Braised rabbit in cider (or as in this case Cidre)

For this rabbit dish you shall require:here

1 rabbit (1.2 to 1.5 kg dressed weight, skinned and cleaned, no head or offal)

250 ml of dry Cidre (out of a 770ml bottle, what you do with the rest is your own business)

250 ml of game stock (but chicken will do)

2 apples (Holstein-cox or Brayburn)

250 gr Black pudding (Blut or rot wurst)

1 bunch of soup vegetables (leek, carrots, celeriac peeled and chopped will give you about 500g)

400g onions (peeled and sliced)

2 cloves of garlic, peeled, crushed and finely diced

Game spices

Salt and pepper

2 tbsp. of Rapeseed oil

2 tbsp. of olive oil

1 bouquet garni (sprig of sage, rosemary and a couple of bay leaves tied together)

Pre-heat oven to 180C.

Clean and wash your rabbit, joint it into legs, thorax, saddle cut into half. Rub with salt and pepper, sprinkle with plenty of game spices (you can buy them ready made but I make my own, you can find out here what I use and how I do it).

Plenty of Game Spices

Salt

Set aside, while you clean and dice the root veg, onions and garlic.

On the hob

In a heavy bottomed casserole, heat the oil (50-50), when very hot put in the rabbit pieces (you will more than likely have to do it in two lots), brown all over and then remove from the pan and set aside.

Turn down the heat, add the onions and garlic, sweat until translucent (watch not to burn the garlic). 

Add the diced root veg

Sauté for a few minutes.

add the Cidre and stock, 

add the rabbit pieces on top (they don’t need to be completely covered but should be mostly submerged ) add the bouquet garni and push under the liquid and put the lid on.

Place the casserole into the pre-heated oven and turn down to about 160°C for two hours.
 (it isn’t that important as it should be a low, slow braise).

Cut your black pudding into quite large chunks (if you want the black pudding to disappear into the sauce remove the skin, if not leave it on), peel, core and dice the apples into large chunks, place into lemon-water to stop oxidisation (going brown).

40 minutes before the end, lift the lid (it is rather difficult if you don’t) and put in the black pudding and the diced apples, check the liquid, if it has reduced down too much add some more stock and if you have any left cidre. Turn up the heat to 180°C

We were having roasted veg so you can now peel and par-boil these (beetroot, parsnip, carrots and kohlrabi), allow to drain in a sieve, pour into a roasting tin (or an ovenproof roasting dish), sprinkle with a good tbsp. of Herbs de Provence and splash all over with olive oil, a grinding of Salt and pepper. Mix the lot together (get your hands in, it really is better) set aside. 

Put the veg into the top of the oven at the same time as you put the apples and black pudding into the casserole.  After 40-50mins the whole shooting match will be ready to serve. 

You can if you wish serve with potatoes, rice or even noodles, but as we are on a diet, I had decided that it would be a no carb low calorie meal. Depending on the size (I think this gives 4 good portions) it will be approx. 650 Kcal. for the braised rabbit casserole and 250 Kcal. for the veg.

This recipe works very well with skinned chicken legs or a single large turkey leg, but in this case check the inner temperature at the thickest part and adjust the cooking time to suit.

The addition of dried prunes  and apricots is a good addition instead of the apples, but in this case I would use a nice dry white wine and a splash of apricot brandy.

An interesting rabbit tale from my childhood. 

We had when we lived in the village an allotment (well “Wor Dad” did), he kept pigs, chickens, ducks and my favourite’s, the rabbits. I would often go with him in the morning (this was my pre-school days, so about 4-5 years of age) when he came in from night shift down to feed the animals, I loved it, It was my job on the way to gather dandelion leaves to feed to the rabbits (I didn’t realise that dad was also feeding them), these I would push through the chicken wire and watch as they devoured the fresh greenery. Because we grew our own vegetables and supplied our own meat and eggs, we always had a “good” Sunday dinner (Rationing was still on so that was not always the case for many). One Sunday, sitting down to “Dinner” (13:30 sharp), I asked a question that had been puzzling me for ages (most likely since my last visit to the “Garden”), so I asked to no one in general but directed at “Wor Dad”. 

