Cassoulet Dinner

We recently had some old friends over for dinner and decided to make one of my winter favorites, cassoulet. We combined three recipes, the inspiration from the November 2008 issue of Food & Wine magazine, together with some ideas taken from the New Joy of Cooking and a recipe from the French cooking classes I took in the early 1970's. To make our version of cassoulet you will need:
Olive oil
4 oz. pancetta diced to 1/2"
Med. white onion diced to 1/2"
1 Lb. dried Great Northern beans, soaked
and drained
4 sprigs fresh thyme
2 qts. water
1 qt. chicken stock
1/2 head garlic, separated into cloves,
peeled and sliced into 1/4" pieces
Sea salt
2 med. ducks, about 4 lb. each
1 lb. large link sausage (we used
turkey-apple) cut into 1/2" pieces
4 oz. bacon, cut into 1" pieces

The Food & Wine recipe called for duck confit, not easily obtainable by us without driving into the city, so we opted to "crispy-roast" the ducks. Preheat oven to 300.
Remove neck and giblets, and excess fat from inside the birds; rinse and pat dry. Use a sharp metal skewer to pierce the skin in 20 to 30 places, taking care not to puncture the meat. Salt the ducks and rub into the skin. Roast breast side down in roasting pan for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Drain fat from pan. Up the oven temp. to 350 and continue to roast ducks for another 30-45 min. or until skin is crispy. Let cool, and then cut ducks into serving-size pieces, legs, thighs, breasts etc.

In a small skillet, brown sausage and bacon.

The remainder of the recipe we made entirely in one pot. We used the 9 1/2 qt. oval Le Creuset Dutch oven I bought in the 1970's. Heat 3-5 T. olive oil and then add pancetta, cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then add onion and garlic and continue to cook until onion softens. Add beans, water, chicken stock, and thyme and simmer for about one hour, skimming foam as needed. Discard thyme. Use a slotted spoon to remove about 1/2 of the beans to a large bowl. Position duck on the bottom of the Dutch oven. Cover with the beans. Then top with the sausage and bacon. Preheat oven to 350, and cook covered for about an hour, until liquid is bubbling and duck is hot. Remove from oven and let rest for 15 minutes or so before serving. Enjoy.