Tour de French Cuisine, stage 14 Revel to Ax 3 Domaines

July 18, 2010

Stage 14 Revel to Ax-Trois Domaines

Oh no, there is only one week left of the 2010 Tour de France. Deep breath, deep breath, it will be ok. As each day ticks away and we get closer and closer to Paris the PTD starts to set in and the first sight of the outskirts of Paris will bring me to the brink. PTD or Post-Tour-Depression lasts until October when the official route is unveiled and hope is on the horizon again. But we still have seven stages to go and the next four are going to be good ones.

The start town of Revel is where the Tour ended yesterday and will be the base before the Tour climbs into the Pyrenees. Some towns are known for their wine, but Revel is known for green liquor. Get 27 is mint liquor that can be used in cocktails or as an aperitif was created in Revel in 1766. Distiller Francois Pons first created it but it got its name from Jean Get who would marry the manager’s daughter and his brother Pierre would join him in 1853. It was first named Piperment Get, the 27 was added later which is the alcohol content. It has since gone down to 21% but the name has stayed the same.  The company remained in Revel until 1991 when it moved to Beaucaire in the south of France on the River Rhone.

Just 16 kilometers from the start is the town of Castelnaudary. The capital of the Lauragais region and dates back to Roman times when it was a stop on the Roman roads to Italy from Spain and today is a major port on the Canal du Midi on the way to Toulouse. The 18 acre Grand Basin sits in the center of the town and mostly used by the Canal travelers today but was once a source of exporting from the town. But it is something else that makes Castelnaudary so well known, Cassoulet. Cassoulet is a slow cooked bean and meat stew baked and served in a special clay pot called a Cassole, which is where the name comes from. Nearby Toulouse and Carcassonne both like to claim they are the “capital” of Cassoulet, but alas., it is Castelnaudary The French novelist Anatole French described it as “God the father may be the Cassoulet of Castelnaudary, God the son the Cassoulet of Carcassonne and the Holy Ghost that of the Cassoulet of Toulouse.” There are the slightest differences in each of these as well. As close as they may be geographically and claim the same dish, it is different for each one. All include haricot blanc, white beans, sausage and duck confit. The Cassoulet of Toulouse pork and mutton are used, in Carcassonne it is double the amount of mutton and partridge instead of duck. The Castelnaudary might be the most straightforward and simplest. Some top the Cassoulet at the end with bread crumbs or crutes, that is frowned upon in the Castelnaudary, but the most important ingredient in Cassoulet is time, it takes days to prepare if you want to do it right. You need to start by making the Duck Confit two days ahead, soaking the beans the day before and then the assembly and finally the cooking that can be up to 7 hours. More on this later, mine is still cooking away.

Staying with the gastronomic theme we come to the village of Mirepoix. One of the bases of so many French recipes it comes from a cook working for Charles-Pierre-Gaston Francoise de Levis, duc de Levis-Mirepoix, Lord of Mirepoix from 1699 to 1757. It was not to be found in print until 1830 when the famous French chef listed a recipe for Mirepoix in 1830. Mirepoix consists of just three things; Onion, Carrots and Celery and is a ration of 2.1.1.

Not on the direct route today but just off the beaten path is the small village of Rennes-Le-Chateau. Paul Sherwin actually pointed it out as the helicopter cameras panned over it during the stage. (That is just one of the wonderful things about the Tour, the amazing scenery) The medieval village once the site of a castle dating back to 1002, although nothing remains today. The village however is well known around the world and draws visitors from every corner. See if you can put together the pieces and see if it sounds like any major novel you might have read. In the 19^th century a priest named Father Berenger Sauniere came to the village and saw the utter disrepair of the local church, the Eglise Mary Magdalene and took it upon himself to renovate it. Some wondered where his funds were coming from for such an extensive and spendy project. He also built a tower at the edge of the mountain and named it after Mary Magdalene, the Tour Magdala.   It was a clever restaurateur in the 1950’s that was looking to drum up a little business that he told the legend of Sauniere and that of a hidden treasure and the discovery of the Priory of Sion. (Sound familiar yet)  The theory was that during construction Sauniere found ancient documents that relate to a great secret of the church and became wealthy from the Catholic Church paying him to keep the secret that could change the very basis of the religion.  This story is the basis of a book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail written in 1982 as well as the major blockbuster..... The Da Vince Code. Did you notice that the name of the character that is supposed to be the leader of the Prior of Scion in the book and movie has the last name of Sauniere?  The real Francois Berenger Sauniere would die in 1917 of a heart attack and is buried in the courtyard of the church. In 2004 the mayor exhumed him and had him reburied in a sarcophagus to discourage grave robbers.

