Boxing Day Cassoulet

What's a great way to follow the stuff-yourself-silly-over-the-top meal that is Christmas Eve, AND Christmas Day???  Follow it up with a total meat binge for Boxing Day! Yeah baby! Come the New Year we absolutely have to declare a boycott on meat and fill our plates with vegetables and grains and other such healthy fare...but until then we're going all out  and subjecting ourselves to the adverse side effects of too much meat ... bring on the Meat Sweats (kinda like Gummy Tummy after too many Gummy Bears.) This is the complete opposite  to the cassoulet that I made about a year ago...this one is not quite as healthy perhaps but so tasty, very filling and incredibly decadent.

This would mark the final meal that we could make for my sister and her husband before they move many thousands of kilometres away to a different province at the other end of the country (and also partly to a different country entirely... I'd explain but it's complicated.) We thought, what better way to send them off than with a rich, hearty, almost entirely, meat filled dish like cassoulet? We had planned to use the lamb necks that we had in the freezer and had defrosted... but then forgot in the fridge. We also forgot to bring the customary bottle of wine. Oh dear. We were a bit off our game. Thank goodness we are good at improvising and making due with what we have. No worries, as the meal turned out fabulously, seconds were had, and stomachs were stretched most uncomfortably (self restraint is not our forte.)

We used the leftover mashed potatoes from Christmas as a base to pour the Cassoulet over, served with a hearty crusty bread and garnished with parsley (for those who like it.) A perfect meal, a perfect night, and a perfect send off for a sister and brother-in-law who have been so much help to us over the past (beyond crappy) year and will be greatly missed (especially by me.) Good luck and we will miss you a lot ... who will come with me now to HomeSense and help me spend money on things I don't really need like all those $20 bike art thingeys that I keep finding???......

Boxing Day Cassoulet

1 duck, thawed and chopped into quarters
1 chorizo sausage, sliced diagonally into 2 cm thick slices
1 cornish hen, quartered
1 lb of pork loin, diced
5-6 shallots, diced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 parsnip, peeled and diced
sea salt and pepper to taste
bouquet garni (made up of 4 sprigs of thyme and 4 sprigs of rosemary)
350 ml of white wine
1 can chopped peeled tomatoes
1 can red kidney beans
1 can white kidney beans (or butter beans or whatever beans you have on hand)
1 cup breadcrumbs
chopped parsley, to serve

Preheat oven to 325 F.

Brown the duck, pork, cornish hen in batches in a heavy bottomed pan. Brown the slices of chorizo with the onion, garlic, carrot and parsnip in the same pan. Place meat on top of the vegetables,  season with salt and pepper and add the bouquet garni. Add the white wine,  and then the canned tomatoes.  Lightly jostle the pot to mix the wine, the juices and the meat. Cover with a lid or foil and place in the oven for 1 1/2 hours.

Drain and rinse the canned beans under cold water. Add the beans to the mixture and return to the oven for another 20 minutes of cooking. Remove from oven.

Preheat the broiler on low. Remove lid and sprinkle the breadcrumbs liberally over top of the cassoulet. Place under the broiler for 10 minutes or until the breadcrumbs are golden brown. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve with buttery smashed potatoes and crusty bread for dipping.

Cheers!