Cassoulet Wrap-Up and a Recipe!

Food writer and friend, Cathy Erway posted a great recap of the Cassoulet Cook Off on Not Eating Out in New York. She was also kind enough to include her Moroccan inspired cassoulet recipe!

Just before the Cook Off, I received an email:

"i am french and from the south so i know cassoulet and i was wondering if you are doing this only this week end and if it's possible to enjoy it only during the special event ???? i mean is it possible to eat your cassoulet saturday night for example ???"

Well, my French is rusty, but...

Bien sur, mon ami! Il y a cassoulet à la carte pendant l'hiver a Jimmy's No. 43. Bon Appétit!

I hope that answers your question!

Escape Your Winter Blues- Cook Something, Then Eat It!

All this talk about cassoulet has me searching for recipes. Luckily, Cathy Erway has been kind enough to post her lip-smacking cassoulet recipe. Take a day off, go shopping at the Greenmarket and make this cassoulet for yourself and a few cold, tired people you love. It will be the best day you'll have all winter!

Sausage, Cassoulet, Hooray!

Cassoulet is the new roast chicken, so it seems. Brewer, author, and tastemaker Garrett Oliver (Brooklyn Brewery) wishes he could showcase his terrific cassoulet at the Cassoulet Cookoff this coming Saturday (Jan 17 from 12:00- 5:00 PM at Jimmy's No. 43). Unfortunately for us, he is scheduled to lead a tasting at Mohegan Sun. David Leite (Leite's Culinaria) will be cooking a cassoulet at his friends house and I bet Hoppin' John Taylor will be making a low country version for himself. Cathy Erway will be participating in the Cassoulet Cookoff but in the meantime, I will cook her delicious sausage and polenta recipe for lunch today!

Do you have a cassoulet story to tell? A good recipe? Let us know!

Try This Fondue!

Anne Saxelby, cheesemonger goddess at the Essex Street Market, posted a delicious fondue recipe on her blog this week. Let's give it a try over the holidays:

Fondue Savoyarde as interpreted by Saxelby Cheesemongers and Anne Beuh:

For one bottle of white wine, you'll need about three pounds of cheese. You will also need the following:

1 clove of garlic, minced till quite tiny
Nutmeg and ground black pepper to taste
3 tbsp corn flour diluted in whiskey, bourbon, or eau de vie

For the cheese we chose:
Rupert (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Pawlet (raw cows' milk. Consider Bardwell Farm, VT)
Grafton Classic 2 Year Cheddar (raw cows' milk. Grafton Cheese, VT)
However, there are innumerable other delectable combinations! Experiment and see what frightfully delicious concoction you can dream up!

1. Heat 1/3 bottle of white wine over medium-low heat.

2. Add 1/3 of your total cheese (about 1 lb if you're following this recipe exactly, but you can always make less! Three pounds is a lot of cheese... but we firmly believe in your cheese consumption capabilities.) Incorporate by stirring. Stir often and consistently, or else the cheese begins to stick to the pan!

3. Add a touch of garlic, nutmeg and black pepper to taste and continue to stir.

4. After a few minutes, add 1 tbsp of corn flour diluted in some kind of strong alcohol of your choosing.

5. Keep simmering and stirring for about 20 minutes total, then dig (or dip) in!

You can dip pretty much anything into this mixture and it'll be ridiculously tasty, but we picked boiled potatoes, steamed cauliflower, apples, and bread. Oh yeah, and just to guild the lily, we had some smoked ham from Jeffrey's on the side. When you've gobbled through the first round, just start it all over again till there's no more cheese in sight.

John Taylor: Wannabe New Yorker

Our favorite low country cook and purveyor of old time grits, John Taylor, sure as heck would like to be making food in NYC. He's emailed me, to date, chutney, cassoulet, and confit recipes. Listen up New York! Put your money in a Hoppin' John style restaurant!
Should you need any further convincing, check out this duck confit. (Scroll down for duck confit post)

Slow Roasting a Pig?

The other day I was chatting with John Taylor - aka Hoppin' John - low country cook, author, and purveyor of heirloom corn grits. I've looked at his blog a few times. I love the recipes. When I mentioned that pork was slow roasting in the Jimmy' s No. 43 kitchen, Hoppin' John offered this tasty fall chutney recipe as a proper accompaniment. Try this for Thanksgiving.

John Taylor's Fall Chutney
This recipe is easy and everyone loves it. I usually use 3 lbs of pears and make 5 pints and process them for 15 minutes, but I put this on my blog for folks who won't can and like small batches:

1 pound hard, underripe pears, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1 lightly packd cup light or dark brown sugar
1 cup apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 cup crystallized ginger, chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2/3 cup light or dark raisins or a mixture of the two
2/3 cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Cook the pears in water to cover until they are medium-soft. Drain, saving the water, then make a syrup of the water in which they were cooked and the brown sugar by boiling in a nonreactive pot until thick, about 20 to 30 minutes.

Add the pears and the remaining ingredients to the pot and cook for another 30 minutes, or until the raisins are soft, the onions are clear, and the chutney is thick.

The chutney will keep in the refrigerator for months.
Makes about 3 1/2 cups

Bacon and Escarole Recipe

Food writer Rob Patronite asked for this escarole and bacon recipe a few weeks ago. Jimmy's No. 43 had featured this recipe on the original menu back in 2005- 2006. I am THRILLED like a teenager to see it published in this week's New York Magazine!

Try your hand at this recipe, then stop by and taste some dishes from our new menu. For a preview of the flavors to come follow this link to see our menu.

Don't forget, on Tuesday October 21 join us in The Tasting Room for a guided Bacon, Beer, and Chutney Tasting featuring the beers of High and Mighty Brewery, with brewer Will Shelton. For further information, visit our website.