French cuisine with an attitude

In the small pot, cook the bacon over medium-high heat until the meat is brown and the fat has been rendered, about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally to avoid sticking. Discard the fat and reserve the meat.

In the large pot, heat the butter until it foams. Add the shallot and cook until soft, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the apple and cook for 5 minutes, then stir in the Calvados, scraping the bottom of the pot with the wooden spoon to dislodge any good brown stuff that might be clinging there. Stir in the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Once the mixture has come to a boil, add the mussels and cover. Cook for 10 minutes, or until all of the mussels have opened. Shake. Cook for another minute. Shake again. Serve immediately.

Prep
Prepare the bacon by placing the cubes in the saucepan, covering them with water, and bringing to a quick boil. When the water boils, drain the bacon, discarding the water.

Toast the baguette slices in the oven with a drizzle of olive oil. Make sure you have your vinaigrette ready to go.

Cook
Place the sauté pan on high heat for 2 minutes, or until sizzling hot. Add the bacon and cook until crispy and brown. Place the cooked bacon in the salad bowl and discard all but 2 tablespoons (28 milliliters) of the bacon fat. Over medium-high heat, add the chicken-liver vinaigrette to the now empty but still hot pan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat.

Prep
Place the cherries in the small bowl and toss with the kirsch. Let macerate for 1 hour. Assemble and bake.

Preheat the oven to 450ºF (230ºC). Grease the baking dish with the butter and coat with a pinch or two of the sugar. Place the pan in the refrigerator.

In the large mixing bowl, beat the eggs with a whisk, then add the sugar and beat well to fully incorporate. Mix in the flour and the vanilla extract, stirring enough so that all the ingredients are homogenous but without overworking the flour.

Using the rubber spatula, fold the cherries and their accumulated juice into the flour and egg mixture, then pull your prepared baking pan out of the fridge and turn the mixture into it.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until a golden brown crust has formed on top. The skewer inserted into the center should come out clean — not wet. Using the small strainer or sifter, dust the top with confectioners’ sugar, and serve.

This is a great, not very difficult dish to make, and it doesn’t take much time — if you spread the work over three days: a few easy, fairly uninvolved small tasks per day.

You will also need to know how to make duck confit, a skill that will serve you well should you ever want to serve it as an appetizer or use the meat as ravioli filling (very tasty). Let’s begin with the confit and move on from there. As it will survive happily in your refrigerator for weeks, you can make it way in advance.

Confit:

Day One
Rub the duck legs fairly generously with sea salt, place in the shallow dish, cover with plastic, and refrigerate overnight. At all times, keep your work area clean and your ingredients free of contamination — meaning don’t allow any other foodstuffs like bread crumbs or scraps to get into your duck or duck fat or confit, as they will make an otherwise nearly nonperishable preparation suddenly perishable.

Day Two
Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Render (melt) the duck fat in the saucepan until clear. After seasoning with the black pepper (not too much), place the duck legs in the clean, ovenproof casserole, nestle the thyme, rosemary, and garlic in with it, and pour the duck fat over the legs to just cover. Cover the dish with foil and put in the oven. Cook for about an hour, or until the skin at the “ankle” of each leg pulls away from the “knuckle.” The meat should be tender.

Allow to cool and then store as is in the refrigerator, sealed under the fat. When you need the confit, you can either warm the whole dish, in which case removing the legs will be easy, or dig them out of the cold fat and scrape off the excess. I highly recommend the former. A nice touch at this point is to twist out the thighbone from the cold confit. Just place one hand on the drumstick, pinioning the leg to the table, and with the other hand, twist out the thighbone, plucking it from the flesh without mangling the thigh meat. Think of someone you hate when you do it.

Cassoulet:

Day One
Place the beans in the large bowl and cover with cold water so that there are at least two or three inches of water above the top of the beans. Soak overnight. That was hard, right?

Day Two
Drain and rinse the beans and place in the large pot. Add the pork belly, the quartered onion, 1/4 pound (112 grams) of the pork rind, and the bouquet garni. Cover with water, add salt and pepper to taste, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook until the beans are tender, about an hour. Let cool for 20 minutes, then discard the onion and the bouquet garni.

Remove the pork belly, cut it into 2-inch (5-centimeter) squares, and set aside. (If you plan to wait another day before finishing the dish, wait to cut the pork belly until then.) Strain the beans and the rind and set aside, reserving the cooking liquid separately.

In the sauté pan, heat all but 1 tablespoon (14 grams) of the duck fat over medium-high heat until it shimmers and becomes transparent. Carefully add the sausages and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside, draining on paper towels.

In the same pan, over medium-high heat, brown the sliced onions, the garlic, and the reserved squares of pork rind from the beans (not the unused pork rind; you’ll need that later). Once browned, remove from the heat and transfer to the blender. Add 1 tablespoon (14 grams) of the remaining duck fat, and purée until smooth. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Place the uncooked pork rind in the bottom of a deep ovenproof earthenware dish. You’re looking to line the inside, almost like a piecrust. Arrange all your ingredients in alternating layers, beginning with a layer of beans, then sausages, then more beans, then pork belly, beans, duck confit, and finally more beans, adding a dab of the onion and pork-rind puree between each layer. Add enough of the bean cooking liquid to just cover the beans, reserving 1 cup (225 milliliters) in the refrigerator for later use.

Cook the cassoulet in the oven for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to 250ºF (130ºC) and cook for another hour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Refrigerate overnight.

Day Three
Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180ºC) again. Cook the cassoulet for an hour. Break the crust on the top with the spoon and add 1/4 cup (56 milliliters) of the reserved cooking liquid. (Don’t get fancy. Just pile, dab, stack, and pile. It doesn’t have to be pretty.) Reduce the heat to 250ºF (130ºC) and continue cooking another 15 minutes, or until screamingly hot through and through. Then serve.