eG Cook-Off #86: Rabbit

[Duvel]

And so it begins ...

 

I purchased three rabbits today. First one will - of course - be featured in a Catalan dish: Conill amb xocolata (or Rabbit with chocolate).

 

It was not the smartest of choices. Once I told my family what we have for dinner, my wife responded that she loves the dish as her grandmother always cooked it. There was not the tiniest bit of a chance for expectation management from this point ... her grandma was a perfect cook and spend essentially a week prepping for the big (~15 people +) multi-course, hour-long Sunday lunch, that usually ended around 22.00h ... but hey - no pressure 🙄

 

I triangulated the recipe from my two favourite Catalan cookbooks, leaning more toward the English version that would result in a lighter dish. I don’t care for fennel, and substituted a star anise.

 

 

 

 

Rabbit was chopped up and intestines reserved for a later point in time.

 

 

 

Other ingredients ...

 

 

Floured rabbit was browned, removed, and aromatics added. Vi ranci was added, evaporated, topped up with the stock and rabbit simmered in the mixture for a little less than an hour.

 

 

 

As a little reward the flash-fried liver was consumed by the busy cook, together with a highball ...

 

 

In the meantime the Picada was prepared. Think Catalan pesto to thicken sauces. Garlic, bread, almonds and pine nuts were roasted in olive oil and then pureed.

 

 

 

Once the rabbit was cooked tender, the chopped up chocolate was added & melted and the Picada added. Simmered for 5 more minutes and done !

 

 

Conill amb xocolata was served with Trinxat (mashed potatoes with savoy cabbage, bacon, garlic and olive oil - think Catalan colcannon).

 

 

Enjoyed with a fruity red from the Mont Sant denomination ...

 

Little one enjoyed !

 

 

Manöverkritik: the rabbit was nicely cooked, consistency of the meat was good. It was a bit to chocolatey - my wife explained that grandma‘s version contained less chocolate, even though I used the lower amount of both recipes. The sauce had a slight bitterness to it - not unpleasant, bit noticable. I suspect the chocolate brand and will look for different options next time. The combo of conill amb xocolata with the Trinxat worked great and helped with the bitterness of the sauce. The dish will not make it into my regular rotation, but I will give it another go with another brand of chocolate ...

 

Edited February 3, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[heidih]

Nice!  I confess that when I heard fennel I had visions of rabbits hopping in the field munching wild fennel that would flavor their meat. 

[Margaret Pilgrim]

7 hours ago, Duvel said:

 

 

 

 

This kid has my heart.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

While I love simple grilled rabbit, I have enjoyed two plates so memorable as to stay with me for several decades.   One at San Francisco's Delfna during its early days, described by our waiter as the only one portion available, and before he could continue, I blurted out, "Mine!"    The second was at Eric Frechon's eponimous restaurant in Paris, before he became a 3 star cheff.   Again, the last portion.   So these Italian and French braises were essentially "leftover" from the night before, and both benefited well from this stay. 

 

Altho I'm the only one in our house who eats bunny, I really need to git me a rabbit.

[Owtahear]

I got a recipe I can't wait to try and show with Rabbit.  I do it with chicken thighs, but the original prep was supposed to be rabbit.

[Duvel]

Tonight we move from Catalonia to Germany to a true classic: Hasenpfeffer!  I hope that @chromedome will forgive to make this first - I am looking very much forward to your version!

 

This is again a triangulation between this version (which is in the tradition of the Rhineland) and a more simple „housewife“ version from Thuringia ...

 

 

Hasenpfeffer is a robust dish that works well with hare (hence the name), but is equally good with rabbit. The stew is usally thickened with rabbit blood, which poses a difficulty if you buy the rabbit already butchered. See below for a decent workaround.

 

I chopped up the rabbit yesterday night into 9 pieces, that were marinated overnight with salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, onions, cognac and red wine.

 

 

 

Tonight, some bacon cubes were fried and subsequently the marinated rabbit parts were fried in the bacon fat. The rabbit was removed and onions plus carrot were fried, dusted with flour and fried some more.

 

 

In parallel, in a enameled cast iron pan icing sugar was caramelized, some tomato paste was added and fried briefly before being deglazed with the rabbit marinate. More wine was added, together some garlic, juniper berries, peppercorn, bay leaves and all the prefried items from before. In the oven it went, and 45 min later the meat was ready.

 

 

 

The braising liquid was filtered, given onto chopped up Flönz (a soft pure pork blood sausage) and the resulting sauce pureed - done !

 

 

The Hasenpfeffer was served with potato dumplings (the Thuringia addition) and apple sauce (the Rhineland addition) and enjoyed worh a cold Kölsch ...

