Last night I made dinner in a crock pot. It has been a long time I have broken that out to actually cook in it and not just keep things warm. I browned one pound of boneless leg of lamb, placed it in the crock. Then I carmelized a carrot, couple celery stalks and two shallots (out of onions). I deglazed with some of the Bermuda sherry stuff and poured that over the lamb. I put the carmelized veg into cheese cloth with thyme, parsley, bay leaf, third of a head of garlic, black peppercorns, I think that's it. I put in two quarts of turkey stock, one of them was cut with some tomato puree, in the crock, poured a bag of dried garbanzo beans and five merguez sausages. I placed the cheesecloth bundle in and left for the day.
For dinner I threw out the cheesecloth bundle, strained the sauce and poured some caraway seeds over the lamb and beans. I reduced the sauce and boiled two strips of bacon in it to give it more meat flavor because it was very beany. I strained the sauce when it got full flavored (1/4 cup) and then whisked in dijon mustard. The dijon and the bacon took care of the beany flavor. I think next time I would soak the beans overnight, discard the water, then add to the pot.
The "Crockpot Cassoulet" turned out pretty good. Steve loved it. I need to find more meat for the leftovers.