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Being the first time that I'd cooked and eaten rabbit, I had nothing to compare it to, texture and flavour wise. Once served up it was quite tough to the knife (I thought) but pleasantly moist to the palate and obviously 'gamey' in flavour. Very little meat on the bones though and I wondered whether a) it was worth the trouble, and b), more importantly, had I over-cooked it?
My recipe for the rabbit was pretty traditional: it was cooked in a cast-iron dutch oven - and served with a potato & pancetta dauphinoise. A sumptuous feast...
Ingredients
1/2 rabbit - coated in seasoned flour
handful of mushrooms - sliced
1 leak - sliced
1 onion - sliced
3 clove of garlic - crushed
herbs: bay leaf, fresh rosemary & thyme, black pepper
butter - unsalted
1 pot creme fraiche
2 tbs mustard
1 glass white wine
par-boiled waxy potatoes - peeled
pancetta - sliced.
Method
Heat oven to gas mark 3 (you'll have to do your own calculations here...)
Mix creme fraiche, wine & mustard together; add herbs, garlic & freshly ground black pepper.
Lightly fry the flour-coated rabbit in the butter for a couple of minutes. Add rabbit, with sauce, leeks & onions to dutch oven. Cover with lid & cook in oven for 80 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice the par-boiled potatoes and lay in a shallow baking dish along with the pancetta. Pour over enough creme fraiche, mixed with herbs & garlic, to cover the ingredients. Bake for 40 minutes.
As simple as that.
The dauphinoise was superb and the sauce with the rabbit just as good. Nonetheless, I still wonder as to whether rabbit is supposed to be as 'tough' as it was and I'd be particularly keen to hear experiences, as well as other recipies, from others.
Syzygy
Foo is for the tech related ;-)