 

 

 

 

 

Manöverkritik: This stew was unanimously deemed more tasty the yesterdays conill amb xocolata. The sauce was more intense and rounded, the meat itself was complementing the sauce. The usage of blood sausage worked well tastewise, but didn’t thickened the sauce. Thank you, potato starch.
 

Overall quite good ... this I will make definitively again - and I think it should be nice with duck legs, too. Next time !

Edited February 4, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[KennethT]

1 hour ago, Duvel said:

Tonight we move from Catalonia to Germany to a true classic: Hasenpfeffer!  I hope that @chromedome will forgive to make this first - I am looking very much forward to your version!

 

This is again a triangulation between this version (which is in the tradition of the Rhineland) and a more simple „housewife“ version from Thuringia ...

 

 

Hasenpfeffer is a robust dish that works well with hare (hence the name), but is equally good with rabbit. The stew is usally thickened with rabbit blood, which poses a difficulty if you buy the rabbit already butchered. See below for a decent workaround.

 

I chopped up the rabbit yesterday night into 9 pieces, that were marinated overnight with salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, onions, cognac and red wine.

 

 

 

Tonight, some bacon cubes were fried and subsequently the marinated rabbit parts were fried in the bacon fat. The rabbit was removed and onions plus carrot were fried, dusted with flour and fried some more.

 

 

In parallel, in a enameled cast iron pan icing sugar was caramelized, some tomato paste was added and fried briefly before being deglazed with the rabbit marinate. More wine was added, together some garlic, juniper berries, peppercorn, bay leaves and all the prefried items from before. In the oven it went, and 45 min later the meat was ready.

 

 

 

The braising liquid was filtered, given onto chopped up Flönz (a soft pure pork blood sausage) and the resulting sauce pureed - done !

 

 

The Hasenpfeffer was served with potato dumplings (the Thuringia addition) and apple sauce (the Rhineland addition) and enjoyed worh a cold Kölsch ...

 

 

 

 

 

Manöverkritik: This stew was unanimously deemed more tasty the yesterdays conill amb xocolata. The sauce was more intense and rounded, the meat itself was complementing the sauce. The usage of blood sausage worked well tastewise, but didn’t thickened the sauce. Thank you, potato starch.
 

Overall quite good ... this I will make definitively again - and I think it should be nice with duck legs, too. Next time !

This looks great... and I had a nice chuckle as I remembered some nice childhood memories watching Bugs Bunny constantly being threatened to be turned into hasenpfeffer

[Margaret Pilgrim]

@Duvel   Please tell us about the dumplings.

[Duvel]

3 minutes ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

@Duvel   Please tell us about the dumplings.

With pleasure.

 

This potato dumpling, or „Knödel halb und halb“, is a common side dish in Thuringia and Lower Saxony (where I hail from). It is made from 50% boiled and 50% raw potatoes, as the name „half and half“ implies. 
You divide your potatoes, grate finely half of them and let them drain. Typically the water is collected, the starch settles after a while and is put back into the mass to bind it. I forgo this and just potato starch. The other half of the potatoes is cooked and mashed. Both parts are combined with egg(s) and starch plus some flour and  a bit of nutmeg and then formed into dumplings and cooking in barely simmering water for about 30 min. They are tricky and sometimes disintegrate for no reason. 

A good recipe is found here (sorry, only in German).

 

 

[David Ross]

5 hours ago, Duvel said:

Tonight we move from Catalonia to Germany to a true classic: Hasenpfeffer!  I hope that @chromedome will forgive to make this first - I am looking very much forward to your version!

 

This is again a triangulation between this version (which is in the tradition of the Rhineland) and a more simple „housewife“ version from Thuringia ...

 

 

Hasenpfeffer is a robust dish that works well with hare (hence the name), but is equally good with rabbit. The stew is usally thickened with rabbit blood, which poses a difficulty if you buy the rabbit already butchered. See below for a decent workaround.

 

I chopped up the rabbit yesterday night into 9 pieces, that were marinated overnight with salt, pepper, thyme, garlic, onions, cognac and red wine.

 

 

 

Tonight, some bacon cubes were fried and subsequently the marinated rabbit parts were fried in the bacon fat. The rabbit was removed and onions plus carrot were fried, dusted with flour and fried some more.

 

 

In parallel, in a enameled cast iron pan icing sugar was caramelized, some tomato paste was added and fried briefly before being deglazed with the rabbit marinate. More wine was added, together some garlic, juniper berries, peppercorn, bay leaves and all the prefried items from before. In the oven it went, and 45 min later the meat was ready.

