 qu. during cooking). Cook until tender, 1-1/2 to 2 hours. You pour everything -- beans, stock, aromatics -- into a bowl to cool and then refrigerate overnight.

So it's a shortcut of sorts to flavor the beans. Julia makes a big point of using all the cooking juices from the various meats to flavor the beans, but this works and the beans have tons of flavor.

The other thing to do before the final assembly is to fix the garlic puree. You take 3 c. (!!) of peeled garlic cloves, cover with canola oil and simmer for 1 hour or so, until the cloves are tender when pierced with a knife. It's a lot of garlic, but not as overpowering as you might think. I did use a couple of packages of peeled garlic cloves; these are vacuum-packed now and seem as pungent as cloves you peel yourself. Let it cool and refrigerate until you're ready to puree and mix with beans.

For the final cooking, you preheat the oven to 300 degrees. The recipe calls for 1 lb. of "garlic sausage" and I have no idea what that is supposed to mean. I opted to use Whole Foods fresh mild Italian sausage, which some websites listed as an acceptable substitute for saucisson de Toulouse, a standard ingredient in cassoulet. Since the sausage was fresh, I cut it into 2-in. chunks after sauteing it in 2 Tbl. duck fat, rather than before, as the recipe directs.

The recipe calls for 8 legs of duck confit, and notes you can either fix it yourself following Julia's recipe or buy those ready-made from D'Artagnan. I had noticed the duck confit at Balducci's when I got D'Artagnan's fresh moulard legs for last month's duck recipe, so I didn't hesitate to go back there for the confit legs. They are individually vacuum-packed and keep a month or so in the fridge. They are same large, meaty moulard legs I bought fresh, only cooked in the confit style. The recipe suggests browning the confit legs as an option, which I did.

So on to the final assembly. You drain the beans, discarding the aromatics but keeping the stock. You reduce the stock by half in a large stockpot. Meanwhile, you drain the oil from the garlic cloves, puree the garlic, and whisk it into the reduced stock along with 2 Tbl Dijon mustard and 3 Tbl butter, emulsifying it all. You add the beans to this mixture and toss to coat. The beans should be moist, neither dry nor soupy. Add 1 Tbl or so of salt to season. Turn all this into a heavy ovenproof pot and "nestle" in the sausage and duck.

To prepare the topping, you heat 3 Tbl duck fat in a skillet, add 1-1/2 c. breadcrumbs and saute until the crumbs are golden brown. Off the heat, add 3 Tbl each of chopped parsley and thyme. Sprinkle this over the bean mixture, cover and put into the oven for 45 min. Remove the lid and cook for a further 15 min. Serve immediately.

As I said, it was really tasty. I cooked it for a good hour covered and 1/2 hour uncovered. It stayed moist enough though next time I would leave the bean mixture slightly soupy to give you more leeway in cooking time. We preceded with a simple green leaf salad with avocado dressing -- not notably French but good and fresh and light before the cassoulet. Said friend above who started this whole adventure was kind enough to bring several bottles of 2009 Chateauneuf du Pape to accompany the meal and it turned out to be a superb choice.

Dessert was an exquisitely delicious prune upside down cake that Andrea found in Food and Wine. The prunes are poached in a syrup of white wine, sugar, vanilla and cinnamon, placed into individual ramekins and covered with caramel sauce, then topped with a yellow cake batter made with olive oil instead of butter. This appealed to us because it seemed very southwestern French and was so different and original. The execution was flawless and made for a very special dessert, served with creme brulee ice cream, and followed with Clear Creek plumb eau de vie.