5 Nights of Cassoulet at Publican Quality Meats

 

I like Cassoulet and have had what I thought was some very good Cassoulet at Frontier, and at Sunday Dinner Club.  Paul Kahan of The Publican, Publican Quality Meats, etc. has been inviting the chef from the restaurant in France that has been noted as having the best Cassoulet in France (where Cassoulet originated) to do a popup at Publican Quality Meats, and now Publican Anker, every year for the last several years.  I was invited by a friend from Tasting Collective to go with them to one night of the Five Nights of Cassoulet event that was being held for three days at Publican Quality Meats and two days at Publican Anker.  The date that worked for both of us was one of the days at PQM, so we planned, and met on Saturday night at PQM.  The setup of Publican Quality Meats is like a butcher shop (which it is) with tables in the front to either side of the cashier with space to look in the display cases and refrigerators.  The space was laid out for the event as two long communal tables that ran parallel to the display cases.  The background music was heavy metal, so things were pretty loud.  I could talk to the people next to me, but I did have to raise my voice to talk to people across the table.  It was not so loud, however, that we could not communicate.  We started things off with wine.  Things were pretty casual, so we were only asked red or white.  I generally like to start things off with white, so that is what I did.  It was pretty dry and tasted like a Chardonnay, but that's about all I could say about it, except that it was pretty good.  Also on the table, but left alone until the wine started to be poured were strips of Crispy, Spicy, Coppa.  Also known as Capicola, it is like thinly sliced back bacon, it was very good, and was gone very quickly after everyone stopped being polite (though people were polite enough to see that everyone got at least one piece). 

After the Coppa was gone, we were brought menus for the rest of the meal (written in French but easy enough to understand).  The menus were handwritten and "signed" by Chef David Campigotto of Castelnaudary, France, the middle of the Cassoulet trail.  We started out with a Salade Verte, a green salad with Frisee, Carrots, Radicchio, and a very nice Vinaigrette.  The salad was goodand I suppose it was kind of necessary as a precursor to the very high fat Cassoulet, but it was like an unknown band opening up for a superstar.  Even if it's good, it was, it isn't what people are here for, and while people were polite, they were still waiting for the Cassoulet.

 

 

Chef David had two large Cassoles, the vessels in which Cassoulet is cooked, and several assistants to help him serve the main event.  We were sitting on one end of our table, toward the middle of the space.  There was actually a Cassole that was close to us that they were serving from, but they were serving the other table.  The Cassole that they were serving our table from was on the far side served by Chef David.  I wasn't sure whether it was good or bad that we were served last, but when they were done serving, they did place the Cassole next to me.  I joked that I must have looked hungry, but it did make it easier to get seconds if I so desired (I did).  The Cassoulet was made with White Beans, Pork Belly, Pork Shoulder, Confited Duck Leg, and Pork Terrine.  It was also served with some very good Publican Bread to soak up the sauce.  Many cassoulets will also frequently have mutton, but I had no problem with an abundance of pork.  It was rich and very good and there was plenty left after everyone had there fill, so I ended up taking some home.

 

While somewhat full, I (and most everyone else) were not going to pull out with out dessert.  We were first offered a dessert wine, a blend of Grenache and Grenache Gris, it was sweet, slightly syrupy, and perfect for our dessert.  Listed as Creme Catalan, it was what most Americans would recognize as Creme Brulee.  I am picky about my Creme Brulees in that I think that it should have a good crust.  Looking at the dish, I saw a good amount of Caramelized Sugar, which was a good sign.  It was also solid to the edges, which was also a good sign.  I gave it a light tap which failed to make it crack, which made me happy and it took a significant tap to crack the crust.  After cracking, it didn't disintegrate and it provided some nice textural variety to the very smooth and creamy custard underneath.  This was a great finish to a very good meal.  I really enjoyed this and will definitely keep my eye open next fall when Chef Paul Kahan invites Chef David back for another residency. 