 

 

 

The braising liquid was filtered, given onto chopped up Flönz (a soft pure pork blood sausage) and the resulting sauce pureed - done !

 

 

The Hasenpfeffer was served with potato dumplings (the Thuringia addition) and apple sauce (the Rhineland addition) and enjoyed worh a cold Kölsch ...

 

 

 

 

 

Manöverkritik: This stew was unanimously deemed more tasty the yesterdays conill amb xocolata. The sauce was more intense and rounded, the meat itself was complementing the sauce. The usage of blood sausage worked well tastewise, but didn’t thickened the sauce. Thank you, potato starch.
 

Overall quite good ... this I will make definitively again - and I think it should be nice with duck legs, too. Next time !

How fantastic and thank you for the picture tutorial.  Tell me about the bottle of Kirum red pepper. 

[scamhi]

my french neighbor used to grill rabbit legs on their gas grill. She made slashes into the meat and stuffed those slashes with minced pancetta, chopped garlic and rosemary.

[kayb]

Truly a lovely dinner. But no photo of the kidlet enjoying the meal? I love seeing that kid.

 

[liuzhou]

I'm just going to throw this into the mix and let you work it out, but rabbit goes really well with whisky. I'm talking about what you quaint Americans call "Scotch" and not the unpotable substitute you use! 😀

 

I mentioned before mustard goes well. Mustard and whisky goes even better! Single malt, of course!

Edited February 5, 2021 by liuzhou (log)

[David Ross]

I got lucky with a source for rabbit last night. I belong to a local Facebook group where folks in the community discuss, mainly, restaurants.  But we also discuss ingredients and it's a nice surprise when many people chime in with their sources for ingredients.  At times I'm amazed at how many great home cooks we have in our area.  I asked about local sources for rabbit.  I know of one supermarket that always has them in the frozen case.  Well, the usual sources came from folks in the group, but most were suggestions of places to call, not that they have rabbit in stock.  Some were local butchers or markets, but in most of these cases, they special order it for you, and of course it's marked up.  One person said the rabbit from a local butcher would be $39.99.  That's about the price it is from D'Artagnan online, but D'Artagnan of course adds the big ticket shipping cost.  Also, D'Artagnan doesn't include the rabbit liver.

 

One person gave me the best tip.  We also have a local Facebook group of folks who raise rabbits for sale and for meat.  She said that compared to the $39.99 price from a local butcher who orders it in, they have folks in the group who will sell it fresh fro $6 a rabbit, so that's the next source I'll look into.

[Duvel]

3rd rabbit’s the charm ...

 

After two stews there was a bit of family pressure for a different dish. As I wanted to do a cold preparation, I looked into some rabbit terrines and patés ...

 

I narrowed it down to a rabbit and prune terrine from this recommendable book ...

 

 

And the straightforward rabbit terrine with Armagnac from this excellent book. Family voted for the latter, so it was decided.

 

 

 

I do cook a lot, but never had any formal training. That is usually not an issue, but with certain tasks it is a disadvantage. My way to debone the rabbit (despite reading/watching some instructables and freshly honing the knives) put a new meaning to the verb „butchering“. I will spare you the progress picture and will just proudly present you with about 700g of rabbit meat from a 1300g rabbit, chopped into small pieces ...

 

 

This was mixed with ground fatty pork, some cubed ham, garlic, onion, pepper, fresh thyme, parsley and pink salt, then a glass of Armagnac (whisky, as @liuzhou suggested, would be good, too) was added. The mixture was tightly wrapped and marinated overnight.

 

 

The next day freshly ground crustless white bread was soaked in milk, squeezed and mixed with egg and some quattre epice.

 

 

The mixture was combined with the marinated meat, some extra pepper & thyme added and filled into my grandma‘s round terrine form.

 

 

 

It was closed tightly with two layers of tin foil (too lazy to make the traditional water/flour dough to seal it) and popped in a bain marie into the hot oven for 2h. The leftover masse was put into ramekins, covered and baked for 30 min, both to a core temperature of 72 oC.

 

Before ...

 

 

After ...

 

 

They‘ll all cool overnight and tomorrow I will add some gelatinized stock with wine as a cover and the we‘ll have a tasting ... looking very forward !

