2 rabbits
carrot, celery, onion, thyme, garlic, extra chopped herbs
chicken stock, dijon mustard
duck fat
Welcome to Jacican
I love to cook, I've always loved to cook.
As a young girl, my time was spent reading the cookbooks that mum kept in the bottom kitchen drawer. Always looking for a new recipe to try, a new food idea. Many weekends were spent making rainbow cakes with as many colours as possible – have you seen my Instagram, not much has changed, and looking for recipes that I could cook using what was available in the cupboard or from the vegetable garden.
At the aged of about 16, I remember stating that I wanted to leave the farm and travel the world. This would be followed by retiring by about 30 and moving back to South Gippsland to grow vegetables and cook. From 16 fast forward 20 years and I returned, starting Jacican Food Studio in Mirboo North, Gippsland where I grow vegetables and cook. This blog is where I share my food adventure.
As it is Thursday, I thought I would throw back to a dish created for my Wild game Dinner in 2015. Rabbit - 3 ways
Wild Game Dinner is making it's return to Jacican, a 6-course dinner using locally sourced game meats, native ingredients and local seasonal produce.
As a young child (I would have been 5 or 6 years old), I remember my father holding a dinner party, possibly for some work colleagues, for which my mother cooked a rabbit. It is more than likely Dad had trapped the rabbit on the weekend for Mum to cook that week. I remember one of the guests asking Mum if she had any blackberry jam to have with the rabbit. As it turned out, she did. (Blackberry picking as a kid... well, that's another story for another day.)
Let's skip 40 years into the future and now I'm making Braised Rabbit with Blackberry Jam for you.
This is not so much a recipe but the story of how I cooked braised rabbit.
Braised Rabbit
Ingredients
Method
I jointed the rabbits, separating the back and front legs, fillets, and racks. I wanted to use the racks as little cutlets to garnish the finished dish but when it came to it, it was going to take two days to prep the rabbit and I was afraid that the cutlets would have spoiled by the time they could be served to guests (in this case, Husband). I browned off all the rabbit bones and trimmings I didn't need and added them to chicken stock to make a rabbit stock for later use.
I marinated the back legs in dijon mustard with some finely chopped sage, savory and thyme overnight in the fridge.
Next day I browned off the finely diced carrot, celery, and onion in a little duck fat and olive oil. Once the vegetables were brown, I removed them from the pan and browned off the rabbit legs.
After removing the rabbit from the pan, I returned the vegetables, added a bundle of thyme and placed the rabbit on top of the vegetables.
To the rabbit, I added a little tomato passata and covered it with the rabbit stock prepared earlier. I then brought the whole lot to the boil on the stove top, before placing it in a preheated moderate oven (180°C) for 2 hours.
After the two hours, I allowed the rabbit to cool in the cooking liquid. The next day, I removed the rabbit from the braising liquid.
To serve, I heated a little butter in a pan and fried off the legs for 2 minutes on each side; I then placed them in a preheated moderate oven for 8 minutes to heat through. The braising liquid was strained to remove any impurities and then reduced to a syrup to use as a sauce. To finish off the sauce, a little butter was whisked in just before serving.
I served the rabbit with milk poached yacon, roasted garden carrots, blackberry jam and a slice of Rabbit & Blackberry Roulade.
If this recipe appeals to you, Rabbit may appear on the Harvest lunch menu.
Jaci