Sunday Dinner Club - Cassoulet

Most of my posts are about restaurants or events.  I will occasionally write a post about a specific food, but it is usually a single encounter or experience.  I will write today about a specific food item I had in two different contexts.  Every year, Sunday Dinner Club does a series of dinners featuring their Cassoulet, a hearty peasant stew with beans and 4 meats.  They also collaborate several times a year with Half Acre Brewing for a beer dinner.  One of these dinners featured their Cassoulet.  I actually went to both a Cassoulet Dinner in their space and the beer dinner at Half Acre Tap Room that featured their cassoulet.  The dinner in the SDC space featured an appetizer, salad, the cassoulet, and dessert.  The tap room just had the cassoulet and dessert, but everyone got four beers and it was at a lower price point.  The dinner at SDC space started with a Celery Root and Potato Pancake with Celery Leaf Creme Fraiche and Pickled Shrimp.  I really like Potato Pancakes and this was very good coming with a vegetal tang from the creme fraiche, celery root, and the pickled shrimp.  It was really good and I would have happily eaten one twice as large.  With the Half Acre Dinner we started with beer.  We were able to drink any of the beers featured on their tap list.  I started with a With With Belgian Single, but also tried the Pony Pilsener.  The Single was a little richer a little sweeter and had a better head than the Pilsener, but The Pony is a nice easy drinking beer that I would call a lawnmower beer, a nice relief on days when you are out doing lawn work.

The salad served at the SDC space was pretty complex and different.  It was an Endive Salad, (a bitter green in the lettuce family) with Dates, Citrus, Raddicchio, Fromage D'Affinois (a soft cow's milk cheese similar to Brie), and a Citrus Shallot Vinaigrette.  It was bitter, sweet, tart, cheesy, and had a wide variety of textures from the crunch of the lettuces, to the chew of the date, to the creaminess of the cheese, it was a very good salad.  At Half Acre, we picked up our second beers around the time that we went for our cassoulet.  I went with one of their Nitro beers, the Shrub Tundra Coffee Brown Ale, the other beer was a Cape Dune India Pale Lager (IPL).  Most nitro beers are of the heavier types, brown ales, porters, and stouts.  I didn't think about this when I ordered it, although I did drink it and enjoy it.  It was very smooth and soft with a nice coffee flavor.  The IPL was a hoppy lager and kind of had a sharp flavor, but it was also pretty good.  Considering the timing of when I picked it, I think I would have preferred Cape Dune as my primary beer.

And then came the Cassoulet.  The recipe was the same for both versions:  Garlic Sausage, Duck Confit, Leg of Lamb, Bacon Sausage, Slab Bacon, Duck Gelee, White Beans, Duck Fat Croutons, and some amazing Dijon Mustard.  The presentation was different in both places.  At SDC, it was presented in a large round ceramic bowl which was served to us with the mustard spread along one side.  At Half Acre, we stood in line and were served our cassoulet in a rectangular fiberboard "dish" with the mustard spread along one wall.  The presentation was better at the more permanent place, as might be expected, but at the tap room we were more easily able to get extra mustard, which is a part that greatly contributed to the dish (There was an eyeroll moment with the mustard on a piece of sausage).

The cassoulet was fantastic, but the dessert, was just as good.  It was an amazingly light Chocolate Mousse with Honeycomb Candy and Salted Honey Whipped Cream.  The mousse and the whipped cream had similar textures and it was like eating a sweet cloud (with a good serving of crunchy honeycomb candy).The presentation at the SDC space was again better, but we got beer at Half Acre, in my case a Nitro Chocolate Camaro Chocolate Milk Stout which went very well with the mousse.  We may have gotten a larger serving at SDC, but with the beer that we were served, we were amply full at the end of the night.

Having said that, I did have one more beer to drink after finishing the cassoulet and mousse.  I hadn't had an IPA up until this point because I think the bitterness of the hops could affect my sense of taste (he says after drinking a strong flavored brown ale and stout).  I do like IPAs and there were a few on the draft list, but I decided to go for one that I had not yet tried, the Wicca IPA.  It was hoppy bitter, but with a 6% ABV, it was on the lighter side IPAs and it actually kind of reminded me of Daisy Cutter, which while also hoppy, they do not consider an IPA.

Both dinners were very good in their own ways and I left both very satisfied.  While the presentations were different, the atmospheres at both places were very welcoming and the food itself was fantastic.  I will definitely do this again.