Frog and Goat

We started by frying up uncured pork belly:

Then we combined the beans, the bouquet garni and other aromatics in one bowl so they’d be easier to put in the pot with the meats:

The pork shoulder went into the pot with the pork belly:

Time passed as the beans cooked. We removed the ham hock from the bean mixture and the better-half chopped the meat from the bone. It was so tender there wasn’t much difficulty in chopping. The meat went back into the pot and the onion, carrot and bouquet garni came out.

Then we layered the beans, duck confit and sausage (fresh kielbasa):

The pot went into the oven to cook for a couple of hours. Since we had some time to kill we engaged in the age old tradition of burning trash in the driveway to celebrate the dawning of a new year.

We saw some people doing this on Christmas night but they were jumping the gun. Everyone knows you have to wait for the Eve.

During the cooking process, we had to check to make sure there was enough liquid in the pot:

The last stretch of cooking entailed melting butter, combining with bread chunks and then adding to the top of the dish. While the dish cooled, we warmed our bowls, opened a Cotes du Rhone and made a simple salad:

Then we ate delicious cassoulet:

Did you just hear a loud yelping noise? That was my wallet begging for mercy. I just bought five textbooks for next semester. I don’t know how many tabs I had open in Firefox but I was doing some serious shopping around. As it turns out, I purchased all of them through Amazon–the used feature sure is handy.

We making Cassoulet for new year’s eve dinner. The latest Martha Stewart Living has a recipe and it jibes pretty close to all the other Cassoulet recipes we have but hers is a bit easier. We stopped by The Belmont Butchery yesterday and Tanya hooked us up with all our meat needs. As she pulled duck legs out of the confit container, I smiled. All that duck fat. Mmmm.

The last time I had Cassoulet was on our trip in 2006 to the Pacific Northwest. I hope we’re able to come close to that taste extravaganza.

What are your plans for the eve?

We whipped up a mustard (a little dijon and a lot of harvest coarse ground) and garlic marinade for a breast of chicken (we’ve taken to slicing a big chicken breast into two pieces) and the better-half grilled it using the emergency grilling technique because of the rain. The emergency grilling technique? Open the garage up, strategically place old box fan, fire up charcoal grill. Pour bourbon and ginger.

We boiled some wide egg noodles then dressed with butter and freshly cracked black pepper. And, I cut the tops off some beets and sauteed the beet greens in bacon fat, olive oil and onions. I steamed them (or is it braising) with some white wine and then finished with a little butter–very little.

We enjoyed Kris Pinot Grigio with the meal. We originally had it on vacation but I discovered the Fresh Market carries it. W00t.

For a meal that came together in less than a half hour, it was delicious.

Oh, crap, I forgot to mention. We stopped at Once Upon a Vine and stocked up on Strongbow (of course) but while I was filling up a specialty six-pack, one of the guys working there commented that he noticed I’d put a Hobgoblin in my six pack. Then he whips out the most beautiful gift set–the glass is a magnificent pint glass (I love pint glasses–has there been a better glass manufactured? Doubtful.) and then a big old bottle of Hobgoblin. I was sold. He then talked to me a bit more. I guess a woman lingering over hoppy beer brings out the beer geek.