[Bodger]

Blind Pugh, my mate from across the fields dropped these two beauties off on Monday afternoon. He'd been for a walk with the shotgun and some how managed to hit them.    
Rabbits are in great condition at this time of the year and are prime meat. I'm off out to the barn to skin them right now.



Out of their jackets. Two nicer November bunnies you'll never see.





Look at the suet around the kidneys.





I was looking at the Rick Stein Mediterranean Cookery book last night and I saw a superb, if not a little complicated recipe for Rabbit Stiffado.
I'd like to try and do it this Friday, whether or not I'll be able to persuade my none rabbit eating wife to try some is another matter.  

Recipe and further pictures to follow.

[compostqueen]

Surprised at the amount of suet there given the diet they eat. Dread to think how much I've got round mine  

I love rabbit, best fresh though rather than the supermarket stuff which has cornflour on it and I think it makes it yukky

It's good tandooried as well as the usual rabbit casserole. It goes really well with bulb fennel too, with some white wine and onions, garlic etc all done in one pot

I wish I was coming to dinner round your house  

[Knight Family]

yum yum! I had a nice but of rabot in the summer down in Devon! Thanks to Trago's!

[SnooziSuzi]

aw they looked so warm in their jackets  :rabbit:

[Rampant_Weasel]

suet....is that fat?

ive done a few rabbits years ago as a boy and cant remember that on them.was usually around may june time tho.

[SalJ1980]

...was usually around may june time tho.

I've always been told never eat rabbit unless there's an 'R' in the month - eg not May, June, July or August as they don't taste very nice, something to do with the warmer weather/diet I think. No idea if that's true though as I don't eat it very often. Anyone else heard this?

[beestie-crawlies]

I've always been told never eat rabbit unless there's an 'R' in the month - eg not May, June, July or August as they don't taste very nice, something to do with the warmer weather/diet I think. No idea if that's true though as I don't eat it very often. Anyone else heard this?

Could this be due to breeding season?

[Foxy]

Have you got a good recipe for rabbit Bodge?? got some to cook tonight,so was thinking of a stew or something, never done rabbit before so should be interesting! :?  

[SalJ1980]

I've always been told never eat rabbit unless there's an 'R' in the month - eg not May, June, July or August as they don't taste very nice, something to do with the warmer weather/diet I think. No idea if that's true though as I don't eat it very often. Anyone else heard this?

Could this be due to breeding season?

Could be...I really don't know!  :?

[Bodger]

Rabbit Stiffado.


Just starting to make it. Recipe and photos to follow.  

Rick Stein describes it as a rabbit stew with caramelized onions, red wine, cinnamon and currants  

1 large rabbit
6 allspice berries
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespon flour
5 garlic cloves, sliced
50 ml red wine vinegar
600 ml red wine
400g can chopped tomatoes.
5 cm piece cinnamon stick
6 cloves
2 fresh bay leaves
50 g currants
15 g butter
450 g small pickling onions or shallots
1/2 teaspoon sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

This is what you do. Joint the rabbit by cutting off the back legs from either side of the tail. Cut off the tail and bin it. Now remove the front legs. Next, cut away the belly flap and using scissors and bin those as well, then cut the remaining saddle into four equal pieces.

You should end up with something like this.





Season all the joints with salt and pepper.

Grind the all spice and the black peppers

Heat the olive oil in a flameproof casserole. Dust the rabbit joints in the flour and knock off the excess.

Fry the rabbit pieces until nicely browned on both sides.

Add the garlic along with the flour that was left, to the fried rabbit and cook for about a minute.

Pour in the vinegar and let it bubble for a minute, then add the wine, tomatoes, ground spices, cinnamon, cloves, bayleaves, currants, teaspoon of salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer for 55 minutes until the sauce has reduced and the bunny is tender.

Melt the butter in a medium sized pan, add the onions or shallots plus the sugar and then fry them until they are richly golden all over. Then add two table spoons of water, cover and cook gently for ten minutes until tender. Now take the lid off and raise the heat and cook more rapidly until the onions are covered in a shiny glaze.

When the rabbit has had its 55 minutes, stir the onions in and simmer for a further five minutes..

This is what you should end up with.





Take it from me, the result was absolutely delicious and that you'll never look upon rabbit as being humble fare again. Well done Rick.