Time. There just isn't enough of it in each day. Days are jam packed with errands to run, calls to make, chores to complete, kids to shuttle around, meals to cook, homework to do; It's the busy work that fills my every waking moment and leaves little time to nurture my soul. Every evening, exhaustion drags me down along with the realization that the things I wanted to do, was filled with things I had to do. I've always had trouble balancing my need to be productive with the things I really want to do. Now that the holidays are upon us, I'm going to hunker down, get back into the kitchen and feed my soul.
This recipe reminds me that sometimes I have to clear my to do list, slow down, and make time to savor things that are just for me and take time to complete. Who cares if the laundry's not folded...like I do that anyway. 😉 This Cassoulet recipe is so wonderfully comforting with it's complex flavors of savory sausage and pork, creamy beans with a crunchy buttery breadcrumb topping. Clear your schedule and spend a day at home making this work of art!
Cassoulet
Serves 8-10
Slightly adapted recipe by Teri Appleton-Villanueva
Prep Beans
1 lb cannellini beans, rinse and clean
1 T salt
Soak beans overnight and then cook as directed with added salt. Drain beans, reserving liquid.
Prep Sausages
2 cups water
12 ounces garlic chicken sausage
2 ounces salt pork
2 T vegetable oil
1 med celery rib
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs of thyme
Place water, sausage, salt pork and oil in a dutch oven. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce heat to a quick simmer; cook until water evaporates.Transfer salt pork to cutting board and cool slightly. Meanwhile continue to brown sausages. With kitchen twine, tie together celery, bay leaf, thyme and salt pork together and set aside. When sausages have browned, transfer to cutting board and slice 1 inch thick. Set aside. Do NOT wash dutch oven.
Cook Aromatics
Vegetable oil as needed
12 oz pork shoulder, cut into 1" chunks
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 med carrot, peeled, 1/4 inch dice
2 med cloves garlic, minced
1 T tomato paste
Add oil, if necessary, and pork to the now empty dutch oven and brown pork on all sides. Add onion and carrots, cook, stirring until onion is translucent. Add garlic and tomato paste and cook stirring, 30 seconds.
Deglaze
1/4 cup dry white wine
2 diced Roma tomatoes
2 to 4 cups chicken stock
fine sea salt and black pepper
Immediately deglaze with wine. Bring to a boil, stir in tomatoes, celery/salt pork bundle, sausages, stock and drained beans. Add some reserved bean liquid enough to cover beans. Simmer soup for about an hour. Skim fat. Remove celery/salt pork bundle and discard. Season with salt and pepper.
Variation: I like this soup to be thick, so blending about half of the soup makes it thick and chunky. Let the soup cool a bit before blending. Working in batches, pulse the soup in a blender to break up the ingredients into small pieces. Return it to the dutch oven.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and make the breadcrumb topping below.
Gratinee (Brown Top)
1/4 cup packed parsley leaves
3 T unsalted butter, melted
3 large slices high quality white bread
fine sea salt and pepper
Pulse parsley in food processor until minced Transfer to a bowl, wipe out processor. Pulse bread into crumbs. transfer to parsley bowl and drizzle with butter and toss to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Top soup with Gratinee and then bake until topping is golden brown about 30 minutes. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.
Other recipes to try:
This is hands down the best beef stew recipe I've ever had. The Latin spices and the sweet potatoes in this beef stew sets this one apart. Traditional beef stew is kinda bland to me, but this one is pure greatness. Spicy, full of flavor with a bit of heat in the end. And the sweet potatoes are a nice change of taste and texture from traditional starchy potatoes.
I substituted the poblano chilies in this recipe for some New Mexico chiles that I got from my friend Danielle last year. I still had one bag of them left in the freezer and tossed them in. Maybe that's where all the heat came from in this version. You just never know how hot or mild those New Mexico chilies will be. I don't mind, for me the hotter the better. But not so great for my kiddos. I'll file this recipe under, "Recipes my kids won't eat". Next time, I'll make it milder for them, substituting with roasted mild Anaheim chilies. Whether you like it spicy or mild this recipe is super delicious and easy because the slow cooker does all the work. Enjoy!
