Tipsy Rabbit Stew

Fall and Winter are perfect times for stew dishes. This holiday season you may want to try something outside of your normal comfort zone. If so then this ones for you!

Sometimes you just want something different. Rabbit brings different images to mind for people. It has more flavour than chicken and is almost all dark meat. The farmed rabbit isn't gamey or oily in this recipe. This recipe is tasty and the meat is tender. Left-overs, if you have them, are great too.

Serves 4
25-30 minutes preparation time
10-15 minutes to brown rabbit
2 hours in oven

Ingredients:

50 - 100ml brandy
150g or 1/3 pound pitted prunes
50g soft brown sugar
1 rabbit jointed
3 celery stocks chopped
4 seasonal carrots chopped
1 parsnip peeled and chopped
1 onion diced
10-12 small new potatoes quartered
2 cloves garlic
Plain flour for dusting (about 1/3 cup)
1Tbsp grape seed oil (or vegetable oil)
3 slices (rashers) smoked bacon sliced into thin strips
2 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
200ml red wine (best you can afford- I used Church and State, Lost Inhibitions red)
300ml chicken stock

Directions:

Heat the oven to 325 degrees

Place the prunes in a glass container with the brandy and brown sugar. Stir and set aside until needed.

Joint the rabbit.  Jamie Oliver - Joint a rabbit  Or have the butcher cut it into 8 pieces for you, they can do this with a frozen rabbit and a band saw. I jointed my own after it thawed out. Very easy to do- easier than carving the Thanksgiving turkey that's for sure!

Dust the rabbit in the flour.

Heat the oil in a large flameproof dish (Le Creuset cast iron pot) and brown the rabbit all over until golden. You may need to do several batches and add extra oil too. Set rabbit aside when done.

Add the bacon, vegetables (not the potatoes yet), garlic and herbs to the pot and fry for about 5 minutes until they start to colour.

Add the red wine and scrap all the "goodness" from the bottom of the pot. Pour in the chicken stock and place the rabbit into the pot with the tipsy prunes. Cover and cook for 2 hours (adding the potatoes 20 minutes from stat time, too early and they will get mushy :(

After 20 minutes add the potatoes, continue cooking until the 2 hour mark has reached. Stirring occasionally (about every 30 minutes) until the rabbit is very tender.

While waiting to eat: 

Oysters and crackers to nibble on while the stew cooks and chess to pass the time.

Finish off that bottle of red you opened. (teehee)

Plate and serve. Now you can have a glass of the red you opened.

There will be little bones so do be careful and remember to chew your food.

This recipe is mostly from Slow-cooked rabbit stew. After following this recipe my lovely wife made the suggestion to add more veggies to make it like a real stew. We were very happy with this method versus rice. It will be one of our go-to's from now on.