The first step is to sauté the rabbit pieces. Use a whole rabbit, cut into serving pieces, or use just the hind legs and the saddle (le râble) as we did. When it has good color, take the rabbit out of the pan.
Next, slice up a couple of onions and garlic cloves and sauté those in the same pan. Then cut 5 or 6 peach halves into wedges. Put them into the pan with the onions and let them caramelize slightly. We used peaches out of a can, since it's not peach season now.
Take the peach wedges out of the pan, leaving the onions and garlic in. Add a tablespoon of Chinese five-spice powder and one piece of star-anise and stir. Optionally add in some cayenne pepper or crushed red pepper flakes for heat.
Put the rabbit pieces back in the pan and pour in half a cup (120 ml) each of chicken broth and white wine. Also add in two tablespoons of the syrup from the can of peaches. Don't forget the salt and black pepper.
Let the rabbit cook for 30 to 40 minutes at a low simmer, covered. Toward the end of that time, take the cover off the pan so that the liquid will reduce slightly. Five minutes before serving, put the sauteed peach wedges in the pan to heat through.
Serve the braised rabbit and peaches with rice or pasta. We had both, actually, because Walt made a batch of a Lebanese rice pilaf that we like. It's the home-made version of American "Rice-a-Roni" — white rice, vermicelli or angel-hair pasta, onions, and chicken broth. Here's Martha Stewart's recipe. I can recommend it.
Garnish the rabbit dish with some chopped pistachios (Walt found these nice unsalted pistachios at the supermarket) and some chopped cilantro (if you like it) or some other fresh herb like parsley, oregano, or thyme.
Here's the finished dish. We enjoyed it with a red Pécharmant wine from
the Bergerac area in southwestern France. It would also be good with a
semi-dry white wine like a Vouvray.
That all looks very tasty :) Thanks for the lead on the Lebanese Rice Pilaf, too.
ReplyDeleteI get the impression that people — especially les Anglo-saxons, as the French would say — are not really enthusiatic about eating rabbit. It's kind of hard to understand why. Rabbits reproduce prolifically, so they are not rare or endangered. They seem to be a lot cleaner than chickens or pigs. Rabbit meat is very lean and not strong-tasting... What's not to like?
DeleteIt's the floppy ears, and that fluffy tail, Ken.
DeleteChickens are cute too. And pigs are said to be so smart. I don't get it.
DeleteI've never wanted to try rabbit, could be my Anglo-saxon blood. I think I've had horse unknowingly- I don't want to eat that either. I need to try this rice a roni soon.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that the vendor who has the longest line of customers at the Saturday morning market in Saint-Aignan these days is the horse-meat butcher. That has surprised me. It used to be the cheese vendor, more or less tied with the poultry vendor.
DeleteHorse rescue happens around here, perhaps the vendor sells horses that people can't take care of anymore. I don't think horses were ever sold in the US for human consumption but I may be wrong about that. Frozen rabbit is available in many groceries.
ReplyDeleteI think horsemeat is a pretty big business in Europe, and I belive I've read that horsemeat is imported from the U.S. into Europe. I didn't know that rabbit was easy to find in the U.S.
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