CASSOULET & PROFITEROLES

Charlotte was in the mood for cooking Cassoulet, luckily for her friends! I offered to bring a relevant and, hopefully, worthy dessert.  I browsed through my cook books and looked at Epicurious and decided on Profiteroles.  The recipe I used was actually from La Varenne school of cooking.  A very long time ago, when I lived in London I collected this series of partworks from The Observer, which was 'the other' Sunday newspaper.  I still have this collection, in the binder which I must have sent away for!  I use quite a few recipes in here, the classic French Apple Tart which I did for Elizabeth is from the same series. I cannot find this recipe on line and so have substituted one from Epicurious, which looks very similar for the pastry. This recipe calls for the choux puffs to be filled with Ice Cream, which I'm sure is pretty good but I prefer the classic Creme Patisserie.  I include here recipe for Custard from Delia, which is very similar.  Make sure it is thick enough, maybe use a little less cream and make in advance so that it can chill for at least an hour before you use to fill the profiteroles.
Have to apologize for the picture, I forgot to take one before it got devoured, BUT it did look spectacular, was much admired and was really quite delicious!
(Note 1: in order to get the Delia recipe you have to become a member, which only takes a few seconds and if you remember to un-check the relevant boxes you won't get any unwanted solicitations from them!
Note 2: This is not the Cassoulet recipe Charlotte used, but looks pretty good to me.)

Here is chocolate sauce recipe I used, which in one opinion voiced last night, 'made the dish!'

• 1001g/7 ozs good dark chocolate (I used Green & Black organic)
• 60g/2ozs butter (I only ever have salted butter)
• 5 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons rum, brandy or Grand Marnier (I used a Remy Martin, thanks Tim!)

Put first 4 ingredients in microwave safe bowl, microwave until chocolate almost melted, but still some visible chunks. (Can do this old fashioned way, bowl over simmering water, if you prefer). Remove and beat until smooth and glossy.  Stir in liqueur. Reheat gently in microwave just before using.

Here is what they sort of looked like! I made them smaller, more or less bite sized as that is how I like them.