Haricots Tarbais! Garbure? Cassoulet? 今日の御注文はどっち?

As it turns out, while there was voting there eventually wasn’t a choice as some timely lobbying from both sides resulted in our host electing to make both. Both! Jackpot! Two different dishes with haricots Tarbais. Two different dishes with pork and duck. Serious eats to separate the real gastronomes from the poseurs.

There were eleven eaters up for the challenge, including my butter-loving pal. This is really a menu with his name on it because the classic wine pairing for cassoulet and garbure is Madiran AOC and that’s his favorite wine. But eleven. Eleven brave eaters as there was actually a whole lot more food than I had anticipated. The weather even cooperated with the remnants of Tropical Storm Ida bringing along lots of precipation and dreary skies to pump up the anticipating of warming hearty fare of two similar yet different culinary examples of the Sud-ouest.

But wait! There’s more. As in charcuterie. A cheese service with seven varieties of cheeses from France (including several very interesting chèvre including a tomme). Salad. A dessert that carried the only butter in the entire meal.

And me? I’m definitely getting old and lethargic because my wussy system was already signaling “full” after some bread and a couple of pieces of charcuterie (uh-oh). But never mind my wimpy ways and back to describing “la bouffe”.

Garbure

Until this event, I have tried garbure twice and was underwhelmed both times. The first one was a bean and cabbage soup made with goose confit (I like the confit and thought the stew was meh) while the second one was bean, potato and cabbage, which looked and tasted like an abominable nightmarish vegan interpretation of this dish.

This garbure was nothing like those. Nope.

This is the recipe (in rough), but the end product is definitely not what the recipe suggests it will be.

• 400 g demi-salé (lightly-salted pork belly)
• 1.5 L chicken stock
• 300 f peas
• 300 g haricots Tarbais
• 1 turnip
• 2 carrots
• 2 leeks
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1 small cabbage
• 4 yellow-flesh potato
• 4 confit duck legs
• 3 tablespoons duck or goose fat
• bread and cheese (for the gratinée)

Cut the demi-salé into large pieces, place into a pot with cold water and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes. Skim, drain the meat and set aside. Heat the stock in a dutch oven. Cut the carrot and leek into large rounds and add to the pot. Add the peas, beans and demi-salé to the pot and cook for 1 hour. Separate and blanch the cabbage and cut into rough chiffonade. Cut the potato into large rounds. Add the cabbage and potato and cook for an additional 45 minutes. Add the duck or goose fat and cook for another 10 minutes. Heat the confit. Plate individual portions, top with bread and cheese place under the broiler to make a gratinée. Serve immediately.

The gratinée couldn’t really be easily done because there were a lot of people and no salamander oven or blowtorch to help speed things along but I didn’t miss that.

There were also tiny little flourishes: much more meat, plenty of nice vegetables, a Savoy cabbage instead of regular green stuff, sourdough bread and Emmental. And a very large end piece of pata negra jamón just to add “a little bit of flavor”. Okay… just a little bit over the top as flavor booster (and this coming from me, a guy who ages mojamas for 6+ months to bring out umami).

The finished plate:

We were given an option to have the garbure with out without the confit. If you’re wondering the correct way is “with”, as the saltiness and meatiness from the confit adds additional depth to the garbure.
 

Cassoulet

This was served after the garbure because it’s a heavier dish and the recipe (again in rough) only generally outlined what was the end result.

• 600 g haricots Tarbais, soaked overnight
• 1 large piece of pork couenne (pork skin)
• 800 g saltback (salted pork belly)
• 7 onions
• 3 cloves
• 200 g carrots
• 10 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 bouquet garni
• 1 kg lamb neck
• 1 kg pork (leg)
• 50 mL oil
• thyme
• 400 g tomato
• 1 Toulouse sausage
• 8 pieces of duck confit
• parsley
• breadcrumbs

Line the pot with the couenne. Add the soaked haricots, saltback, 3 cloves garlic, carrots and bouquet garni. Stud 3 onions with the cloves and add to the pot. Cook over gentle heat for 2 hours. While beans are cooking, cut the lamb neck and pork into fairly large pieces. Brown the meat, add 4 onions, 2 cloves garlic, thyme and roughly-chopped tomato. Add 50 mL water, cover and cook for 1 hour. Remove the bouquet garni, onions and couenne from the beans. Cut the couenne and onion into small pieces and return to the pot. Add the Toulouse sausage and the contents of the pot containing the lamb and pork. Mix and cook an additional 20 minutes. Rub garlic onto the bottom of a cassole (or a large tagine). Arrange the beans and meat into the dish. Top with remaining minced garlic, parsley and breadcrumbs and place in a 210ºC oven until the top is browned.

Did I mention that he had the Toulouse sausages (in plural) also prepped as confit for this dish?

