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.