Rascally Rabbit in a Mustard Sauce

[Kahi]

This dish takes some work, but hopefully this step by step will show you what to do with that rabbit that has been eating your garden all summer. I like to serve game meat with vegetables or a sauce that is based on their diet…I.e. Rabbits get carrots and other garden vegetables…Chicken also works with this dish. I have been ordering game meats from Fossil Farms in NJ…not too many Rabbits running around Miami Beach..This could also be called revenge stew: “eat my baby potatoes, then you can braise with them”


Ingredients List

Whole farm or wild rabbit
Chicken broth
Olive Oil
Whole Sweet Onion
Baby Potatoes or cubed large potatoes
White Wine
Dijon Style Mustard, pref. grainy old style
Mushrooms
Carrots
Garlic
Thyme
Butter
Crème Fraiche or Sour Crème




A whole rabbit has many parts…best to break it down to 8 or 10 pieces, removing any silver skin and extra fat. I use a boning knife and a cleaver. The rabbit holds most if its meat in the hind area, so a head shot with a .22 is the way to go. If you can fillet a fish, you can part out a rabbit. Just make sure your kids don’t watch, it will change them for life..




Take the parts of the rabbit and flour them in heavily seasoned flour. I mix salt and pepper, and a dry/powdered mix like Emmerils into the flour…



Using a heavy cast iron/enamel Dutch oven, brown the floured Rabbit pieces in Olive oil. Don’t allow the skin to burn, or the oil to turn dark….that’s the bitter/burnt taste you get sometimes.



Remove the browned rabbit from the oil and put in the side….I would have liked more of a browning than this…but for the photos sake I was working fast..



Rub the outside of the browned rabbit with mustard, finely chopped thyme and heavy salt and pepper….




Turn down the heat on your stove…Add your garlic to the oil and allow to cook, it burns fast so watch it, and stir…add the remaining vegetables and cook them till the onions become clear….deglaze the pan with a ½ cup of white wine, making sure to scrape the edges of the pan, and basically clean the pan so the bottom looks like new.. This step gives you the deep flavor you taste from restaurant dishes…once the wine is almost evaporated…add the chicken stock to cover the vegetables plus a few inches of liquid.





Return the rabbit to the Dutch Oven, push the pieces down into the liquid about ¾ of the way, just allowing the top part of the rabbit to stick out. Put the Dutch Oven (covered) into an oven at 375 for 45 minutes. This will braise the rabbit..The lid cover will make sure the moisture stays inside the rabbit.







Remove from oven and remove cover…return the uncovered dish into the oven for another 15 minutes…this will brown the outside of the rabbit that is sticking out . Ideally, rbbit should be served tender, almost falling off the bone..as rabbit is very lean it can also dry out quickly, which makes cooking it in liquid (braising) a nice way to go…





Remove the vegetables leaving the liquid in the pan…put the pan on the stove and start to reduce the liquid at a slow boil…you can see in the photo that the liquid started at the high tide line on the sides of the pan…this is how you concentrate the flavors. Stir in the remaining chopped thyme, and a few spoonfuls of crème fraiche or sour crème and heaping spoonful of grainy mustard…using a whisk stir the contents together until the sauce has formed and is thick enough to cover a the whish without dripping off too quickly..







Spoon the remaining sauce over the rabbit and vegetables and serve hot..

[Agitated88]

Probably one of the best cooking threads I've seen...thanks for sharing Kahi!!!

[Kahi]

Probably one of the best cooking threads I've seen...thanks for sharing Kahi!!!

Glad I could share...really fun to put together.

Kahi

[Bird Dog]

Another great cookin thread

[Dave Sikorski]

Great post.

With deer season being over, and after sitting through a very slow morning of duck hunting, I think you've just convinced me to do a little bunny hunt.

Thank you! Keep them coming.

-D

[SportFishStaff]

Damn Kahi,
Looking Good. I'm doing a rabbit hunt on mon. So I may have to give it a go.

With the mustard have you ever used the real grainy one that comes in a clay jar with the cork lid sealed with wax? I forget the name but I would use it to make my sauce for my Oyster Po Boy's very good grainy mustard.

[Kahi]

Damn Kahi,
Looking Good. I'm doing a rabbit hunt on mon. So I may have to give it a go.

With the mustard have you ever used the real grainy one that comes in a clay jar with the cork lid sealed with wax? I forget the name but I would use it to make my sauce for my Oyster Po Boy's very good grainy mustard.

I think you're talking about Pommery...a whole grain mustard...it's really tough to find but truly the best...I would have liked a grain mustard for finishing the sauce..they use it a lot in new orleans cooking, especially in the higher end places.