Cassoulet

Beans

• dried haricot beans600 g
• onions1
• cloves2
• carrots1
• garlic cloves4
• thyme4 sprigs
• bay leaves2
• black peppercorns1 tsp
• salt2 tsp

Meats

• duck confit legs4
• Toulouse sausages6
• pork belly500 g
• smoked streaky bacon150 g
• duck fat2 tbsp
• onions2
• garlic cloves3
• tomato paste2 tbsp
• black pepper
• salt

Beans

1. 01

   The night before, cover the dried haricot beans with cold water by at least 5 cm and leave to soak for at least 8 hours.

2. 02

   Drain the soaked beans, put them in a large pan and cover with fresh cold water by 3 cm. Bring to the boil and skim off the grey foam that rises in the first few minutes.

3. 03

   Stud the whole onion with the cloves and add it with the carrot, garlic, thyme, bay and peppercorns. Lower the heat until the surface barely trembles and cook for 45 to 60 minutes, until a bean crushes easily against the roof of your mouth but the skins are still whole. A rolling boil bursts the skins and leaves the insides chalky.

4. 04

   Stir in the salt, take the pan off the heat and fish out the onion, carrot and herbs. Leave the beans in their cooking liquid; you will need most of it later.

Meats

5. 05

   Cut the pork belly into 4 cm pieces and the bacon into lardons. Heat the duck fat in a wide casserole over medium-high heat and brown the sausages all over, about 6 minutes. Lift them out and brown the pork belly pieces and the bacon in the same fat until the edges are deep brown.

6. 06

   Chop the onions and garlic. Lift out the pork belly and bacon, turn the heat down and cook the onions in the fat for 10 minutes until soft and golden. Add the garlic for 1 minute, then the tomato paste, frying it for 2 minutes until it darkens to brick red and smells sweet rather than sharp.

7. 07

   Return the pork belly and bacon, pour in enough of the bean cooking liquid, ladled from the bean pan, to cover and simmer gently, half covered, for 1 hour, until a piece of belly gives under a spoon. Keep the tomato out of the bean pan itself: acid stiffens bean skins and they stop softening.

8. 08

   Cut each sausage in half and pull the duck legs into large pieces, leaving the skin on. Season the braised pork with salt and pepper.

Assembly

9. 09

   Heat the oven to 150°C. Drain the beans over a pan and keep the cooking liquid hot over a low heat. Spoon a third of the beans into a deep earthenware or cast iron dish of about 4 litres. Lay in half the sausage, pork belly, bacon and duck, cover with another third of the beans, then the rest of the meat, and finish with the last of the beans. Tuck the duck pieces skin upwards near the surface.

10. 10

    Ladle over the onion and tomato braising liquid from the casserole, then enough of the hot cooking liquid to come just level with the top layer, not over it. Bake uncovered for 2 to 2½ hours.

11. 11

    After 30 minutes a pale skin will have set on the surface. Break it with the back of a spoon and stir it gently under the beans, then leave it to form again. Repeat each time a new skin has set, three or four times in all, topping up with the hot bean cooking liquid whenever the dish looks dry at the edges.

12. 12

    Leave the last crust unbroken for the final 30 minutes so it browns and cracks. Rest the dish for 20 minutes before serving, straight from the pot.