Rabbit recipes?

November 18, 2009 10:13 AM

My very local farmer's market has started to sell cheap rabbits. Please recommend your most delicious recipes.

They come skinned put in one piece. I welcome all suggestions but would be particularly delighted to see recipes outside the casserole and stew paradigm.

posted by biffa to Food & Drink (13 answers total)

We just made Conejo al Ajillo. The pictures by themselves do a good job of explaining the recipe.
posted by vacapinta at 10:15 AM on November 18, 2009

Best answer: Fergus Henderson has a recipe that is similar to lamb st-menhould. Cook the rabbit in stock (he uses is madeira + trotters stock/jelly that is awesome) cool, coat in mustard, dip in egg, breadcrumb and shallow fry. Serve with garlic mayonaise. Awesome.

Alternately ragus of rabbit are great, but in general you need to stew or casserole because the meat is so lean.
posted by JPD at 10:18 AM on November 18, 2009

Yum. Here is a big group of recipes from which to choose.
posted by bearwife at 10:24 AM on November 18, 2009

No recipe, but quarter, rub with oil, salt, pepper and herbs and dry roast until done.
That's what my Italian family did. Delicious.
Not enough drippings for a gravy, but you can make a sauce to accompany it.
posted by Seamus at 11:03 AM on November 18, 2009

Best answer: Wild or farmed rabbits? If they're wild you can pretty much adapt from game recipes while the farmed ones are better for recipes that call for white meat. A fricasse comes to mind. In either case, fish out the heart, liver and kidneys and fry them in duck fat, make a port reduction and serve it all on toast. Yum.

A recipe from Alentejo, Portugal (they hunt rabbits a lot down there):
Coelho Assado com Alecrim e Erva Doce

Ingredients:
1 rabbit
5 or 6 garlic cloves
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper
1 tea spoon of aniseed
1 tea spoon of paprika
A handful of rosemary leaves (fresh or dried)
1 glass of white wine
2 table spoons of olive oil

Preparing:
Season the rabbit with all the ingredients in a baking tray and leave it overnight. Save a bit of the marinade in a cup and roast it at 140ºC for 4 hours. Baste once in a while with the saved marinade.
Serve with mashed potatoes and a green salad.
posted by lucia__is__dada at 11:21 AM on November 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

I cant' give you a recipe, but fried rabbit is delicious. The time I had it it was prepared as you might prepare fried chicken.
posted by lekvar at 11:41 AM on November 18, 2009

In Brussels, the best dish I had was this fabulous rabbit braised in Gueze, which is a strong Belgian beer. It was truly outstanding. Here is a recipe.
posted by OmieWise at 11:45 AM on November 18, 2009

I've enjoyed rabbit in pie form with partridge. I'm sorry, I don't have a recipe.
posted by Gor-ella at 12:57 PM on November 18, 2009

Response by poster: I've marked the ones that have made me salivate while waiting for tonight's rabbit delight, thanks all, I also like the idea of fried chicken style rabbit, I have to learn how to do fried chicken first!
posted by biffa at 1:17 PM on November 18, 2009

Best answer: This is my mother's rabbit recipe in her own words. I can attest to how delicious it is.

It's called "Gestoofde Konijn". Old recipe from Holland and a
favourite with dutch people. It was
always made with wild rabbit which is the best ofcourse.

1 rabbit
150gr. lean bacon
1/4 liter stock (veg.stock or chicken stock)
1 med. onion
peppercorns, bayleaf, thyme, parsley
1/4 liter red wine

Cut rabbit in pieces and season with pepper and salt. Cut bacon in
small pieces and fry bacon in
frying pan, till most fat has been released. Remove bacon pieces from
pan and fry the rabbit
pieces in the bacon fat (about 15 min.) Sprinkle 2 tbsp. flour over it
all, plus the stock and the
wine, add the bacon again and all herbs. (Unless you have a good
frying pan with a well fitted
lid, transfer everything to a cooking pot with lid). Simmer for 15 min.
Meanwhile in your empty frying pan, saute the sliced onion, add 2
tbsp. sugar in order to get a
beautiful rich colour on the onions. Add to rabbit pot. Simmer on low
heat for about 1 hour or
until rabbit is done.
Put rabbitpieces on a warm serving platter and keep warm. If you have
a lot of sauce left in the
pan you can either let it cook till it has thickened by itself or you
can thicken it with some
cornstarch. Add pepper an salt if needed.
Bon appetite!
posted by Emanuel at 3:32 PM on November 18, 2009 [1 favorite]

My mom used to make Bunny Schnitzel when I was a kid. Cut the meat off the bone, in pieces as big as possible. Pound with a tenderizing hammer. Dip in flour heavily seasoned with garlic salt and pepper. Dip in beaten egg. Coat in breadcrumbs. Pan fry until dark brown and crispy.
posted by oceanmorning at 12:00 AM on November 19, 2009

This is the fried rabbit recipe I've had success with (first link I found to a Jamie Oliver recipe):

http://cabbagetreefarm.blogspot.com/2009/02/jamie-olivers-essex-fried-rabbit.html
posted by primer_dimer at 3:22 AM on November 19, 2009 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: We tried Emanuel's recipe last night, delicious, really hearty food for a cold night!
posted by biffa at 2:11 PM on November 26, 2009