Myshi, a broken-black Rex rabbit
By Cat, Feb 2011 (Photo, right, courtesy of N. and B. Shelt)
See also: 1. Small Game Menu; 2. Foods (About); 3. Rabbit (About)
A friend just gave me a whole skinned and cleaned rabbit. I’ve cooked rabbit before, when I lived in Portland, and have a couple great French recipes that I’ve used. Unfortunately, that cookbook is packed away in my storage unit. So I’m searching the web for recipes that interest me. Of course, I could just use a chicken recipe as both are very similar. But I want to try something different.
So I divided my rabbit into two halves; made one half using the Tuscan-Style Rabbit recipe, and the other half for this recipe, which is similar to one in my old French cookbook.
Rabbit Braised in Wine
This recipe is adapted from Cooking with SuzieQ (a female bowhunter): Rabbit Recipes (1) and Italian Country-Style Rabbit (2). The first uses dry white wine and braises meat on top of the veggies in 350° F oven; the second uses a dry red wine, and braises on stove-top in a French/Dutch oven, or a saucier, after browning the meat and adding veggie-marinade.
I prefer to brown and braise on stove-top, with either red or white wine (whichever I have on hand). After browning the meat, I place it on top of the veggies to braise.
1 rabbit serves 4.
Ingredients & Equipment:
- 1 rabbit (preferably brined about 6 hours), cut into serving pieces
- Unrefined sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper
- white flour for dusting
- 2 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, sliced
- 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 carrots, sliced
- 1 celery rib (optional), sliced
- 8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced
- 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, mined
- ¼ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp dried oregano, rubbed
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 cup dry white or red wine
- Equipment:
- saucier or Dutch/French oven
Method:
- Brine rabbit.
- Season rabbit with pepper (also salt, if you didn’t brine it), then dust with flour.
- Prep veggies: slice onion, peel & mince garlic, scrub and slice carrots, celery and mushrooms.
- Prep herbs: mince parsley, add oregano, rubbing with fingers, add thyme and mix together.
- Heat olive oil in pot over medium high heat; add dusted rabbit pieces without crowding, and brown on both sides about 2 – 3 minutes per side. Do in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding, removing browned pieces to a plate to keep warm.
- Lower heat to medium and place veggies and mushrooms to pot and saute, stirring occasionally, for 2 – 3 minutes. Place rabbit pieces on top of veggies. Sprinkle with herbs; add bay leaves and wine.
- Cover & heat to a simmer; lower heat to maintain simmer for 1 hour or until rabbit is tender.
- Remove bay leaves before serving.
Testing
2/6/11: Made half recipe using half of the rabbit pieces. Delicious, but could benefit from brining first.
References:
- Cooking with SuzieQ: Rabbit Recipes (bowhunting.net/susieq/rabbit.html0
- Italian Country-Style Rabbit (italianfood.about.com/od/italianlambetc/r/blr1607.htm)
