Okay, for all the clowning (“no ma’am, I will not be having salad with this stew!”) I actually found this a very helpful and informative recipe, a cassoulet for beginners. After making it the first time, I’ve made a few adaptations that I think is a little more forgiving and less finicky. This is best made in any kind of stovetop to oven cookware— I am using a 3 quart dutch oven.

But first, the meat.

The base recipe suggests sausage & bacon, which I love! But I had a bunch of Yunnan-style preserved pork lying around from when I made a huge batch of it in October, and I’ve been using it instead of bacon. I learned how to make it from this video. Pork belly is boiled with ginger, a bit of salt, and Shaoxing wine & then sliced & tossed with: more salt (a lot of salt, it’s going to be preserved), chili oil and toasted rice flour. I personally cannot handle the level of spice that they eat in Yunnan (like it will literally send you blasting off to the moon) so I halved the amount of chili oil and instead made toasted garlic oil— mince a head of garlic in the blender and fry it in oil until fragrant. The ratio of toasted rice flour I personally used was about 3/4 cup for 4.5 pounds of pork belly.

if you want to eat it straight, to reheat, steam it on cabbage and put it on rice.

After everything is sliced and mixed, cram that porky goodness into a mason jar and let it hang out on the counter for a week. I was really leery because I had never preserved meat before, but it keeps remarkably well. I moved it to the fridge after a week. I have a jar labeled 10.23.20 that I am still eating from!

My mom also cures her own meats, so she gave me a lapcheong (Chinese pork sausage) she had made, which I used for this recipe. I highly recommend you use any kind of lapcheong for this! Okay, on to…

THE BEANS

White beans are a huge part of this stew, and one of my favorite things to eat! I ate a lot of beans in 2020. Super easy. You will need in addition to beans: a few tablespoons of fat (olive oil, schmaltz, bacon grease, whatever), 1/2-1 lemon, 2 bay leaves, salt, oregano, cumin, at least 3-4 cloves peeled garlic & whatever other herbs you want to use (I used a bunch of parsley for my most recent batch, but I’ve used sprigs of rosemary and thyme when I’ve had them), and vinegar for the very end.

soak about 1-2 cups dried beans for at least 4 hours in cold water (there are boiling water methods of rehydrating beans too, which are easily found with a quick search!)
cover your soaked beans 2 inches with water. Let it come to a boil. Skim off the foam. Add a tablespoon of salt— I salt the beans as I go. Turn the heat all the way down to low. Add the fat, lemon, herbs, oregano, and cumin. Let it cook at a very small simmer for about 45 mins to an hour— keep tasting them. Add more salt towards the end if it’s not enough. Add a glug of vinegar (I use Chinese black vinegar). You can stop this instant and just have beans for your meal, they’re that good. Put an egg on top, dip the bread in it… HOWEVER, if you want to make the cassoulet—

In addition to CURED MEATS & BEANS IN BEAN LIQUID the following are unskippable (I’m using a 3 quart dutch oven for this so my measurements are adjusted to that):

1/2 pound pork belly/shoulder, sliced and/or
2 chicken thighs
4 more cloves sliced garlic
2 small onions, minced
bay leaves
2 black cardamom pods. you can order them online or find them at the Asian markets. These are unskippable because if you’re not using smoked meats (I wasn’t) they lend a delicious smokiness to your finished stew.
tomato paste

optional: more sprigs of thyme/rosemary; white wine or sake, for deglazing. But honestly, deglazing with the bean broth works just fine. You won’t need additional salt in this recipe, the cured meats + bean cooking liquid is sodium enough. I really liked using my cured pork belly because it’s been coated with rice flour, which comes off while cooking and adds a nice thickness to the stew! However, I am getting ahead of myself.

Of the cured pork I made, I used the equivalent about 2 strips of thick-cut bacon.

Mis en Place:

Oven preheated to 400

Cured pork, cut into small pieces.
lapcheong, cut into small pieces— maybe 1/2 cup worth. Eyeball it, nobody ever said extra sausage was bad.
pork belly, cut into small pieces.
sliced garlic & minced onion on one plate
beans. I’ve made this dish enough times by now that I just have the pot of beans in broth on the other burner, but if you want to separate your broth from the beans to measure more accordingly, you can do that. Definitely take out the bulky herbs/lemon pieces if you’re using. LEAVE THE GARLIC.
chicken thighs, if using. I use skin-on thighs. It doesn’t matter a whole lot whether skin-on or off.
cardamom pods, bay leaves, herb sprigs within reach.
tomato paste tin, opened.

Cook:

Here’s where I find this stew to be super forgiving. The order of operations don’t matter a whole lot here, but you have to make sure to deglaze periodically with liquid so that all the good flavorful bits get stirred up. If it helps to scoop up each element after it’s done cooking and put it in a container to the size while you deglaze, that’s fine. Just make sure to deglaze! That said:

Sear the chicken thighs on high heat, skin side down, about 5 mins per side. Take them out, put them on a plate. If there’s stuff stuck to the bottom of the pot, deglaze a bit now with either wine or broth.
Turn the heat down to medium. Toast your spices for a bit. Stir black cardamom and bay leaves in the hot oil. Keep them there.
Still medium heat: Cook the cured meats. As the bacon crisps, I add the onions & garlic, but you can also take out the meats and put them into a bowl before doing your aromatics. Add other pork belly. Cook onion & garlic until soft. At this point, take everything out of the pot and deglaze it again. Add a little extra broth this time, because:
you’re going to add about half of a small tin of tomato paste. Stir it around, and then add your beans. Add the meats and garlic & onion back. Add enough broth to cover everything. Nestle the chicken thighs in the beans. Put the pot lid on and put it in the oven for 35-40 minutes.

Pre-oven pic. Chicken seared nicely, sometimes when I try to take the chicken off the oil all the skin comes away lol

You can get fancy and after 40 mins in the oven, take off the lid and top with toasted bread crumbs and put it under the broiler for a few minutes. Or you can just eat it as-is. Eat it with bread!