Duck and Sausage Cassoulet for 20

Entertaining for a large group need not be a laborious, stressful affair.  Make this rich, lovely cassoulet the day before and serve with a green salad and crusty bread and only a fork is required.  Confit duck can be bought in tins from delis and good butchers.. make sure you keep the duck fat for roast potoates later.  Leftover cassoulet will freeze well.

750g butter and cannelini beans
10 large cloves garlic, crushed
6 red onions, diced
10 rashers unsmoked back bacon, cut into dice
20 sausages (mixture of plain pork and toulouse works well), cut into 5cm pieces
1 litre red wine
8 400g tins chopped tomatoes
8 confit duck legs
3 T thyme leaves
2 T smoked paprika

crumbs:
1 small loaf day old sourdough, blitzed into breadcrumbs
1 tsp chilli flakes
2 tsp thyme leaves
1 lemon, zest only
olive oil

Soak beans overnight, rinse well and cook until tender.  Drain and set aside.

For crumbs, spread breadcrumbs out on a baking tray and sprinkle over chilli, thyme and lemon zest.  Douse in a generous amount of olive oil and bake for 10-15 minutes at 200C, until golden brown.  Remove and cool, then keep in an airtight container.

Sweat onions in 2 tablespoons olive oil over very low heat, covered, for 20 minutes until soft.  Be careful not to burn.  Add garlic and stir for another 2-3 minutes. Unless you have a very large stockpot, you may want to split the recipe over 2 pans now.

While onions are sweating, heat a large frying pan and sear bacon and sausages, just enough to colour, but not cook through.  Set aside.

Add smoked paprika, thyme and wine to the onions and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer and add tomatoes, bacon and sausages.  Cook slowly for 40 minutes until sausages are very tender.  Season to taste, you will need about 2 teaspoons of salt and pepper.

Using your hands, pull the duck meat off the confit legs, scraping off the excess fat that has solidified, so you have nice bite-sized pieces of duck.  Add the duck meat with cooked beans and combine well.  Check again for seasoning and either heat through to serve, or cool down and chill to serve the next day.

Sprinkle crumbs on top of cassoulet to serve.

Serves 20.