Cassoulet a la Sud Africain

Last night's supper originated, traditionally, from the south of France: Cassoulet. It's basically a white bean stew with different types of meat such as sausage, duck and pork. Fresh duck isn't easy to find in South Africa, so we opted for chicken. Other, more fancy and traditional, recipes use goose and mutton.

The recipe gets it's name from the earthenware that it is traditionally cooked in which is called a cassole. Here's a picture from christinecooks.blogspot.com to give you an idea of the shape:

It is made in Carcassonne, one of the medieval gems, which I will be visiting in June (yay!):

Image from: http://www.destination360.com/europe/france/cite-de-carcassonne

We did a basic version as usual because we lacked access to some of the real ingredients such as duck.

The Breadcrumbs

- Roughly tear up, or belnd, about 2 slices of white, or French bread

- Put them in a pan and start heating them (med-high) with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of thyme until crispy and dry

The Cassoulet

- Fry one chopped onion

- Add 500g chicken with bone and skin (this isn't supposed to be healthy :) )

- Add half a sliced chorizo sausage (we don't have much choice in local supermarkets, but you can buy some from Spar or Woolies)

- Add 3 chopped/sliced carrots

- Once onion looks translucent, add 2 450g white or butter beans, a can of chopped tomatoes, 2 bayleaves, a teaspoon of time and 2 teaspoons of stock powder with about a cup of warm water

- Cook for about 50min, or until chickken is cooked to the bone (may be quicker)

- Serve topped with chopped parsley and crispy breadcrumbs.

Wikipedia links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassoulet

Bon Appetis! (This is Occitan, not French)