“You know, that when we go down to the garden to feed the animals” , yes was the reply, well said I “the rabbits (I didn’t know which), have little ones”, yes came the reply, “I was wondering why there are never anymore, I mean we never seem to have more rabbits”,  “be quiet and eat your rabbit” came the reply this time. 

I think it is all part of the growing up process; it didn’t upset me or put me of eating meat for life, but it did put things into order in my little world.

I enjoyed my rabbit that day and have ever since, no matter if wild or hutch!

Rabbit in Cider

It would be nice to say that this was a wild bunny, but alas it was a "stall hase", though at least a fresh one.

1 dressed rabbit (skinned, paunched but the edible innards intact)

100g of speck or diced smoked streaky bacon

3 tbsp. of vegetable oil

400ml dry cider

500ml chicken stock ( I used a knorr stock pot)

Bunch of mixed herbs (sage, thyme, rosemary, and lavage)

2 bay leaves

I large onion diced

3 cloves of garlic

½ tsp. cloves

5 juniper berries

5 allspice berries

Bunch diced soup vegetables (carrots, celeriac, leek, parsley stalks) diced

Salt and pepper

  

So the was rabbit home and lying on its back on the block, I like getting the whole rabbit including the head as this and some of the innards make a smashing stock.

First remove the lungs, heart, kidneys and liver. Set the liver to one side (don’t cook this together with the rest) cut the head off and then cut the rabbit into its portions, 2 hind legs, 2 front legs, cut the saddle into 3 sections, sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

Heat the oil in a roasting pan, add the speck and half of the onions and root vegetables slightly brown, add the rabbit pieces and half of the herbs and brown a little. Now add 200ml of the cider and 100ml of stock, cover and put into a pre-heated oven at 180°C (fan assisted).

In a saucepan, heat the remainder of the oil and soften the onion and then add the remainder of the root vegetables, put in the rabbit head along with any off cuts (belly flaps, heart, kidney’s, lungs and leg ends) into the pan and colour add the remainder of the cider and stock, add remaining herbs add spices. Bring to the boil, lower the heat and simmer.

Check the bunny in the oven, when it is cooked through, remove the rabbit pieces, set aside covered and pour the remaining liquid through a sieve into the sauce pan bubble up the stock, pour all through a sieve and adjust seasoning add a knob of cold butter (you can thicken with a mixture of butter and flour but I prefer a thin sauce).  

Served with either plain boiled potatoes, spätzle, dumplings, a few nice winter vegetables, (kale, cabbage, sprouts, cauliflower or even bok choi) to drink, the remainder of the cider an when that is all gone open another bottle.

Cheers, I hope you enjoy it!a .

Mediterranean Rabbit Pie – Mittelmeer Kaninchenpastete

You will require a rabbit preferably wild, but a hutch rabbit is not to be sniffed at!
1 tsp of fresh ground game spices
Pepper for seasoning
2 heaped tsp of mustard (medium heat such as Dijon or as I used Bautzener)

1 large onion
1 clove of garlic crushed and chopped
100g of bacon or speck chopped into lardoons
1 piece of peeled celeriac or a stalk of celery diced
2 carrots peeled and cut into discs
3 parsley roots peeled and diced
3 cm piece of a thick leek, white only cut into rings
1 handful of brown mushrooms
100g each of frozen chanterelles and cepes
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs of thyme and marjoram
1 teaspoon of rosemary needles
1 level table spoon of dried wild garlic
1 level table spoon of dried oregano
1 piccolo of sekt (I wanted to use cider but had none)
Olive oil for frying (I used olive oil because of it’s Mediterranean influence but you can use whatever cooking oil you have at hand)
1 Schnapps glass of white wine vinegar
1 Table spoon of sherry vinegar
2 anchovy fillets
1 Tsp of capers
1 small handful of Kalamata olives (bought from my local Turkish butchers)
500ml of vegetable stock (marigold low salt -I would have used home made chicken stock, but I had taken it out of the freezer, left it in the warm kitchen for a couple of days to defrost and it had turned sour)

First put your rabbit in water overnight to get rid of any blood, this had been a ferreted rabbit so had no shot to be picked out.


