cassoulet

You cant go wrong with Jennifer McLagan: This is her cassoulet, and the verdict tonight was that it soars above others. Of course, with a book entitled Fat, what could go wrong?

Jennifer's recipe for duck confit, while not pictured, is flawless and important. That process began days ago, leading to pork skin and then the skinned duck confit layered upon Great Northern beans, having been cooked with thyme, parsley, cloves, and leeks (a subsitution in the recipe for onions):

Atop that was lamb and pork belly, and another layer of beans. The beans are actually a mix of the aforementioned beans with cooked tomatoes, all of which forms another layer (which is actually less wet than the photo suggests). The beans are studded with andouille sausage:
 

Baked for three hours with bread crumbs and chopped duck confit skin (another modification: I thought that the skin would slowly render into the crust, and it works!), it becomes this:

I served this with kale stewed in chicken stock. As it is so rich, this was preceeded by fermented beets, raw fennel, and a mixture of olives. 

We ate this with the kale, garnished with parsley and Tierenteyn mustard. The mustard and parsley pulls it all together. 

With such a rich meal, a following salad course of endives and watercress in lime, olive oil, and pistachio oil made way for Miss Fat's fabulous apple cake with whipped cream and a fantastic walnut topping.

fermented beets

I've made fermented beets before, and last time I made them I used shredded beets; the catch being that they felt like a condiment when shredded and fermented. Wanting more of a pickle, this time I peeled and then chopped the beets in chunks (two-and-a-half pounds) and mixed then with 2½ tbsp salt, 1 tbsp caraway seeds and a dozen or so lightly crushed (maybe more bruised?) juniper berries.

I packed these into a crock (above, in green), added just enough water to cover and weighed them down so that the beets were submerged in brine.

Fourteen days later they were tender yet crisp and had a nice zing to them. They are delicious, and have turned a deep purple color (the jar behind is clear but packed with beets and brine after fermentation).

leftovers

 

Leftover roasted beets and potatoes with eggs, bacon and a pickled jalapeno.

steak tartare with beets

Tonight I made a classic steak tartare — except that I used flat iron steaks and served the tartare with roasted beets. I roasted whole red and yellow beets on a bed of thyme with olive oil for an hour at 300º (F) and then at 375º (F) for 40 minutes. Late October beets and slow roasting led to a rich, sweet flavor that was incredible with tartare — far superior to fries, if you ask me. The tartare was chopped — not ground — and mixed with Dijon mustard, anchovies, capers, red onion, parsley, very good olive oil (some olive oil from Impruneta that is quite fruity), Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce, and an egg yolk. One guest did not eat meat and this mix (minus the egg yolk) was great with sashimi-grade tuna. Garnish the tartare with parsely and the beets with olive oil; season to taste with salt, pepper, Tabasco and chopped cornichons.

smelts two ways

I bought some smelts the other day, not quite knowing what I'd do with them. They're small — like sardines — but white and delicate — unlike sardines. The latter I figured out after making that first meal: fried smelts with roasted potatoes and beets. It appears that smelts and boiled potatoes are traditional... but, I'd argue bland. So I thought I'd roast the potatoes. But the smelts were still bland. Nice, but white. Very delicate.

They needed something.

So I re-interpreted Hiroko Shimbo's recipe for sardines in a sweet sauce. The sauce is 1T honey heated in ¼c. water (recipe called for 2T sugar) to which ¼c. mirin and ¼c. shoyu are added, then simmered. The fileted smelts were tossed in lemon juice and then in brown rice flour (which I use for fish in general). I fried them in sesame oil, drained them and placed them on rice and poured the sauce over. A little sprinkle of black sesame seeds...

And that worked. It was very good.