Pretty Lady's 'Recessions are FUN' Cookbook: #1, Poor Girl's Cassoulet

Darlings, Pretty Lady has come to a decision. Having graduated not once, but twice, with an Art Degree during an economic recession, she has acquired certain culinary skills that combine hedonistic Self Indulgence with Extreme Thrift; she will begin to share those skills on a weekly basis. Thus, she hopes, she will fill her karmic Community Service requirements, having neither the budget nor the temperament to do it any other way. She will, additionally, post any thrifty recipes her friends care to send her.

The inaugural recipe is one based (quite loosely indeed) upon a delicacy which was a mainstay of her sybaritic time with the Frenchman; as you fans of French cuisine surely know, a cassoulet is a heavenly alchemical stew involving confit de canard, sausage, pork, beef, and white beans. It comes bubbling out of the oven in a little covered ceramic dish, whispering of the back burner in a country kitchen, warming the cockles of one's heart and sending the diner into a protein coma.

Pretty Lady's version, being both healthier and thriftier, dispenses with the confit, sausage, pork, and beef, while retaining the essential redolent stewy nature of this dish. Eat it and thrive.

Ingredients:

1-2 lbs. chicken parts; thighs and drumsticks are both the cheapest and the stewiest.
2 cans northern white beans (we will discuss Beans from Scratch much later in the series, Pretty Lady having become slothful in her bean cookery in recent years.)
scallions, one handful, chopped
garlic, 6 cloves, peeled
olive oil, 2-3 tbsp.
1 tsp herbes de provence (or you may mix oregano, marjoram, rosemary and basil)
1 bay leaf
vegetables of your choice, the choice being any combination of:
carrots
mushrooms
tomatoes
eggplant
artichokes (fresh or canned)
whatever is in season that takes stewing well; experiment!
salt and pepper to taste
juice of 1 lemon or lime


In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, sauté the scallions and 2 cloves of the garlic, crushed, in the olive oil for 2 minutes. Add the chicken parts and sear on both sides. Pour in the beans (drain the cans first) and add water to cover; stir in the herbs, salt and pepper, whole garlic cloves, and vegetables. Simmer, partly covered, for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. If it is too dry, add water; if too soupy, take the cover off and turn up the heat. Just before serving, mix in the lemon juice.

Some vegetables stand cooking for longer than others; if you use artichoke hearts, add them toward the end of cooking. Mushrooms, tomatoes, eggplant and carrots will stand cooking almost indefinitely. If you use eggplant, slice it, salt it, sweat it and blot it before cooking. This removes bitterness.

Serve in stew bowls. Provide napkins.

Serves 2-4 people, depending on appetites and how much chicken and veggies you use.