Cook up cassoulet

Photography by Keiko Oikawa

Carlton Manor’s chef-proprietor Jonathan Nicholson shows us his own winter-warming version of cassoulet, that hearty French supper staple.

INGREDIENTS

600g white beans (cannellini or haricot)
200g piece smoked bacon or pancetta
7 medium onions, peeled
6 cloves
1 bouquet garni (fresh)
3 garlic cloves, crushed
200g carrots cut into 8 pieces
50ml olive oil
500g boned pork
500g boned lamb
4 Toulouse style sausages
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 leeks, roughly chopped
1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
1 tsp rosemary leaves, finely chopped
400g fresh tomatoes, roughly chopped
sea salt and black pepper
8 confit duck legs
2 whole red chillies
100g goose fat

Herb crust:
150g brioche crumbs
4 garlic cloves chopped
1 tsp rosemary, chopped
1 tsp thyme, chopped
1 tsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
50g butter, melted

METHOD

Soak beans overnight in water and rinse fully.

Remove rind from pancetta and chop up meat into lardons. Put bacon and the whole rind into a large saucepan with the beans, three of the onions studded with cloves, the bouquet garni, the crushed garlic and the carrots. Season well and pour on water to cover. Bring to simmer, cover and cook for 2 hours. After 1 hour of cooking, put the meats on to cook. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sauté the pork, lamb and sausages until browned. Finely chop the 4 remaining onions, add to the pan alongwith the chopped garlic, leeks, thyme, rosemary, tomatoes and seasoning. Add 50ml of water, bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour.

Once beans are cooked, remove and discard the bouquet garni, onions and the pork rind. Add the contents of the meat pan, the confit duck legs, the chillies and the goose fat. Bring back to the simmer and cook for another 20 minutes, covered.

Pre-heat oven to 200°C and put in empty casserole dish to warm.

Mix the herb crust ingredients together. Check stew for seasoning and decant carefully into your pre-heated dish.  Sprinkle herb crumbs over the stew and bake uncovered for 20 minutes or so until browned. Leave to rest for 20 minutes before serving.

Eats well simply served with good rustic bread and a dressed peppery leaf salad.


Carlton Manor, Carlton Colville
With the relaunched Carlton Manor, Jonathan Nicholson has brought more than a little fresh-faced modernity to the dining scene around Lowestoft, an area not exactly swamped with top notch eateries. With a wealth of experience in the cosmopolitan heights of Conran’s London restaurant empire as Executive Chef of the Bluebird on Chelsea’s King Road and having sold their well known West Suffolk dining pub, the George at Cavendish to move up here, Jonathan and his wife Charlotte’s new venture has transformed this 19th century manor house in Carlton Colville into a beacon for good food and relaxing accommodation. Stylish events and weddings are a speciality with dedicated banqueting suites catering for up to 200.

But the biggest following has been for the buzzy restaurant with its hearty portions and worldly flavours. The over-riding theme to Jonathan’s menu is food which you want to eat any time, any occasion – it’s rare to find a menu which is so hard to choose from, so much is tempting. If you choose more simply from the more retro classics, you might indulge in smooth chicken liver and port pate with melba toast, braised steak Bourgignon with mashed potatoes and a hot Bakewell tart with vanilla ice cream. Elsewhere dine off the more modern delights of Thai fish cakes with Asian coleslaw and sweet chilli sauce, fillet of sea bass with seabass fillet with plum tomato, red onion and coriander salsa and to finish, passion fruit pavlova with coconut ice-cream and chocolate sauce. One thing is certain – the food will have the Nicholson’s house style of upbeat simplicity to suit most tastes.

Carlton Manor, Chapel Road, Carlton Colville near Lowestoft, Suffolk
T: 01502 566511 W: thecarltonmanor.com