[TN] Cassoulet night

Mark, I have a recipe that you might enjoy if you ever get up this way again - it might lead to loss of your amateur cassoulet status, though.....

Bill we all have our best cassoulet recipe, and I know mine is the best ;-) JT

wrong!

pk

Rubbish, mine are far better.

I was interested to see Mark's use of a Rhone wine. I'm unconvinced that the CdP mix of varieties whether grown on the Rhone or in Paso Robles, will be the ideal one for a cassoulet, whether from Toulouse, Castelnaudary or Carcasonne. I rather prefer a wine with slightly more aggressive tannins, which in being tamed by the fat in the Cassoulet, help to cut through the richness of the dish. Something like a moderately young Cahors (for Miles, that's mainly made from the Malbec grape) or a Madiran (Tannat). All the best

Fatty from Forges.

So, where are these recipes?

I made good use of yours this year, Ian, though the end result is a hybrid of several recipes, mostly reflecting the availability of ingredients and my own prerferences. For next year's version, though, I'm searching for Tarbais beans.

In years past, I have used both Madiran and Cahors with this dish. In my ongoing exploration of matching options, this year I had originally planned to serve a couple of Syrahs, one from Steve Edmunds in CA (one of the most masterful of CA Syrah producers) and another from the N. Rhone, but Jean talked me into the wines actually used. Please to note, though, Mr...er...Munged, that these wines were all disproportionately heavy on Mourvedre, so aren't really representative of the traditional CdP mix. I'd have to say that younger Mourvedre is right up there with Tannat or Malbec for cassoulet pairing.

Cheers! Mark Lipton

"Munged" eh? Your writing resembles that of a former AFW poster also from Forges....

:-)

Hey Ian, when are we going to have a tannin vs no-tannin cassoulet showdown? Shall we meet somewhere in the middle, say around New Zealand?

No you're talking !!!!!!!!!

st.h

Hehe. That wasn't my intention. I changed my newsreader and got the details wrong. I have suffered badly from Spam, so wanted to make sure that no part of what I sent would be harvestable by spambots.

I hope to be visiting said country in 2011 - as I've always promised to do. However, I believe a certain noble bibulous kiwi is threatening to descend upon 6-4s some time next year. The Forges fattyhouse is always open to afwers as you know, and you could always come up as a foursome and compare the relative merits of a young and old Cahors and a wine of your choice when matched with a Cassoulet of truly Hoary majesty. Mind you, if it's in the height of summer that could be moderately embarrassing if we don't have adequate notice.

And talking of errant afwers A certain legal eagle from the Great North Wet will be here soon. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to my proposal to serve the Foie Gras AFTER the meat in the way it was done back at the end of the 19th century, so that we can drink some decent sweet wines with that, the blue cheese and the Tarte Tatin we propose to serve him.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

As a follow up to my last... reading further and with my brain in gear this time my preusal of these pages suggests that the noble sans pair will be visiting these climes in September. Now as it happens, we'll be growing our own Tarbais beans this year, (after a reounding success with Soissons last year, and so if I make some proper confit de canard dans les règles de l'art, and as usual make my own version of two loos sossidges, I reckon we might be in for the basis of an interesting experiment. All I would need is dates - say a friday and saturday, to allow for a trip to Brive market.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges

To "Fatty of Forges" and "Friends from 6-4s"

It is looking increasing like Lady SWMBO and the SouthPac Peer will be venturing north in Mid-September.

We are discussing prospective routes with our English friends, who are anxious to accompany us again.

At this stage, it is extremely easy for us antipodeans to fly direct into Nice (from Dubhai) - then depart to NZ from Paris.

But what to do in the intervening three weeks - a week around Provence - then ????????

We have been offered a cottage somewhere on the Spanish Med coast - I would consider a trip up thru the Rhone, thence Burgundy and Alsace en route to Paris (with a side journey up Alpe d'Huez!) to be high on my list - but I must say that a "Fatty Feast in Forges" with another France vs NZ test match also sounds like a winner.

Will be burning the midnight oil, pondering on possibilities over the next month or so before consulting you both.

Regards from Autumn in the Antipodes

st.h

When I annouced this to MY SWMBO (AKA la vieille botte) she actually aroused herself from her usual torpor, raised and eyelid and "wow", before sinking back into a daze. Looks like she thinks the idea is bearable.

Decisions, decisions. Life is SO hard.

Well... don't leave it too long or the rooms will be booked by the time you finally take your whatsit out of that mouton.

And loikwoise from Spring in the Podes.

-- All the best Fatty from Forges