Cassoulet and Rillettes: A Post-Thanksgiving Trip to France

The greatest Reason For Not Eating Out is having leftovers in the fridge. And the greatest reason for having leftovers in the fridge, of all days of the year, is perhaps Thanksgiving. If you made the requisite roast turkey for the grand dinner, you’re bound to have lots of bits and pieces of turkey meat clinging to the carcass, no matter how much of it you and your family ate. Many cultures can teach us a thing or two about that. But this year, … Read More

Incredible Vegetable Cassoulet

For a long time, I could never fathom making many beloved, wintry foods without meat. It seemed like if you took the meat away, you’d lose the whole hutzpah of the thing. And besides, we need something to fortify our chilled bones with. Well, it’s taken a long journey but in the case of cassoulet, I’ve decided that it isn’t the pork, or duck fat that is the whole hutzpah, it’s the tender, melt-in-your-mouth beans swaddled in a creamy, baked-in … Read More

Cassoulet Marocaine (and a recap of the Greenmarket Benefit Cassoulet Cook-Off)

I’ve been having a love affair with beans lately. This may have happened by default, with so few fresh muses in season to cook with, or else a newfound appreciation simply gained on its own merit: beans are infinitely versatile, used in every cuisine, hearty, and nutritious. They are the main ingredient in comfort foods of so many cultures, like the French cassoulet. But beans also have a stigma attached to them, especially in our meat-loving culture — that of … Read More

Pommes de Porc Cassoulet (and Jimmy’s No. 43 Greenmarket Cassoulet Cook-Off Recap)

It was a frigid Saturday in New York when seven chefs gathered in the back room at Jimmy’s No. 43 to unveil their steaming pots of the French countryside comfort food, cassoulet. A fluid stream of Greenmarket supporters sampled each one throughout the afternoon until pretty much every bean was scooped up. Asked to vote for their favorite takes, each taster turned their attentions to printed sheets describing the cassoulets, their creators and affiliations. Among them were local and seasonal … Read More

What is Cassoulet?

photo courtesy of ABC News Or rather, “Who is Cassoulet?” as George Stephanoulos questioned on ABC when a large banner bearing the word was held above the crowds gathered in Times Square during the station’s election night coverage. The question of cassoulet echoed throughout the world afterward, as the word rose to the top 100 most searched terms in Google on Election Day 2008. I didn’t know what cassoulet was, either, and I completely missed this bit of intrigue at … Read More