Lapin (Rabbit) au Vin

 

 

I picked up a three pound brick of frozen rabbit at the commissary–couldn’t
resist, since I went through fourteen rabbits at school for my
final demo and I’ve liked rabbit ever since. It languished in
the freezer for over a month before I got around to transferring
it to the fridge for a three day defrost. My neighbor also loves
rabbit so I invited him over.

 

Once thawed, it was a good size rabbit with all four leg quarters
and a split saddle–well butchered with only a little fat and
silver skin. Beautiful. So, what to do with it. Think coq au vin.
Switch out the rooster for the rabbit, skip the tomato and you
have a recipe. You’ll need your Dutch oven for this braising mission.

 

Rabbit au vin

 

Yield: 4 servings

See Abbreviations, if needed

 

1 farm raised rabbit, cut in five or six pieces

½C AP flour

¼C EVOO

S/P to taste, but it needs salt and lot of ground pepper

6-8 small potatoes, fork pierced

4-6 large shallots peeled and quartered (red onion OK)

¾C red wine

2-3C chicken broth low salt

1 sachet (herb and spice bag) of pepper corns, thyme and bay leaves,

parsley stems and a few juniper berries, if you have them

1C dried prunes

———————————————

1. Remove fat and silver skin from the rabbit pieces

2. Season them generously with S/P

3. Dredge them in flour

4. In a large Dutch oven (DO), add the EVOO and heat to moderate
high

5. Brown the meat nicely on all sides, then remove and set aside

6. With a wooden spoon, scrape loose the residue from browning

7. Bring the DO to high, add the red wine, stir and reduce for
a few minutes

8. Return the browned rabbit pieces to the DO

9. Add the potatoes, shallots, prunes and sachet

10. Add the chicken broth to a level about half way up the highest
piece of rabbit

11. BTB, cover and reduce heat to a low simmer

12 Braise for about 1.5 hours–fork test for tenderness and braise
another half

hour if not already about to fall off the bone

14. Carefully transfer all from the DO to a heated serving dish

15. Over high heat, reduce the braising liquid to make sauce

16. Pour sauce into a heated gravy boat

17. Serve on heated plates with a good bread to mop up the sauce

Note: Deborah Krasner’s Good Meat
-The Complete Guide to Sourcing and Cooking Sustainable Meat
has a great chapter on rabbit, with lots of recipes.