Camp Cassoulet - A Journey into SW France April 5, 2008

If you followed Kate Hill’s award-winning blog- French Kitchen Adventures (www.katehill.blogspot.com) last November, then you discovered the sometimes silly, sometimes serious and always delicious fun that happens in her French Kitchen in Southwest France. Camp Cassoulet was a long weekend of confit and cassoulet making that attracted the attention of everyone from Gourmet magazine’s Epicurious.com to Paula Wolfert. This Spring Kate is heading this way with a pot, some beans and a lot of stories to teach you her authentic and simplified version of Southwest France’s famous one pot meal- Camp Cassoulet!

Beginning with a video from the canal-side Not Brothers Pottery where Kate buys her hand-thrown clay pots, this cookbook author and cook shares with you the simple secrets that make a very succulent and very French dish. Cassoulet is about beans; but it is also traditional saucisse de Toulouse- fresh pork sausage, salted pork belly, and duck confit—traditional savory charcuterie that flavor the famous peasant dish. Perfect for a large party or festive gathering, Cassoulet is perfect when cooked in a wood-fired oven as well as in a slow oven.

Cassoulet hails from the Midi region of Southwest France; a complete meal itself, it is often served just with a fresh green salad dressed with a sharp shallot vinaigrette. A light dessert of perfumed pear sorbet and crispy almond shortbread cookies completes this very French fete!

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