Remove as much of the second skin as possible (it will shrink and can go tough). Joint the rabbit and place in a bowl with vinegar water (this will whiten the flesh)

In the mean time chop all of your veg. etc.
Put a dessert spoon of oil into a frying pan and slowly fry the bacon pieces, then add the onions and garlic, don’t burn! Add the rest of the veg. and soften a little, add the dried herbs and sauté to get everything coated with the herbs and oil.

Remove the rabbit pieces from the water, dry with kitchen paper and season with the game spices and pepper, brown in a little olive oil

and add the mustard,.

Pour in the  stock and then add the sekt, bubble up to remove the alcohol.

Add the sautéed vegetables, give it all a good mixing add the bay leaves and the bouquet garni (the fresh herbs bound together for ease of removal), chop the rosemary needles and add.

Bring to the boil and reduce to a simmer, after about 15 minutes add the, chopped anchovies add the olives, capers and mushrooms, continue to cook until the rabbit meat is just about falling off the bones.

Carefully take the rabbit pieces from the stew (as this is what it is now) and remove the meat from the bones, pour the rest through a funnel sieve, you now have the Mediterranean stock to make the sauce. Mix the rabbit and vegetables together and mix in the sauce that you are about to make.

For the sauce

Enough stock from your rabbit vegetable cooking liquor
200ml of cream
Knob of butter
1tbl spoon of flour

First make a roux with butter and flour, adding the stock little by little until it is quite a thick sauce, remove from the heat and stir in enough cream so that the sauce coats the back of a spoon season to taste, though you shouldn’t need any extra seasoning. It should have a deep herby, mustard and slightly tangy acidic flavour.

Make your short crust pastry ( (Be-ro method) though I used all butter, the recipe calls for half lard and half marg, as I didn’t have any lard to hand and  I never have margarine in my kitchen.

1 beaten egg for the egg wash. 225g of plain flour
100g of butter
Pinch of salt
Enough cold water to just bring it all together into a firm dough.

I allowed the pastry to rest in the fridge for a couple of hours (the time it took to get a taxi to the pub, down 4 pints and get back home).
Divided the pastry into two balls. 1 ball to be slightly larger than the other. Grease your loose bottom tin (for our German readers Tchibo has them in at the moment, they are great for flans and this type of flat pie!).
Roll out the larger ball. Line the bottom of the tin, put in the filling and cover with the top disc,

sealing the edges. Wash with the beaten egg.
Put into a medium hot oven until golden brown.

I also had braised chicory in a cheese sauce
2 heads of chicory halved and braised in a little vegetable stock with some sliced mushrooms.
Make a roux, add the liquid from the braised chicory and some of the left over stock add a handful of grated cheese (I used Edam but any cheese will do). Pour the resulting sauce over the braised chicory and mushrooms, put this into the oven alongside your pie for the last 10 minutes.

Polenta medallions
100g medium polenta
250ml of vegetable stock
A good knob of butter
Pepper to taste

Bring the vegetable stock to the boil; pour the polenta into it in a steady stream while stirring, reduce the heat and keep stirring for about 10-15 minutes, add the butter and stir it in and cook it until it is smooth. Pour out onto a smooth surface and spread about 1cm thick allow to cool. Cut out discs with a 5cm circular cutter (I got 2 and then formed the remains into a 3rd). Fry in an oiled skillet until golden brown.

Serve immediately with your rabbit pie, braised chicory in a cheese sauce and minted peas.

Just to keep the meal Mediterranean, I also made a nice side salad with fennel, courgettes, tomato, red peppers, olives, capers, orange segments and feta cheese.

Note those are my diabetic pills  to the left of the fork!!!  
To drink, well, a cold Picpoul de Pinet from the French Mediterranean area.

And all that was left of my Sunday lunch! A few olive stones.

NB If doing it again for guests I think I would use pitted olives as I realise that some would bite into the stones and break their teeth.