At the confluence of the rivers Ariege and Oriege is the little resort town of Ax-les-Thermes, an elegant town filled with 19^th century Roman spas. The 64-172 degree spas are used to treat rheumatism, skin problems and breathing disorders. The Bassin de Ladres (lepers) is now a public pool on the place du Breilh which was originally built for the soldiers suffering leprosy in 1260. Besides the spas Ax makes a good central base for venturing out to the mountains and in the winter for the local ski resorts.

The finish on the Ax-Trois-Domaines sits high about Ax-les-Thermes but is relatively new to the Tour de France. With the Pyrenees reaching its 100^th anniversary of being a part of the Tour, Ax-Trois-Domains had to wait until 2001 to first see the riders and today is just the third visit. Ax is made up of three different ski resorts, Les Campels, Le Saquet and Bonascre, it’s the plateau of Bonascre that will see the final finish.

And now for the Cassoulet, but first the Confit. Confit is a French cooking term that means “cooking in its own fat and preserved completely immersed in the same fat to keep it from coming into contact with the air”  The duck is first placed in a flat dish on a bed of salt, garlic, shallots and thyme and covered for up to two days in the refrigerator untouched. After that any remaining salt it brushed off and in a heavy Le Creuset casserole large enough for the duck to lay in a single layer covered with melted rendered duck fat and slow cooked up to 3 hours in a 225 degree oven or until the meat pulls away from the bones easily.  There is a lot of time that goes into it but very little active time. After it is cooked it can be kept in the refrigerator immersed in its own duck fat for several weeks.

The ingredients needed are:

4 tablespoons salt

5 garlic cloves, smashed

1 shallot peeled and diced

6 sprigs of thyme

Coarsely ground black pepper

4 duck legs and thighs

4 cups of rendered duck fat (can be found at whole foods or ethnic markets)

 

Cassoulet of Castelnaudary

I got this off the city of Castelnaudary Castelnaudray website but the translation was pretty rough so I used three or four different recipes to make this complete. The ingredients are the authentic original for Castelnaudary, of course.

400 grams dried white beans, I found authentic French Haricot Coco beans online

2 legs of Confit d’Canard

4 pork sausages, Toulouse sausage if you are lucky

4 pieces of pork taken from the leg, shoulder or chest

250 grams pork rinds, half to be used during assembly of Cassoulet

The day before:

Soak beans overnight in cold water, at least 12 hours

Day of:

Empty the water from the beans and place beans in saucepan with three quarts of cold water and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes, drain the water and set beans aside

You will need chicken broth and if you don’t have any premade on hand you can use a very good pre-packaged broth. In a saucepan return the beans and cover with chicken broth and bring to a boil and then simmer for one hour until beans are just tender

In a large frying pan, using some of the duck fat from the confit brown the meat, starting with the pork. Brown on all sides and set aside, repeat with the sausages and the pork rinds

To assemble the Cassoulet you will need the traditional Cassole, but if you don’t have one (I don’t but will use the “off season” to find one) I use a large oval Le Creuset French oven. It should be a very heavy and high sided pan.  Rub the inside with garlic and on the bottom a layer of the cooked pork rinds, add 1/3 of the beans, and place the meat and pour over the remaining beans. Place the sausages on top and pour in hot chicken broth until it just covers the beans.

Cook in a preheated oven at 350 degrees F for 3 ½ - 4 hours, check every 30 to 40 minutes and push down on the crusted top to incorporate and keep mixed through. The legend states that this needs to be done 7 times.

Serve the dish hot and in the casserole, this one will get better each day. You will thank me later!

Bon Appétit!