Autumn is here!

 One of the things that is a big difference for us in France is having very marked four seasons.  My favorite has always been autumn -  the cool crispness of the air, the brilliance of colors, the season of waiting and preparing for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Cassoulet!!

There is a tinge of coolness to the normally warm sunny climate here in Montpellier.  Yeah!!  Time for cozy sweaters and comfort food!!  One of our all time favorite comfort foods in the South of France is CASSOULET!!

This is definitely rustic food.  The kind your grandmother would make...if your grandmother was French and lived in the Southwestern region of France!  It is a frugal food, but it takes loving patience to make perfectly.  To get the creaminess in the beans without a hint of resistance in their skins.  To get that crusty top layer to the perfect almost burned crunchiness.

I do have the dream of making this incredible dish one day just to get the satisfaction of knowing I can.  But for now there is no where on this continent to get better cassoulet than at Hostellerie Etienne near Castenaudary just outside of Carcassonne.

They serve family style if you order the cassoulet menu.  A big bowl of garlicky greens and a bubbling terracotta  bowl of cassoulet.  Creamy white beans, duck confit and sausage are all nestled together in the bubbling sauce and covered by a crust of bread crumbs.  As much as you can eat and you will try to eat well more than you should because it is so incredibly good.

               hostellerie etienne