Hasenpfeffer Anyone?

Please enjoy a guest post, provided for your reading pleasure by Jenny Harms. 
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Rabbit stewed in Hard Cider

At the request of Ms Planet Borscht, I intended to share my first experience in cooking rabbit six months ago. But to be honest, the resulting bland chicken soup-esque stew à la Mother England left everything to be desired. I will admit, I am not the best at recipe selection. Somehow, I thought a nice traditional English Hare Stew would be spicy and bright. That was so not the result.  Notice the over-boiled celery and carrots, swimming in a greasy broth seething with onions, and anemic, somewhat over-cooked legs of rabbit. Pan frying the left-overs in chilis was the only way to save it. Even though jointing the rabbit was a thrilling squeamish adventure, I had no urge to commit the tale to the interweb. The up side: I am now an ardent fan of Magners Irish Cider.

  But, time has passed, the memories have faded, and I am expecting an alarming amount of pork to fill my freezer in the next couple of weeks. The second rabbit's time had come. I assembled my tools, reviewed Jamie Oliver's excellent how-to on jointing a rabbit, and queued up some à propos butchering music.

 I was not feeling as squeamish with the jointing this time, and in the end I think it went rather well. I even found the tiny hip joints and separated them neatly.

And then my favourite part - chopping the saddle into neat sections with my handy specialized banging stick.

Jointing my varmint only took half the time as the first one - likely because the carcass was completely thawed. These are my tidy cuts back to front: two belly flaps, saddle chopped in four, two haunches and two shoulders.

 
 After rubbing the pieces with cognac-infused dijon mustard, it was time to take advantage of the sunny, 8 degree day. I went for a brisk, snowy and sunny bike ride at Bird's Hill. Hard to believe this time last week it was 24 degrees, and I was getting a sunburn on the river in my kayak.

Right, back to business.  Cooking the rabbit. After a momentary panic trying to locate the corkscrew for the deglazing wine, I had the butter melted, and tossed the parts in the pot.

Wine used: Château des Charmes - an unoaked chardonnay. I think I understand now why they are usually oaked.

rabbit browning in butter

My bouquet garni - French tarragon and thyme fresh from my yard despite the recent snowstorm

This recipe - Lapin à la moutard - plays to my strengths with directions like ''sear until very crispy''. Check out the bunny bacon front and centre. 

 

The result - juicy, flavourful rabbit with a robust colour. The tureen of  sauce is the odd part for me. I stirred in crème fraiche as directed, but I may have had too much liquid left in the pot because there was all this extra sauce I wasn't sure about. The recipe ends with a mysterious ''stir in crème fraiche and parsley''. Full stop. No ''pour reserved sauce over rabbit and serve''. I sort of got the impression that  it would coat the fabulous rabbit with none to spare. It doesn't really matter though, because I am a convert!  Rabbit is a new favourite. Maybe I should learn how to make it confit!