As I wrote on the dinner thread, we had a rabbit wreaking havoc on our asparagus. I'm usually willing to share a bit...but this guy was biting off the top of every asparagus spear!
So. He became dinner.
He was a really old buck.
I felt like he was going to be really tough.
So, we brined him for a day while I thought about what I wanted to do with him. Ronnie wanted me to either sous vide or pressure cook and then fry him up, but I wasn't in the mood to fry anything last night. We can do fried a different time. It was cold, so I thought Rabbit Ragu sounded lovely. Ronnie deboned the meat for me while I prepped everything else.
Here are the tenderloins. These were actually not tough at all.
I didn't start this early enough to do it on the stove, so IP to the rescue!
I browned the rabbit chunks in some olive oil then removed them and added onions, celery, carrots and garlic and cooked until a bit soft. Deglazed with a bunch of red wine. Added mushrooms, the browned rabbit, some tomato paste, a jar of my canned tomatoes, salt, pepper and some bay leaf. High pressure for an hour.
Meanwhile I made pasta
Finished dish
I woke up in the middle of the night wanting to sneak down and eat another bowl. I restrained myself....this might be what's for breakfast :)