Marrowfat Beans from Tierra Vegetables for Cassoulet

Last Saturday dinner at a friend's home featured a bountiful cassoulet. As wonderful as the contribution from her all homemade sausage, goose confit, and duck confit were to the pot, I couldn't get over how great the buttery, creamy beans were. She'd used marrowfat beans from Santa Rosa's Tierra Vegetables. They had a wonderful richness of their own and stayed whole even when cooked to a soft texture. This local product will now be my bean of choice for my own cassoulet her on out, I think.

http://www.tierravegetables.com/farmstand.htm

To answer my own question posed in the thread linked below, I felt that Madiran with its firm tannins and power was a better match for this rich dish than the Pic St. Loup from the Languedoc or the other Rhone variety wines served even though it was not the best wine on an absolute basis on the table. Here's the complete wine list:

2004 Philippe Faury Condrieu
2004 Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneauf du Pape blanc
2002 Corbieres blanc (didn't catch the name of the producer, purchased from Petite Syrah in Santa rosa
)2004 d'Arenberg Monkey Spider Roussanne
1983 Chave Hermitage Blanc

2003 Peay Sonoma Coast Syrah
2004 Owen Roc "Sinister Hand" Colubia Valley
2003 Carlisle Dry Creek Valley Syrah
2003 Marquis Philipps Shiraz #9 McLaren Vale/Padthaway
2004 Red Car "Red Wind" California Syrah
2000 Kongsgaard "Hudson" Syrah (both bottles fatally flawed)
2004 Philippe Faury St. Joseph
2003 Bernard Guy Cote Rotie
2003 Joseph Swan "Great Oak" Russian River Valley Syrah
1996 R. Rostaing "La Landonne" Cote Rotie
1995 Ch. Montus Madiran
2001 Ch. de Lascaux "les Nobles Pierres" Pic St. Loup

2003 Cambria Late Harvest Viognier "Tepusquet" Santa Maria Valley

Link: http://www.chowhound.com/topics/show/267739#1411313

Image: http://static.flickr.com/50/107839186...

[Ericruo]

I recently made Paula Wolfert's recipe for Cassoulet using home-made Liberty Duck confit, Toulouse sausages from Fabrique Delices in beautiful not-so-downtown Hayward, prosciutto and panchetta from Molinari's, and flageolet beans from Rattos and all I can say is that its a lot of work for pork and beans.

Fabrique Delices is a fun fun fun place to shop though and you can pick it up there and save on the shipping. Their duck prosciutto made Artemis a happy camper since she came to admit that as a non-mammal eating person that regular prosciutto really wasn't made from turkey.

http://www.fabriquedelices.com/about.htm

[Melanie Wong]

Thanks for mentioning it again, we forget that you can buy retail at Fabrique Delices in Hayward.

Phipps Ranch scarlet runner beans are another good local choice for cassoulet. That's what they used to use at Zola's.

I agree about Madiran. Kind of hard to find around here.

Oh wow, Zola's. What did those guys go on to do?

[Melanie Wong]

Zola's was my favorite place back in the day. Here's Larry Bain's CV for what he's up to.
http://www.simconference.org/2005/spe...

Kermit imports a Madiran. But Cahors is the classic match for Cassoulet

Cahors and Madiran are the two major reds from the southwest and are both classic matches for cassoulet. Worth tasting side by side with cassoulet to see which you prefer. We did that most recently at Chez Panisse last year and as usual I preferred the Madiran.

Irouleguy, which is a little more common around here, is a good match too. Made in the Basque country not far from Madiran from a similar blend of grapes.