If you want to appreciate rabbit's mild gamey taste, then choose recipes that avoid strong flavours or robust cooking liquor. A light casserole such as the cider and mustard based one featured doesn't overwhelm the delicacy of the meat. On the other hand if you want to go ethnic where the meat is more a texture rather than a flavour in the end results. Great success can be had currying and
stir-frying rabbit meat quickly with suitably exotic additions - sweet'n'sour Szechuan Chinese style, tagine with ras-el-hanout Moroccan spices and cous cous, Bhajiman Indian jalfrezi with capsicums and green chillies, Thai green curry, even Japanese tempura battered goujons with sushi ginger, wasabi and soy to dip them in. So rather than thinking of specific rabbit dishes, think of your favourite chicken recipes and substitute rabbit. It is at its tenderest if cut small and prepared quickly over a high heat, ie stir-frying and sautéing or slow cooked in joints through long braising. Two favourite recipes overleaf.
Preparing the bag
If you haven't bought or been given an oven ready rabbit, it is not hard or time consuming to skin and paunch a rabbit for the kitchen. First ensure the rabbit has been urinated, by holding it up outside by the shoulders and pushing the flat of your hand firmly down its belly down to the back legs, this will empty the bladder. Next on a table (in a well ventilated room for novices!), with the rabbit on its back, take a sharp knife or pair of game shears (heavy duty scissors) and holding the belly fur, make a shallow careful incision just below the ribline through the skin, avoiding puncturing the intestines. Once in, use rubber-gloved fingers to enlarge the cut to let you see inside. Pushing the intestines down with your other hand, cautiously cut through the skin along the length of the belly from the rib cage down to the back legs. Pull out all the intestines and discard. After rinsing your fingers, delve under the rib cage through the diaphragm to remove the lungs and heart. Now cut the fur all the way around the rabbit's midriff so it is then in two halves. Pull the bottom half downwards and by bending the back legs up to towards the body, you can push them through the fur like turning coat sleeves inside out. Peel the fur back to the attached tail and cut it off where it joins the spine. Next split the flesh and bone between the back legs and pull out any tubes inside. The lower fur will now be detached. Moving onto the top half, pull the fur back to the front legs and ‘unpop' them similarly, pull the fur back to the ears and chop off the head at the neck. Wash the animal thoroughly and remove any unsightly bits. You now have an oven-ready carcass for jointing.
Jointing a rabbit
In less than a minute, the easy task of jointing a rabbit can be done ready for the pot.
First of all dislocate the back legs by pushing them up towards the spine. Slice around the flesh of each leg, using the line of the muscles and cut through the opened joint between the bone socket at the spine. Next trim away the pointed end of the spine where the legs came off. By cutting across the spine by the start of the ribcage, you will detach the loin section, trimming away the spare skin from the stomach cavity. Next remove the front legs by again dislocating them and follow the natural line of the shoulder blades cutting underneath them. This will give you six joints of rabbit meat, though the ribcage and front legs are not particularly large - the sheer majority of the meat is on the loins and haunches (back legs). The best eating is from three-quarters grown young summer rabbits, a brace of these are good feeding for four hearty adult eaters. But with lots of root vegetables, pearl barley and mounds of potatoes, a single casseroled rabbit will nourish a family of four easily. Just don't mention it's rabbit to the kids until after they have decided they like it. Children do surprise me at how unsqueamish they actually are if they taste game first.
For her masterclass in coney cuisine, Liz prepared a hearty casserole...
Fricassée of rabbit in cider and mustard (feeds 4 - 6 people)
INGREDIENTS
2 young rabbits, jointed
sea salt and black pepper
6 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp mustard flour
1 tsp dried thyme
3 tbsp calvados or brandy
4 tbsp goose fat, lard or olive oil
1 large onion, finely diced
2 medium leeks, cut into 1cm slices
500ml strong dry cider, we like Aspall's organic
few sprigs of thyme
3 bay leaves
1 or 2 tsp smooth mustard or 1/2-1 tsp dry mustard
1 tbsp cider vinegar
good game or chicken stock 3 Cox apples
100g butter
caster sugar
120ml double cream
handful of soft prunes
METHOD
Pre-heat the oven to 160c.
Make a seasoned flour with the flour, a good lot of salt and black pepper, the mustard flour and the thyme. Place in a double plastic bag with the rabbit, tie tightly at the top of the bag and gently toss together. Heat a large heavy frying pan until hot, add the fat or oil and gently put in the jointed rabbit, knocking off excess flour as you remove it from the bag. Once all the meat is lightly browned on both sides, remove with a slotted spoon to a warm plate. Put in the onions and leeks and brown similarly over a high heat. Return the rabbit and taking pan off the heat, pour in the brandy or calvados at arms length. Back on the hob and away from over-hanging objects and faces, ignite the liquor with a match. After a minute, pour in the cider and bring to the boil, stirring in the thyme, bay leaves, mustard and vinegar. Decant the contents into a warmed deep casserole dish and add enough hot stock to just cover the rabbit and vegetables. Put on the lid on top of a double sheet of foil over the casserole and put into the oven for 2 hours approx or until the back legs are tender. Meanwhile peel and cube the apples and pan fry in hot butter until just softening and finish by caramelising them with a little sprinkling of sugar stirred in. To finish the dish, strain off the juices and reduce at a boil until well thickened. Stir in the cream, apples and prunes. Return to the oven for 20 minutes before serving or if not consuming until the next day, cool and refrigerate at this point. To reheat, cook for one hour at 180c the next day, checking it is bubbling before serving. To eat with this dish, we served honey glazed roast parsnips, simple root vegetable mash and buttery wilted kale - perfect wintry accompaniments.
cook's tip
As with all stews, this eats best if cooked the day before, properly cooled and refrigerated overnight and then reheated for an hour to serve.
One of my favourite dishes, based around a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall River Cottage recipe is crispy rabbit fritters. Best done with leftovers from a pot roasted carcass or gently poached fresh cuts, it would work with any meat I imagine but I tend to just use it for poultry or light coloured game. Making a thick white sauce (a béchamel if being pedantic) with seasoned milk - I add a sprinkling of mace or nutmeg, mustard flour, bay leaf, lots of seasoning, dried thyme and a handful of shredded parsley leaves - you need to be able to stand your wooden spoon up in it! Taking your shredded rabbit and other additions - we like crispy lardons of smoked bacon, softened shallots, leeks or spring onions and defrosted petit pois peas - mix in enough of the sauce to bind well and refrigerate in a wide tray to cool.
Then using two tablespoons, make shapes of the mix as best you can, (smooth quenelles if you're adept, rough lumps if you're not) and then coat them in flour, beaten egg, stale white breadcrumbs, then egg again, finishing in the breadcrumbs once more. (Purists look away now - it actually works very well if you replace the breadcrumbs with dry sage‘n'onion stuffing mix). Once coated, deep fry the balls carefully in medium-hot vegetable or corn oil until golden brown. Alongside a good dollop of buttery mash and a warm wintry salad of roasted root vegetables and crisp leaves, they go down a treat for a weekday supper, oozing the creamy sauce as you split them.