Edited February 6, 2021 by Duvel (log)

[David Ross]

6 hours ago, David Ross said:

I got lucky with a source for rabbit last night. I belong to a local Facebook group where folks in the community discuss, mainly, restaurants.  But we also discuss ingredients and it's a nice surprise when many people chime in with their sources for ingredients.  At times I'm amazed at how many great home cooks we have in our area.  I asked about local sources for rabbit.  I know of one supermarket that always has them in the frozen case.  Well, the usual sources came from folks in the group, but most were suggestions of places to call, not that they have rabbit in stock.  Some were local butchers or markets, but in most of these cases, they special order it for you, and of course it's marked up.  One person said the rabbit from a local butcher would be $39.99.  That's about the price it is from D'Artagnan online, but D'Artagnan of course adds the big ticket shipping cost.  Also, D'Artagnan doesn't include the rabbit liver.

 

One person gave me the best tip.  We also have a local Facebook group of folks who raise rabbits for sale and for meat.  She said that compared to the $39.99 price from a local butcher who orders it in, they have folks in the group who will sell it fresh fro $6 a rabbit, so that's the next source I'll look into.

Wow after contacting this group I've got about 4 local rabbit suppliers!

[kayb]

Damn. I want that rabbit pate.

 

And 

<<I do cook a lot, but never had any formal training. That is usually not an issue, but with certain tasks it is a disadvantage. My way to debone the rabbit (despite reading/watching some instructables and freshly honing the knives) put a new meaning to the verb „butchering“. I will spare you the progress picture and will just proudly present you with about 700g of rabbit meat from a 1300g rabbit, chopped into small pieces ...>>

 

 

Texas Chainsaw Massacre meets Bugs Bunny?

 

[liuzhou]

2 hours ago, Duvel said:

(whiskey, as @liuzhou suggested, would be good, too

 

I most certainly did not suggest whiskey! I was very careful to suggest whisky!

 

Armagnac works well, too. Had rabbit in Armagnac in France many years ago. Wonderful.

[Duvel]

5 hours ago, liuzhou said:

 

I most certainly did not suggest whiskey! I was very careful to suggest whisky!

 

Armagnac works well, too. Had rabbit in Armagnac in France many years ago. Wonderful.

Corrected the ... autocorrect 😉

 

[Duvel]

On 2/5/2021 at 1:06 AM, David Ross said:

Tell me about the bottle of Kirum red pepper. 

This is red pepper from Cambodia, Kampot province. It has a very intense peppery aroma, with a moderate heat level. I purchased my first glass several years ago while visiting there, and am seeking out this variety ever since. 
 

 

[Duvel]

14 hours ago, Duvel said:

They‘ll all cool overnight and tomorrow I will add some gelatinized stock with wine as a cover and the we‘ll have a tasting ... looking very forward !

Today I prepared the „sealing“ of the terrine(s), if you will. The rabbit bones (with ample residual meat) was cooked overnight in the rice cooker, congee setting (sorry, no pictures). The resulting stock was cooked & reduced with some dry wine, onion, garlic, carrot, pepper, salt, bay leaf, cloves and juniper berries. Upon testing, it gelled pretty well.

 

 

The terrines were covered with the stock and left to cool in the fridge ...

 

The terrine was served as light lunch on toasted brioche, alongside salad with a mustard vinaigrette (Machê would be my preference, but our supermarket had none), some pickles, hot mustard and of course topped with jellied stock.

 

 

 

Enjoyed with a Jever, because I felt like a little reward 😉

 

 

Little one was sceptical at first, but upon trying decided it was „delicious“ and could be featured again as lunch ... 
 

 

After the beer I knew it would be time for a nap - might as well go full throttle ...

 

Carajillo for „dessert“ 🤗

 

[David Ross]

18 hours ago, Duvel said:

3rd rabbit’s the charm ...

 

After two stews there was a bit of family pressure for a different dish. As I wanted to do a cold preparation, I looked into some rabbit terrines and patés ...

 

I narrowed it down to a rabbit and prune terrine from this recommendable book ...

 

 

And the straightforward rabbit terrine with Armagnac from this excellent book. Family voted for the latter, so it was decided.

 

 

 

I do cook a lot, but never had any formal training. That is usually not an issue, but with certain tasks it is a disadvantage. My way to debone the rabbit (despite reading/watching some instructables and freshly honing the knives) put a new meaning to the verb „butchering“. I will spare you the progress picture and will just proudly present you with about 700g of rabbit meat from a 1300g rabbit, chopped into small pieces ...

 

 

This was mixed with ground fatty pork, some cubed ham, garlic, onion, pepper, fresh thyme, parsley and pink salt, then a glass of Armagnac (whisky, as @liuzhou suggested, would be good, too) was added. The mixture was tightly wrapped and marinated overnight.

 

 

The next day freshly ground crustless white bread was soaked in milk, squeezed and mixed with egg and some quattre epice.