Spicy Slow Cooker Beef and Sweet Potato Stew (slightly adapted recipe from Cuisine at Home)
Makes 12 cups
1 boneless beef chuck roast (2.5-3 lb), trimmed, cut into 1-inch cubes
salt and pepper.
3/4 c flour
3-4 T vegetable oil
2 T tomato paste
4 c beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes in juice
1 large onion, diced (2cups)
2 T garlic, minced
1 T each of chili powder, dried Mexican oregano and ground cumin
1 t ground coriander
2 lb sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
2 poblano chiles, charred, peeled, seeded and diced (I used New Mexico Chilies but you can also substitute with mild Anaheim chilies for less heat.)
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 T fresh lime juice
Toss beef with flour to coat. Brown beef in 3-4 batches in 1 T oil per batch in a large skillet over medium heat. Transfer beef to a slow cooker and stir in any remaining flour. Add tomato paste to skillet and cook over medium heat, 1- 2 minutes. Deglaze skillet with broth, scraping up any brown bits. Increase heat to high and boil 2 minutes. Pour broth mixture over beef in slow cooker. Add tomatoes. onion, garlic, chili powder, oregano, cumin and coriander. Cover and cook for 4 hours. Add sweet potatoes and cook an additional hour. Stir in chiles, corn, cilantro and lime juice.
Other recipes to try:
Corned Beef, Cabbage and Leek Soup
Tomato Garlic Soup with Cheese Tortellini
Minestrone for a Crowd
A few months ago I blogged my recipe for Crockpot Pork Verde. This is one of the easiest Crockpot meals to prepare and it's super delicious. Aside from it's ease and good taste, it makes a lot of leftovers since shoulder, picnic, butt and sirloin pork roasts are all large cuts of meat. Yesterday, summer finally made it's arrival with its suffocating heat. It had been surprisingly mild weather-wise up until now. Anyway, I was in a fall food mood, despite the heat, and I'd planned on baking. (Yes, I was going to turn on the oven and experiment with a dessert idea that had been bouncing in my head since June.) Anyhow, because of the heat, I decided instead to play around with some Pork Verde leftovers and made this incredible Pork Verde and Hominy Stew.
Hominy is corn that has been soaked and cooked in a dilute alkaline solution of lime (calcium hydroxide). Soaking the kernels in lime, in essence, softens the kernels and loosens the hulls. The calcium from the lime, breaks up the cellulose and cross-links some of the proteins present in the corn which makes it elastic and enables the corn to be made into dough or Masa. Most recognizably, Masa is used to make tortillas. (Paraphrased from Wikipedia)
In cooked, whole form, Hominy is soft and chewy and has a mild corn flavor which adds texture and a heartiness to the stew. I love Hominy, but if you don't like hominy, you can substitute this recipe with regular corn and additional beans, but I strongly suggest trying it with hominy.
This is perfect for those long cold nights of fall and winter. But, even in summer, you can make it, freeze it and save it for when the weather cools down. Enjoy!
Pork Verde and Hominy Stew
Serves 8-10
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 yellow wax peppers, diced
1 T olive oil
3 cups leftover shredded Pork Verde*
1 1/2 cups Salsa Verde (12oz Jar)
1 29 oz. can hominy, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can of white beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 t. cumin
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. Ancho chili powder (optional)
1 bay leaf
4 cups chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1 cup green onions, chopped
lime wedges (optional)
Prepare Crockpot Pork Verde as directed in above link, *However, set aside half the shredded pork prior to adding the sour cream. (I used the shredded pork without the added sour cream for this recipe.)
Place onions, peppers and garlic in oil in a large dutch oven and saute until the onions are translucent, ~5 minutes. Add shredded pork, salsa verde, hominy, white beans, cumin, chili powders, bay leaf and chicken broth. Cover and heat on medium heat for 30 minutes. Turn off heat, add cilantro and green onions and stir. Ladle into bowls, top with squeeze of lime.
