French Gourmet Pork, Sausage, and Vegetable Stew

Submitted by Polar Bear

"Rich, satisfying, gourmet one-dish meal for cold days. An authentic recipe from Lorraine, France. Recipe from award-winning James Peterson's "Glorious French Food". Substitutes for ingredients are provided. Please avoid shortening cooking time to achieve ideal consistency for the stew."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs 45mins
• Ingredients: 14
• Serves: 10

ingredients

• 2 cups dried white beans (such as cannellini, borlotti, or Great Northern or diced potatoes added 30 minutes before cooking is)
• 5 -6 lbs trimmed boneless pork shoulder
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed, peeled
• 1 medium bouquet garni
• 5 juniper berries, crushed with the side of a knife, tied up in cheesecloth (or 3 tsps. gin or equal parts crushed bay leaves and caraway seeds)
• 1 lb thick slab bacon, preferably with rind, left whole
• 1 large cabbage (preferably Savoy)
• 1 lb pork or 1 lb garlic sausage
• 2 large carrots
• 1 medium turnip
• 1 medium onion, peeled
• 2 cloves
• salt
• 10 slices thick toasted French bread

directions

1. Rinse beans and soak beans overnight or at least 4 hours with as much water to cover them entirely as they expand.
2. To serve this rich stew as a first-course soup, cut cabbages into wedges and as thinly as possible.
3. All vegetables and meats are cut into cubes or diced and add more liquid.
4. Use only half of the pork shoulder.
5. Trim off excess fat from pork shoulder.
6. Tie the shoulder into an oval and put it in a large pot, ideally just wide enough to hold the shoulder with the shoulder bone if there was one.
7. Add garlic, bouquet garni, juniper berries.
8. Pour in enough cold water to cover and bring to a gentle simmer.
9. Cut the rind off the bacon and add to liquid with pork shoulder.
10. Simmer very gently uncovered, using ladle to skim off fat and froth.
11. Cut cabbage into 10 wedges.
12. Remove strip of core at inner edges.
13. When the shoulder has cooked for 1 17" hours, add the beans.
14. Simmer for 30 minutes more and nestle in the cabbage wedges, sausage, and the rest of the vegetables.
15. Simmer for one hour more.
16. The pork cooks for a total of 3 hours.
17. Strain contents of pot and set over a bowl or clean pot.
18. Discard bouquet garni and shoulder bone.
19. Skim off a bit of the fat.
20. Season the broth to taste with salt.
21. Slice the meats.
22. Serve broth and vegetables in bowls, each with a slice of toast at the bottom of each bowl and the meats placed on top.

Reviews

[Chef ChezGery]

Ah . . .the flavor of a true French POTEE, those rough-and-tumble affairs that you can almost stand a spoon on end when plunged into the center of the soup. I increased the garlic 5 cloves,peeled and the onions to two, finely chopped. An addition of 2 cups dry white wine was added to the base stock. This recipe is very French Peasant food you will find in abundance in Southern France at many country homes. ChezGery