17-02-2012 08:08:00

Hi there cookery fans!

 Tis the season for Game so here are my top tips for cooking with wild rabbit:

1. Stick to gentle braising techniques when cooking the back, tougher legs of the rabbit.
2. Use quicker frying or grilling methods to cook the prime loin or saddle.
3. Rabbits love them... so make sure you use herbs like thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and tarragon whilst cooking.

This is my favourite rabbit recipe.  Our Butchers have a limited stock of wild rabbit at the moment so I would thoroughly reccomend picking one up and get creative with rabbit in the kitchen.

Wild Rabbit Braised in Cider (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

• 1 wild rabbit- jointed  (2 back legs, 2 shoulders & the saddle in 3 pieces) - Our Butchers can cut this for you.
• ½ pint dry English Cider
• ½ pint fresh chicken stock
• 2 shallots (peeled & halved)
• 3 cloves garlic (peeled & chopped)
• 1 carrot (peeled & chopped)
• 1 stick celery (peeled & chopped)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 stick rosemary
• 2 tbsp double cream
• Seasoning

 Method:

1. Season the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper, heat a large pan on the stove. Once the pan is hot, add 1 tbsp of butter and fry the rabbit  until golden brown all over.

1. Remove the rabbit pieces from the pan and put to one side, add the second tbsp of butter followed by the vegetables, sweat the vegetables in the butter for 5 minutes before adding the herbs and the cider.

1. Boil the cider to reduce it’s volume by half before adding the chicken stock and bringing back to the boil. 

1. Place the rabbit legs back into the pan and cover the pan with a tight fitted lid or tin foil.

1. Place the pan in the oven at 140°c, after 45 minutes, add the 2 shoulder pieces and place back in the oven to carry on cooking. After a further 15 minutes, add the pieces of saddle to cook for a final 15 minutes in the oven. Once cooked, the leg meat should be falling away from the bone and the saddle and shoulders should be moist.

1. Once the rabbit is cooked, place the meat onto a warm serving plate and place the pan back on the hob on a moderate heat, bring the sauce back up to a boil before adding the cream and boiling for 2 minutes before pouring back over the rabbit.

1. Serve the braised rabbit with mash and buttered green beans.

I hope you enjoy cooking this one, all of the ingredients for this dish are available in our farm shop and remember the rabbit is limited in availability. 

We have a beginners cookery course coming up soon (17^th March) which is aimed at giving customers a real run through of the basics from preparing chicken and fish to chopping and cooking vegetables, you can book through our website or by calling me here at Beckett’s Farm. 

See you next time cookery fans!

Dave Cowin

 Head Chef of the Orange Kitchen Cookery School