Recipes Bean-and-Leek Cassoulet 5.0 (826) Add your rating & review "I love cooking the hell out of leeks," Jerry Traunfeld says. "They get this melty, rich quality and saucy consistency." In this luscious dish, he combines the slow-cooked leeks with meaty porcini mushrooms and cranberry beans (a.k.a. borlotti or shell beans), which can be found fresh in early autumn and taste like chestnuts. The dish can easily be adapted for carnivores by adding bits of crispy bacon or that key cassoulet ingredient, duck confit.More Bean Recipes By Jerry Traunfeld Jerry Traunfeld F&W Star Chef » See All F&W Chef Superstars Restaurant: Poppy, Seattle Experience: The Herbfarm, Woodinville, WA; Alexis Hotel, Seattle; Stars, San Francisco Education: California Culinary Academy What is your signature dish? The recipe I’m most famous for is slow-roast salmon with spring herb sauce. You roast it at a low temperature, between 225 and 250 degrees, which is a simple and a foolproof way to cook salmon, but you have to use wonderful, fresh wild salmon. My tip for the sauce, which is a very light butter sauce, is at the end you throw in tons of fresh herbs. Be exuberant with the herbs and chop them coarsely. My top choices are chervil, chives, lemon thyme and lovage, but there’s a huge variety and you can use basil, tarragon and parsley. What is the first dish you ever cooked? Julia Child’s potato leek soup. I was 11 or 12 years old; I was watching a lot of Julia Child on television, she was making this soup and it looked like fun. My mom was all for my making it, and the soup came out great, or at least they said it did. For a neophyte cook, soup is great, because it’s all about balancing flavor and you can learn about that and about chopping. What is your favorite cookbook of all time? I have many favorite cookbooks of all time, including Julia Child’s The French Chef; The Vegetarian Epicure, by Anna Thomas; From a Breton Garden, by Josephine Araldo and Robert Reynolds; Jane Grigson’s Vegetable Book; The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, by Grace Young; Classic Indian Cooking, by Julie Sahni; and Paula Wolfert’s books. It’s too hard to choose just one. What is the most important skill you need as a chef? The most important skill you need to be a great cook is timing. Everything is based on timing. How long to keep the fish in the pan, when to start the peas if you’re adding them to the pasta, and on and on. Timing’s something you really have to have a sense of to be a good cook. What is the best bang-for-the-buck ingredient? Dried beans. In the winter I’ll cook a big batch of heirloom beans with some aromatics and then I’ll eat them all week. I’ll prepare them with some nice sausage, as bean cakes, in a soup or with a pasta dish. They’re really versatile, and cost almost nothing. What are you obsessed with cooking right now? I’ve been obsessed lately with Chinese cooking, and I use tons of recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop’s new book Every Grain of Rice: Simple Chinese Home Cooking. I’m going on a tour of China with her in October. Grace Young’s books are also hugely inspiring. I am really interested in Sichuan cooking. The thing that I’m really learning is the simplicity of Chinese cooking, and that you can always taste the ingredient, it’s not hidden. What do you snack on from the refrigerator? I always have kimchi in the refrigerator. My favorite snack is Kettle Brand Krinkle Cut Cheddar & Sour Cream potato chips. Food & Wine's Editorial Guidelines Updated on March 8, 2017 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: © Petrina Tinslay Active Time: 45 mins Total Time: 2 hrs 35 mins Yield: 6 Ingredients 2 1/4 pounds fresh cranberry beans, shelled (3 cups) Kosher salt 12 thyme sprigs, tied together with butcher's string, plus 1 tablespoon chopped thyme 2 bay leaves 1/2 ounce dried porcini mushrooms 3 large leeks, white and light green parts only, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise 1/2 inch thick 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/2 cup crème fraîche 1 tablespoon chopped marjoram Freshly ground pepper 1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil Directions In a large soup pot, cover the cranberry beans with 3 quarts of cold water. Add 1 tablespoon of kosher salt, the bundle of thyme sprigs and the bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and cook over moderate heat until the beans are tender, about 40 minutes. Drain the beans and discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaves. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, pour 4 cups of boiling water over the dried porcini and let stand until the mushrooms are soft, about 15 minutes. Remove the mushrooms and squeeze them dry over the bowl; reserve the soaking liquid. Coarsely chop the mushrooms. Preheat the oven to 375°. Position a rack in the top third of the oven. Slowly pour the mushroom soaking liquid into a large saucepan, discarding the last bit of gritty liquid. Add the porcini, leeks, butter and 2 teaspoons of salt. Bring to a simmer and cook over moderate heat until the leeks are very tender and the liquid has thickened slightly, about 35 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the crème fraîche, 2 teaspoons of the chopped thyme, 2 teaspoons of the chopped marjoram and the reserved beans. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer the bean mixture to a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. In a small bowl, toss the panko with the olive oil and the remaining 1 teaspoon each of chopped thyme and marjoram; season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle the panko over the beans. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the beans are bubbling and the panko is browned. Remove the cassoulet from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes. Spoon into warm bowls and serve. Make Ahead The cassoulet can be prepared through Step 3 and refrigerated overnight. Bring to room temperature before topping and baking. Suggested Pairing Hearty and earthy, this vegetarian cassoulet will pair well with the same sort of wine as a traditional cassoulet—a substantial red from France's Rhône Valley. Rate it Print