Cassoulet

This was Cassoulet.

We bought a kielbasa sausage from a Polish grocery store in Rockville and thought what to make with it. Our two slow Cooker recipe books by America's Test Kitchen sometimes feature kielbasa. So I started flipping the books to find a potential recipe. I found one! Yes, Cassoulet, a French classic slow-cooked casserole. Traditionally it's made with meat (pork or mutton), sausages, duck/goose confit, and white beans! I knew J wouldn't say no because it would be rich meaty! I would enjoy savory beans. The recipe called for bone-in country-style pork ribs and bone-in chicken thighs along with kielbasa. For beans I soaked dried great Northern beans in salt water overnight. Other ingredients were straightforward, like onion, garlic, canned tomato, fresh thymes, white whine, etc without complicated spices.

After 7 hours cooking on low mode, pork ribs and chickens were so tender, almost melting. After stirring the pot, they had really melt into the soup.

With toasted bread crumbs and parsley, our first Cassoulet was ready to eat. In short, it tasted ok, but not special. It was surely meaty, but everything was melting so difficult to identify what it was. J wasn't impressed by it either. He thought sausages didn't provide nice smokey flavor; instead, spread unpleasant oil. Pork ribs didn't give much flavor and chickens were shredded to everywhere. Well, we will try with a different recipe, or go to a French bistro. I may prefer the latter.