Cranberry Chutney

Forget about canned cranberry sauce for savory turkey or pork, this chutney will make you go for seconds!

16 oz Fresh Cranberries
1 chopped medium onion chopped
1 chopped apple
10 chopped dried apricots
5 chopped prunes
Zest of 1 Orange
1/2 cup of orange juice
1 cup of sugar
1/2 cup of brown sugar
1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon of hot pepper flakes

In a medium saucepan bring all of the ingredients to boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes, stir occasionally to prevent scorching. Let cool, serve cold.

Terrific Rissotto

I got the most beautiful mushrooms at Farmers Brown's Market. porcini and trumpet complemented with dry Porcini make the most delicious risotto. I used arborio Italian rice, chicken stock and parmesan cheese. It is easy and it takes 30 minutes tops.


Ingredients:
1 cup of Arborio rice
1/2 lb of fresh porcini chooped mushrooms
1/2 lb of oyster mushrooms chopped
4 oz of dry porcini mushrooms
1 onion chopped
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of white wine
6 cups of chicken stock
1 cup of parmesan cheese grated
1 stick of butter
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Reconstitute the dry mushrooms in a cup of white wine for 1 hour or in heated cup of chicken stock for 15 minutes.
Sauté 1 chopped onion and garlic in 2 tablespoons of olive oil until translucent, put the chopped and reconstituted mushrooms in the pan with the onion and saute for 5 minutes until cooked, stir in the white wine and reduce in half. In the meantime bring to a boil the six cups of stock a keep next to the mushroom pan.
Stir in the rice and mix with mushroom mixture, with a ladle add 1 cup of hot stock and stir until reduced a bit and a add another cup and stir, keep adding stock and stirring. The rice will increase in volume and the dish will start to get creamy. When the rice is al dente add the butter and Parmesan cheese mix well. Serve immediately sprinkle parsley and more Parmesan cheese as desired.

Cassoulet de Paco

I have a Potteries Renault ceramic cassoulet pot from France. It has been in my kitchen for years, adding to the look of the kitchen but I had never used it. On a cold Sunday in New England and on a whim without a plan I decided it was time to use it. I started with a recipe from an old book "The Cooking of Provincial France." by MFK Fisher. That recipe for Cassoulet calls for using duck, I did not have duck, so I omitted it and I used pork chops instead of pork loin, substituted the sausage with chorizo and added and omitted a few other ingredients. I used what I had...What an earthy, wonderful and flavorful dish is a Cassoulet, even my Cassoulet de Paco with my last minute omissions and substitutions was memorable and it transported us to another place. It took several hours to prepare but it is worth every minute.

Ingredients:
2 lbs white Great Northern beans
salt pork
1 lb smoked chorizo sausage
4 qt of chicken stock
1 qt of water
1 teaspoon of thyme
4 cloves chopped garlic
2 onions

Bouquet Garni
wrap the following in a cheesecloth and tie to to make a small purse
4 sprigs of flat parsley
2 celery tops with leaves
1 leek
2 bay leaves

Pork & Lamb
1 lb pork loin in chunks
1/4 lb bacon
1 lb of lamb shoulder in chunks
1 cup of chopped onion
2 celery stalks chopped
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 cup of dry white wine
1 lb can of drained whole tomatoes
1 bay leaf
salt
pepper

Crust
1 cup of chopped flat parsley
2 cups of dry bread crumbs
1/2 stick butter
3 tablespoons of bacon fat
olive oil

Cook the beans...
Bring 4 quarts of chicken stock to a boil add the beans, sausage, salt pork, 2 whole onions, 3 gloves of garlic and thyme and the bouquet garni, lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes, remove and transfer the sausage and let cool. Continue cooking for another 45 minutes or until beans are cooked but firm. Skim the fat/foam from the top.
Transfer the salt pork to the plate with the sausage.
Discard the onions and bouquet garni. Separate the beans and the stock and set aside in separate containers. This may be done a day ahead cooled and refrigerated.

Prepare the pork and lamb
Cook the bacon in a large oven proof pan, to render 2 to 3 tablespoon of fat, saute the pork chops and lamb until brown on all sides, remove and keep warm. In the same pan saute the onions garlic and celery until soft, deglaze the pan with a cup of wine ensuring all bits of brown pork and lamb are scrapped from the pan cook until the wine has reduced in half, add the the pork chop and lamb to the pan add the tomatoes cover and bake in a preheated 325° oven for 1 hour. Remove from oven and separate the meat from the liquid. Drain the liquid from the vegetables and add the stock to the reserved bean stock. Let cool. This can also be done a day ahead.

Assemble the Cassoulet
Put a 1" layer of beans in the bottom of the cassoulet pot, layer the meats, chorizo (cut in 2" pieces), then put the remaining beans in another layer on top. Add the stock to cover fully, if there isn't enough stock add another cup of wine or canned stock.

Top it off
Cover the top with the bread crumbs and chopper parsley, dot with butter, bacon fat and drizzle olive oil. The crumbs with absorb some of the liquid and form a crust. In different regions of France the crust is gently pushed down as many as 8 times into the stock as it cooks to create an even crunchier crust, mmmmmmm.
Bake for 1 and half to 2 hours at 350°.

Enjoy
Serve directly from the Cassoulet pot, complement with your favorite red wine.