There was a precision to this dish: in the eating you could tell that care was taken to properly cook every element so that each would be at is savoury best.

This cassoulet was by all means a superior dish in every aspect to what I have made myself.

Wines

I wasn’t able to count the number of dead soldiers but let’s just say that drink options weren’t lacking.

My contribution to the bottle count:

• 2000 Château Montus Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh Sec; brought along as a white alternative for the garbure but mercifully left unopened as I at least was getting tanked.
• 2004 Domaine Arretxea Irouléguy Cuvée Haitza. A Basque appélation consisting of a tannat and Cabernet blend; took a risk on this and gambled wrong – CellarTracker indicates that this wine’s drinking window starts 2018 and the bottle had already shut down. Didn’t get a whole lot from it so hard to tell if it was good or not.
• 2004 Domaine du Pech “Le Pech Abusé” Vin de Table Français. Formerly classified as a Buzet until the vinters started their mini-war with the association; they can no longer use the appélation. In all honesty, the bottle smelled of used sweat socks when I popped the cork, but the funkiness blew off after being carafed for a couple of hours. Massive tannins on the palate which essentially overwhelms the underlying fruit; this bottle could have slept at least a decade in the cellar.

The others I at least have photos of:

• Segura Viudas Cava Brut Reserva; several bottles of this – I did not catch the vintage but it’s a smooth sparkler with tiny bulles.
• Roederer Estate Brut Anderson Valley; several bottles of this too – I also did not see which vintage but Roedere’s California production has always been good stuff.
• 1996 Château Pontet-Canet; typical Pauillac cedar, tobacco and lead pencil elements on the nose which opened up after about 20 minutes in the glass. A bit young but very nice and developed floral and fruit notes in glass. Opened after dessert and available with cheese.
• 2004 Château Bouscassé Madiran Vieilles Vignes; the first of the Madiran my pal Butter Boy had brought along. Carafed for close to 3 hours but could have used another 5. This wine is really nowhere near its drinking window but showed a lot of complexity and spiciness underneath the tannin hit. Declared to be the wine of the night (I’d concur).
• 2004 Domaine Labranche-Laffont Madiran Vieilles Vignes; the second of BB’s Madiran. Carafed for the same time, but still very tannic. Suffered a little bit by being somewhat too warm but still demonstrated a fruity spiciness along with a whole lot of wood. Not as well-received as the Bouscassé but this would have stood out more had we drank the bottles in progression.
• 2005 Henri et Laurent Miquel Saint-Chinian Larmes des Fées; not opened only because everyone’s taste buds had been obliterated by the more massive reds beforehand.
• 2008 Boschendal Chardonnay; an atypical Chardonnay from South Africa.
• 2008 Maison Nicolas Vin de Pays d’Oc Merlot Reserve; did not taste.
• J. Nusbaumer Vieille Prune eau-de-vie de fruit; only 42% alcohol content (sic) but a very nice mellow eau-de-vie with a very complex aroma that developed as it warmed in the snifter.

Photos

Did I ever mention how I love shooting with the LX3? Good thing too since after all this food and drink I wasn’t particularly stable. I also had to shoot the cheese and salad services pre-service because I was pretty certain ahead of time that I would be imitating a Weeble by the time those rolled around.

[View with PicLens]

Aftermath

It is almost 24 hours since the haricots Tarbais event and I am just beginning to stir from my caloric stupor. There is an episode I mentioned from Dotch where junior entertainers were told not to eat for 48 hours before coming to studio: in hindsight I should have heeded that advice.

This was well worth it – a really fun evening with a lot of laughs and plenty of deliciousness to indulge in. And a lot of singing. I did capture a small video clip of everyone singing a cava-fueled version of the Goldcoast Singers’ Plastic Jesus (!) but I’ll have to find the best way to compress the file should anyone want it posted. I was also a bit lost because I don’t know the music of Beau Dommage and when they were talking about the folk movement and the music of the early 70s I was imagining my pal sporting an afro and a ZZ Top beard while dressed in a nehru jacket and bell bottoms (coulda happened).

“I don’t care if it rains or freezes, ‘long as I got my plastic…”

Food? Mmm… It’s very rare that one gets a chance to have either dish and we were spoiled by getting both. Nothing but big “wow” on the flavor front.

I was told that both were “plats rustiques” but the cooking was very deliberate and measured to ensure that all elements were properly cooked and worked harmoniously; I am very happy and quite fortunate to have had both. As I look back on the photos I’m kicking myself for not joining Butter Boy in having seconds.

In all honesty if there had been a choice I’m not sure which I would have chosen: it was one of those situations where you will be happy with the decision but you’ll also regret not picking the other because you know you’ll have miss out.

Popularity: 17% [?]