 

 

The mixture was combined with the marinated meat, some extra pepper & thyme added and filled into my grandma‘s round terrine form.

 

 

 

It was closed tightly with two layers of tin foil (too lazy to make the traditional water/flour dough to seal it) and popped in a bain marie into the hot oven for 2h. The leftover masse was put into ramekins, covered and baked for 30 min, both to a core temperature of 72 oC.

 

Before ...

 

 

After ...

 

 

They‘ll all cool overnight and tomorrow I will add some gelatinized stock with wine as a cover and the we‘ll have a tasting ... looking very forward !

thank you for posting this.  I've got a rabbit and game terrine recipe in my holiday recipes files I've been wanting to try for years and this gives me the inspiration to get going on it.

[heidih]

I was drafting a birthday note to an ex and remembered his step mom telling me her family always included rabbit in the "Sunday gravy". She was from Santa Rosa, Ca. (gateway to Sonoma wine country) so maybe some cultural Italian influence from the vineyard workers. Had not thought about that in years.

[Shelby]

It's been bitterly cold here and it's been lightly snowing for three days now! It's 9 F right now but it feels like -7 F.  Supposed to snow all day today too  (won't be much accumulation but I'll take what I can get).  Ronnie took a drive through the fields that surround our house yesterday.

 

 

 

And with his trusty Remington 22 rifle was able to get a rabbit.  Even a very light snow cover makes it easier to hunt rabbit.  They show up better and you can see their tracks.

 

 

It's a mature male (buck).

 

 

Rabbits are very easy to clean.  First remove the head:

 

 

 

Then peel the skin/fur from the meat

 

 

 

Clear down to the ankles

 

 

 

 

 

Snip the feet off

 

 

 

The (un)lucky rabbits foot

 

 

Cut the tail off

 

 

 

Next your ready to take the guts out.  Here is where lovers of commercially bought rabbit will want to cry.  You never want to eat the liver etc. of a wild rabbit.  Not good.  

 

Similar to a deer, run your knife through being very careful not to nick or catch any of the innards

 

 

 

 

Gently pull the guts down and out

 

 

Always remember to snip this tendon at the bottom to get the last remainder--it hides under there.

 

 

 

 

All clean

 

 

My go-to rabbit recipes are both fried.  Either fry and cover with a homemade mushroom sauce and bake low and slow, or fry and then pressure cook.  I'll be looking both online and in my cookbooks to see if I can find something else that trips my trigger and I'd love to have ideas from you guys!  Keep in mind, wild rabbit is MUCH tougher than commercial ones.  He's resting in my fridge....I'll be doing something with him either tonight or more likely tomorrow.  So, any ideas?

Edited February 8, 2021 by Shelby (log)

[David Ross]

47 minutes ago, Shelby said:

It's been bitterly cold here and it's been lightly snowing for three days now! It's 9 F right now but it feels like -7 F.  Supposed to snow all day today too  (won't be much accumulation but I'll take what I can get).  Ronnie took a drive through the fields that surround our house yesterday.

 

 

 

And with his trusty Remington 22 rifle was able to get a rabbit.  Even a very light snow cover makes it easier to hunt rabbit.  They show up better and you can see their tracks.

 

 

It's a mature male (buck).

 

 

Rabbits are very easy to clean.  First remove the head:

 

 

 

Then peel the skin/fur from the meat

 

 

 

Clear down to the ankles

 

 

 

 

 

Snip the feet off

 

 

 

The (un)lucky rabbits foot

 

 

Cut the tail off

 

 

 

Next your ready to take the guts out.  Here is where lovers of commercially bought rabbit will want to cry.  You never want to eat the liver etc. of a wild rabbit.  Not good.  

 

Similar to a deer, run your knife through being very careful not to nick or catch any of the innards

 

 

 

 

Gently pull the guts down and out

 

 

Always remember to snip this tendon at the bottom to get the last remainder--it hides under there.

 

 

 

 

All clean

 

 

My go-to rabbit recipes are both fried.  Either fry and cover with a homemade mushroom sauce and bake low and slow, or fry and then pressure cook.  I'll be looking both online and in my cookbooks to see if I can find something else that trips my trigger and I'd love to have ideas from you guys!  Keep in mind, wild rabbit is MUCH tougher than commercial ones.  He's resting in my fridge....I'll be doing something with him either tonight or more likely tomorrow.  So, any ideas?

Thank you so much for the tutorial.  Looks just like the rabbits I hunted when I was a kid, and I notice how deep read and lean the meat is.  The back legs look very meaty.  They'll be delicious for sure.