Cassoulet Dinner

This weekend, we invited a close friend and her husband to come for dinner to celebrate her birthday. We have spent many enjoyable vacations with these friends in France, so we decided on a French theme for our dinner.

We began in style with a gift they brought — a bottle of Champagne Dom Perignon 2010 made from equal amounts of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The grapes come from five Grand Cru villages and one Premier Cru village. This is very impressive champagne with great balance, elegance and complex aromas and flavors. 

On other recent occasions, we have shared the 2008 and the 2009. The only difference was that the 2010 had not developed any of the “brioche” aromas but it was fresh and wonderful.

Michele had made gougeres, parmesan cheese puffs, to go with the Champagne.

Our main course was cassoulet, a French bean and meat stew. Michele used the recipe from her cookbook, The French Slow Cooker. She started earlier in the week by making slow cooked beef stock from roasted marrow bones and vegetables. Once the stock was ready, she used the slow cooker to simmer the beans and meats, which included confit duck legs, French garlic sausage and lamb shoulder. Since cassoulet is the kind of dish that gets better over time, she completed it a day ahead and then reheated it just before dinner.

The resulting stew was incredibly tender and flavorful.

With the main course we had Gigondas 2005 Domaine Raspail AY (Magnum) made from 80% Grenache, 15% Syrah and 6% Mourvedre. The wine is aged in old fundres and then in barrels for 18 to 24 months. This is a complex wine that has hints of black fruit, cherry, raspberry, leather and a touch of violets and spice. It has a very pleasing aftertaste and a long finish and it was a pleasure to drink as well as a perfect match with the cassoulet.

Our friends also brought us a loaf of artisan sourdough bread from Breads Bakery, a beautiful rustic loaf to eat with the cassoulet.

Cassoulet on the plate

After the cassoulet, we had a simple salad of arugula, radicchio, fennel and orange wedges with sherry vinegar and extra virgin olive oil dressing.

There were two cheeses to finish the wine, one was a bloomy rind Pave from France and the other was a semifirm Alta Badia from Italy

For dessert, Michele made individual apple tarts served warm and topped with vanilla ice cream.

It was a delicious evening enjoyed with good friends.