Every Saturday and Sunday, Vanessa Zhâ and Marion Sauveur make us discover some nuggets of French heritage.
Today, head for the south west of France to discover the new museum of Nîmes in the Aude.
The opportunity also to taste the cassoulet of Castelnaudary.
Direction the South, the department of Aude today and Vanessa you do not take us to discover the usual Cathar castles but in Narbonne. Why ?
Because Narbonne has finally given birth to the museum that it has been waiting for for 10 years: the Narbo Via! It is an ode to antiquity and archeology. Nearly 1,500 works. Above all, it brings back to life the ancient ancient city that was Narbo Martius, the first Roman colony in Gaul. And this Museum is a successful monumental project: a real link between the past and the present. And that in particular thanks to its architecture. It was the great English firm Foster and Partners that brought it out of the ground, this is what it looks like: Valérie Rousselle, the Managing Director:
"It is a large concrete building with a novelty: a laminated structural concrete which is composed with local earths which gives it a magnificent ocher color, which makes visitors say that when you arrive in this building, you are already in the ancient Mediterranean basin thanks to the color of this concrete. The rest of the building resumes the classical Roman architecture. It is therefore a relatively low building with a roof terrace, with a magnificent light that enters both through the roof but also through large bay windows. Throughout the day, the works are lit differently depending on the evolution of the sun all around the building. "
We are there, no, in this ancient Mediterranean?
And there is a garden that houses a Mediterranean vineyard, with some very old plans, one of which would have developed following a tear from Hercules, says the legend.
We keep our fingers crossed, as it has withstood the frost, we hope for a harvest within 3/4 years.
I imagine it will be a place of cultural life. Are there any special events?
Yes already in the gardens with music festivals!
FYI, it will be the first on July 28: on a mix of jazz and baroque.
All year round, you can visit the museum behind the scenes chatting with archaeologists and restorers, and you can even attend stone or mosaic restoration workshops, from June 18 to 20 during the European Archeology Days. .
And speaking of archeology, there are two sites that are complementary to Narbo Via.
The Horreum, an interlacing of underground galleries which a priori served as a warehouse for the market.
And then a little more in the countryside, the village of potters, which supplied the Mediterranean basin.
Today it houses a magnificent arboretum.
After this ancient walk where do we sleep?
Not far away.
We follow the canal, and it's Franck Miro who receives us at his place: "I'll take you to sleep on the white night. It's a boat from 1962 classified at the National Historical Ships. There are only a few boats like that. that have been built around the world, and there is one in Narbonne, in the Canal de la Robine in the heart of town. "
Completely restored by companions of duty, but with all modern comforts.
There are two cabins, a foredeck for reading in the shade on a deckchair and an aft deck for an aperitif and a grill.
An invitation to continue your stroll along the coast.
Marion Sauveur, what is the Aude specialty that you are going to tell us about?
An essential gourmet specialty in the region: cassoulet.
But not just any: that of Castelnaudary.
And it is there, according to legend, that he was born, during the Hundred Years War and the siege of the English at Castelnaudary.
The Chauriens, that's what the inhabitants of Castelnaudary are called, have gathered their food in the same dish.
And it is said that this dish gave them so much strength that the English left.
This dish, they called it estouffade.
It was made from beans at the time, since beans did not grow in France.
Today we call a cassoulet made with beans: févoulade.
Since the end of the 14th century, it has been cooked in a terracotta dish, made by the potters of Issel, a village close to Castelnaudary and called cassole, which gave the cassoulet its name.
The cassole of Castelnaudary has a cone shape, while those of Toulouse and Carcassonne are flatter.
What is the Castelnaudary cassoulet recipe?
Like any regional recipe, there is not one recipe but as many as there are families.
With all the same a common base and local ingredients including beans from Lauragais and sausage from Castelnaudary!
We start the recipe the day before, since it is necessary to soak the dried beans in water overnight.
The Castelnaudary cassoulet recipe:
Ingredients :
350 to 400 g of dry beans, ingot type (preferably lauragais)
2 duck or goose legs confit, cut in half.
4 pieces of 80g pure pork sausage
4 pieces of 50g pork meat taken from the shank, shoulder or breast
250 g pork rind
A little salted bacon
1 poultry carcass or a few pork bones
some onions
carrots
The steps of the recipe:
1.
The day before: Soak the dried beans overnight in cold water.
2.
The next day, drain the water, put the beans in a saucepan with three liters of cold water and bring to the boil for 5 minutes.
Turn off the heat, drain the water and reserve the beans.
3.
Proceed to the preparation of the broth with again 3 liters of water (non-calcareous and Castelnaudary if possible), the rinds cut into large strips, a poultry carcass if you have it or a few pork bones and, depending on your taste, a little onions and carrots. Season with salt and pepper (generously). Cook this broth for an hour then filter the broth and collect the rinds. In this broth, filtered and cook the beans until they are soft but remain whole. For this it takes about an hour of boiling
4.
While the beans cook, prepare the meats.
In a large sauté pan, remove fat from the pieces of confit over low heat then set them aside.
In the remaining fat, brown the sausages and set them aside.
Brown the pieces of pork which should be golden brown and set aside with the other meats.
5.
When the broth is ready.
Drain the beans and keep the broth warm.
Add a few cloves of garlic to the beans and double the weight of salted bacon, crushed together.
6.
Then proceed to assembly.
The ideal is to use a casserole.
Otherwise, a fairly deep baked clay dish.
7.
Line the bottom of the casserole with pieces of rind, add about a third of the beans, arrange the meats and on top pour the rest of the beans, Arrange the sausages by pushing them into the beans, the top of the sausages must remain visible , Complete the casserole by pouring in the hot broth which should just cover the beans, season with pepper on the surface and add a tablespoon of the duck fat used to brown the meats.
8.
Put in the oven at 150 degrees and cook for two to three hours.
9.
During cooking, a golden brown crust will form on top of the pan, which will have to be pushed in several times.
When the tops of the beans start to dry, add a few spoons of broth.
10.
If you prepare this cassoulet the day before, it should be reheated, with a little broth, in the oven at 150 degrees for an hour and a half before serving it.
The cassoulet is served bubbling in its casserole.
The next day, cook the beans and make a broth with the rinds cut into large strips, a poultry carcass or pork bones and a few chopped onions and carrots.
No tomato or even Espelette pepper or Provence herbs.
On the side, remove fat from the pieces of confit, brown the sausages and pieces of pork.
No partridge or lamb like in Carcassonne.
When everything is golden brown, we move on to the assembly in the cassole and it's Jean-Yves Pradier, grand master of the Cassoulet brotherhood of Castelnaudary, who explains how we do it.
"In the casserole we start by putting the loggerheads at the bottom. Then beans. We add the meat: duck confit, we put a piece of pork and then cover with beans ... until the casserole is full. then put in the oven at 180 degrees and bake for 1h30. and you should know that the more it simmers, the better it is. and from time to time we take the casseroles out of the oven, we put them back, we say break the crust, that is to say it is pricked at several points on the surface ... so that the broth which is at the bottom rises ... and comes to crystallize ... when the cooking is finished, we find a golden crust, which is the broth crust on the bean ".
We taste very hot!
We will have tender beans and candied meats.
Vanessa: Where do we eat a real Castelnaudary cassoulet?
In Castelnaudary, from June 9, in the restaurant Le Tirou, or in the surrounding towns:
in Labastide-d'Anjou, at the Hostellerie Etienne
in Belflou: at the Auberge le Cathare