Our August recipe brought to you from chef Lloyd from the award-winning Cluny Bank Hotel in Forres.
Rabbit has more proteins and a lot less fat than pork or beef. It is traditionally jointed and either braised or stewed as if not cooked correctly can be quite dry and tough. Rabbit has a slightly more intense flavour than chicken.
Ingredients
4 Rabbits – (8 saddles, 8 legs)- Butter
- Olive Oil
- Salt and Pepper
- 2pts chicken stock
Mustard Sauce
- 2 shallots, peeled and chopped
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- white wine
- 100ml of chicken stock
- 200ml of whipping cream
- 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
- knob of butter
- salt and pepper
- pancetta cubes
- pea shoots or watercress to garnish
Method:
Pre-heat oven to 150°C
Season the rabbit legs with salt and pepper.
Melt some butter in a frying pan with a little olive oil. Brown the rabbit legs all over and transfer to a large oven-proof casserole dish or roasting tray.
Add chicken stock and cover with lid or tin foil and place in oven for 1 -2 hours. You want the meat to be falling of the bone.
Meanwhile for the sauce.
Add a knob of butter to a stainless steel pan and allow to melt over a medium heat. Add the shallots, cook until soft, then add the garlic. Cook for a further 30 seconds, shaking the pan to distribute evenly, then add a good splash of white wine
Bring to the boil, reduce the wine by half, then pour in the stock and reduce by half again.
Add the whipping cream and bring to a gentle simmer. Cook until slightly thickened – this should take approximately 5 minutes. Season and set aside.
Remove the rabbit legs from the oven, remove from the stock and set to one side to cool slightly.
Remove meat from the bone, which should come away easily, four legs should be enough, you can use the others for another meal.
Cover leg meat with tin foil and keep warm.
Add a little butter and olive oil to a hot frying pan, fry off the pancetta cubes, remove from pan and set to one side.
Season the rabbit saddles with salt and pepper. Using the same pan as the pancetta was fried in, seal and brown the rabbit saddles on each side for for 2-3mins. Depending on how you like your meat (rare, med or well) you can either reduce the heat or place the pan in oven for a further 3-6 mins. The saddles do cook quickly and you want to keep them moist rather than dry out too much.
To plate, place rabbit leg meat on centre of the plate, place 2 rabbit saddles on top of this. Spoon sauce over rabbit and around the edges. Place a few cubes of pancetta in the sauce and top with pea shoots.