Apr 12th, 2009
Braised Rabbit with Crème Fraîche, Dijon and Thyme
Just in time for Easter, I figured I’d try out one of the rabbit recipes from this book. I’ve always heard that rabbit works a lot like chicken in terms of cooking function, and the recipe actually states you can use a chicken if you can’t find rabbit where you are.
(Jen’s tip: the book doesn’t mention this, but if you use a chicken, use the breasts as you would the loins, but cut the breast halves in half again lengthwise. Double the amount of pancetta and end up with four rolls instead of two.)
Turns out everything I’d heard was correct, the rabbit meat was very similar in texture and colour to chicken, and the anatomy isn’t entirely unfamiliar. The “wings” attach a little differently, and instead of breasts on the front, there are loins running down the spine to take off.
But the rabbit came with an added bonus: giblets! I haven’t seen a chicken with giblets of any sort for a long time, so to open up the carcass and find those little chef’s treats inside was… well… a treat!
Good thing too. We fried them up with some thyme, LOTS of butter and finished them with lemon juice while everything else was cooking. The sustenance was really welcome, since this recipe took FOREVER.
The gist of the preparation is to sear, then braise the rabbit limbs, and at the same time to make a short stock with the carcass. Near the end of the cooking process, wrap the loins in pancetta and cook those off. Finish everything off by combining the braising liquid with the stock, and reduce the hell out of those. Add the crème and mustard (among other things) and reduce again.
I left about 30 minutes to complete all the reduction steps, because I am clearly not smart enough for this particular recipe. I was left with fully 4 litres of liquid to reduce, none of which could be reduced at a full rolling-boil without breaking it. All told, the entire reduction process took about 2.5 hours. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!
We were actually so hungry that I forgot about taking pictures of the sauce, but I did manage a shot of the final plate, with the rabbit & sauce over some roasted root vegetables.
We didn’t really feel like this recipe was “worth waiting for” considering the colossal cock-up on the timing, but if you leave yourself enough time for all the reducing, the rabbit is a really delicious alternative to chicken. I’ll definitely make rabbit again, though I’ll read the sauce recipe a little more carefully next time.
Braised Rabbit with Crème Fraîche, Dijon and Thyme – page 220
