In France, the Great Brotherhood of Cassoulet celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The brothers and sisters — women do don the robes — had to cancel their annual festival though, due to the pandemic. Curiously it’s held in August, which doesn’t seem like the best time to appreciate the traditional meaty white bean casserole.
In Chicago, Sunday Dinner Club, the formerly secret dining society that launched Honey Butter Fried Chicken, has made its coveted cassoulet an event every winter for 16 years. Chefs and founders Christine Cikowski and Josh Kulp are continuing the tradition with weekend only takeout in January. They’re not doing the cassoulet dinners at the restaurant, since indoor dining is closed statewide, and they’re not serving outside. This is your chance to experience the comfort and camaraderie at home. They’re also sharing their recipes for the first time too in a 20-page magazine project.
Sous chef Alex Skrzypczyk oversees the making of the three course dinner ($50), which includes an endive salad, the SDC cassoulet and chocolate mousse for dessert. You can pre-order through Tock.
Authors Chandra Ram and Maggie Hennessy wrote the zine, aka mini magazine, illustrated by artist Silvia Hidalgo, for Sunday Dinner Club. It’s available through a Kickstarter campaign, which has nearly met its $5,000 goal as of this moment. You can pledge for three rewards: the Cassoulet zine only ($20); the zine, one frozen serving of cassoulet and a mini jar of mustard ($45); the zine, cassoulet, mustard, a chocolate mousse kit and a Zoom class on how to make the mousse with the SDC team ($125).
Zine package pickups begin Jan. 15 on the patio at Honey Butter Fried Chicken in the Avondale neighborhood.
A vegetarian cassoulet is also available for takeout, and the zine reveals a vegan recipe too. The revered dish does have as many partisans as politics or pizza. Some say it has to have duck and sausage. Others insist on pork and partridge. When I made the dish at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, the best part for me was the golden breadcrumb topping. That’s how I improved a canned cassoulet from Leader Price, a supermarket chain similar to Aldi in France. We can only imagine what the Brotherhood would say about SDC’s vegan cassoulet recipe.
3361 N. Elston Ave., 773-878-2717, sundaydinnerclub.com
