More Camp Cassoulet- the shopping list

While everyone figures out where to post the pictures, and the clever writing muse inspires, let me just tell you what we did buy on Saturday after the market...

Imagine 10 hungry foodies shopping all at once, without a list and in a hurry to go to the flea market. Shopping is always the better part of cooking here in this Southwestern Food Paradise. The country village markets are super lively on the holiday weekends like Toussaint. Families returning home for the weekend and school holidays with Grandpere and Mamie. Even our own resident Parisians found shopping a wee bit different here in Gascony as they raced through the produce, cheese and farm charcuterie stalls as Kakou, Francoise, Patricia, Marc and friends slowed them down by feeding tidbits- everything from rillettes on pain d'epice to fat mi-cuit Pruneaux (cooked/dehydrated for 12 hours instead of the usual 24). The great chunk of local Tomme de Templiers appeared from LouLou/Jennifer 's basket. Lucy de Lyon scored some of Pim's favorite grattons while Nice Tricia reserved the Marennes oysters for us and Stuart and Nicky stocked the onion/garlic larder.

By now the market baskets were bulging with:

• a dozen huge confit de canard- duck legs
• 2 meters of Saucisse de Toulouse
• ventreche (salt cured rolled pork belly or bacon)
  
• couenne (fresh pork rind)
• rind and pork sausage
  
• hambones
  
• roi de macy beans (I already had soaked some tarbais last night)
• 

Everyone bought something for lunch...it looked like this:

• chestnuts
• smoked garlic
• onions, shallots and more garlic
• cheese- Salers
• grattons
• ham
• pate
• rillettes
• pate de langue
  
• lettuce
• roi de macy beans
• brandade de morue
• 3 dozen oysters
• pain d'epice
• fouace
• pain d'epeutre

Everything that didn't go into the cassoulet (the first part of the list) was lunch!

Sometimes even food blogging tourists eyes are bigger than their stomaches. and the abundance of great charcuterie means we had one head of lettuce to 10 different pate/terrine/rillettes! Next time I'll make sure we get at least 2 of the vegetable groups we're supposed to eat even here in Gascony. I suppose chestnuts could count as a vegetable or pears for the fab sorbet David made as our fruit ration. I do know that Pruneaux count but don't think that oysters do. It's a lopsided food pyramid here that gets balanced by an abundance of good vegetable soup and fruit desserts. Oh, and the wine. Of course, the wine.

I was getting concerned we were going to run a little late, but our timing was impeccable and we were eating great cassoulet by dinner at 8.

Next post- the recipe...