Cassoulet

The rustic French farmhouse classic is just the dish for these arctic cold winter days. There's no holding back on the meat and goose fat. This isn't an every day dish so why not devour this carnivors feast of saturated fat with abandon.

Allow a good 3 hours, this certainly benefits from a long and slow simmer.

Serves 4

• 500gms belly of pork with rind removed but reserved and cut into small pieces
• 350gms Toulouse sausages
• 2 sausages
• 2 duck confit legs
• 350gms white haricot beans (SOAKED OVERNIGHT)
• 1 small onion chopped small
• 1 carrot diced
• 1 stick of celery sliced small
• 2 fat cloves of garlic sliced thickly
• pinch of powdered cloves
• Bouquet garni
• A fat spoon of goose or duck fat
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 2 tablespoon chopped tin tomatoes
• Salt and pepper
• Fresh parsley

Preheat the oven to 160C

1. Transfer the beans into a pan with fresh water and add the rind of the belly pork. Bring to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Drain and reserve the beans and rind.
2. Melt the goose/duck fat in a casserole and fry the onion, carrot, celery until beginning to caramalise, add the bouquet garni and belly of pork and stir fry to seal.
3. Add the tin tomatoes, tomato puree and pinch of cloves, stir for a few moments. Add the white beans and cover with water(just cover the beans). Bring to the boil and place in oven, giving a stir every now and then.
4. Fry the sausages to give some colour and reserve.
5. After 2 hours simmering, add the sausages cut into bite size pieces and the legs of duck confit.
6. Simmer for a further 30 minutes and add some freshly chopped parsley.