Braised Rabbit with Mustard Sauce
 Domestic
raised rabbit is 3 to 5 pounds of smooth white meat fore and aft.
It's readily available, fresh or frozen, whole or cut, if you look for
it. Rabbit is about as easy to cut into pieces as chicken but you
will need a good shears or cleaver as rabbit bones are strong. Last
summer, at the local farmers' market, an Amish farmer from Orange Virginia
had beautiful frozen whole rabbit. I bought two and did the first
one with prunes and red wine. It was too heavy and the red wine discolored
the meat--never again. This time, inspired by a recipe in The
Gourmet Cookbook, we had a braised rabbit that elicited repeated yums
around the table. The cookbook recipe was under seasoned and recommended
a cooking time that was too short. Here is my version
of this bistro dish:
Braised Rabbit with Mustard Sauce
See Abbreviations, if needed
1 dressed rabbit cut
into serving pieces (8-10)
3T herbes de Provence
4T EVOO
3/4C sliced shallots or onion
3 stocks of celery,
sliced
3T butter
S/P (watch the salt if using salted chicken
broth)
2C white wine
3C chicken stock (check salt content
if using broth)
2T dijon mustard
2T whole grain mustard
1T cornstarch
1. Cut the rabbit as desired and rub each piece with herbes de
Provence and S/P
2. Heat some EVOO in a big Dutch oven, add rabbit pieces in batches,
brown the pieces well
and set them aside
3. Clean the Dutch oven, add butter and some EVOO
4. Sauté the onions and celery to translucent
5. Add the wine, BTB and reduce by half
6. Return the rabbit to the pot, add the stock, add a little
more pepper and herbes
(be sure to place the legs at the bottom of
the pot as they are tougher than the back pieces)
7. Cover and BTB, then simmer on the stove top for about 2 hours
(at very low heat--just enough to
burp a boiling bubble every second or so)
8. When done, remove the rabbit pieces and set them aside in
a warm place
9. Scoop out the onions and celery with a strainer
10. Spoon out about a half cup of the broiling liquid and let
cool in a ramekin--when cooled
to the touch, add the cornstarch and
mustards and whisk them about
11. BTB the rest of the broiling liquid and reduce to 2+ cups
12. Add the cornstarch-mustard mixture, BTB and then simmer the
pot to thicken the sauce
13. Taste and correct seasoning, if necessary
14. Transfer the sauce to a heated gravy tug
15. Transfer the rabbit to a heated serving platter and serve
immediately onto heated plates
with the mustard sauce
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