Jamie's Comfort Food
By Jamie Oliver
Cassoulet de Essex
With herby & crispy breadcrumbs
3 hrs 20 mins plus marinating
Not Too Tricky
serves 8
About the recipe
The Essex cassoulet will raise your spirits and pleasure your taste buds – and you’ll probably need a siesta afterwards. Cassoulet is a wonderful concept where different types of meat and cheaper cuts are put on an equal playing field alongside humble veg, beans and bread to make one beautiful dish of happiness.
Recipe From
Ingredients
20g coarse sea salt
8 sprigs of fresh thyme
8 cloves
8 juniper berries
12 fresh bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic
1 orange
1 whole nutmeg, for grating
3 duck legs
600g lamb breast
500g higher-welfare pork belly, skin removed
3 higher-welfare Toulouse sausages
1 large onion
2 sticks of celery
1 large leek
6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 x 400g tins of quality plum tomatoes
1 good splash of Merlot or Malbec
1 x 660g jar of cannellini beans
200g fresh breadcrumbs
olive oil
½ a lemon
Method
- Put your salt, thyme, cloves, berries and 4 bay leaves into a food processor. Peel and add 4 cloves of garlic, finely grate in the orange zest and nutmeg and add a pinch of black pepper. Blitz to make a flavoured salt.
- Rub the flavoured salt really well over the duck legs, lamb breast and pork belly in a large tray. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge overnight to marinate.
- The next day, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Brush the salt off the meat and pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Cut the duck legs into thighs and drumsticks, and divide both the lamb and pork into 8 equal pieces.
- Put the duck, lamb and pork in a snug-fitting tray and roast for 1 hour 30 minutes.
- When the time’s up, remove most of the rendered fat from the tray to a bowl, toss the sausages in the tray with the other meat and return to the oven for 20 minutes while you make the sauce.
- Peel the onion and finely chop with the celery, leek and rosemary leaves, then add to a large ovenproof casserole pan with 2 tablespoons of reserved fat and fry for 15 minutes on a medium heat.
- Tip in the tomatoes and 2 tins’ worth of water, breaking the tomatoes up with a spoon. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the tray from the oven and add the meat to the sauce. Stir the wine around the tray to pick up any sticky goodness from the bottom, then add to the sauce and stir together.
- For an amazing topping, drain the beans into a large bowl and add the breadcrumbs. Remove and discard the stalks from the remaining bay leaves, peel the remaining clove of garlic, then smash them up in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of salt until completely pulped.
- Muddle in a good lug of oil and finely grate in the lemon zest, then mix with the beans and breadcrumbs and scatter over the cassoulet.
- Bake for 1 hour, or until thick, golden and bubbling. Serve with loads of steamed seasonal greens.
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