Down the Rabbit Hole

Second on my list of new things to try my hand at cooking was rabbit. Again, I searched and searched for a good, low carb friendly recipe and came up with a few options but nothing that I felt was 100% what I wanted. Torn between slow-cooking and braising, I chose to go with a braise, since it was more hands on for my first time cooking rabbit. I wound up settling on my own rendition of a version of the French's Lapin a la Moutarde-- or rabbit braised in a mustard sauce. I was a little nervous about butchering my first rabbit, but it wasn't nearly as hard as I expected and I felt more than slightly accomplished after getting my pieces to look almost exactly like the guide I was following (which I will post). It's the little things, the small victories in life that really make up the good bits. The rabbit is delicious and tender, but the mustard sauce was my favorite part of the whole meal. It's not a set of flavors we typically use in our house and it was slightly interesting at first, but i fell in love with it and will use a variation of it for many other things.
 Anyway, if you're yearning to venture down the rabbit hole, the recipe I used with the how to are below!

Lapin a la Moutarde 

First thing is to make sure your rabbit is completely thawed. I bought mine from a local market that had already removed the feet, head and all the innards, though it's not uncommon for them to come with their kidneys still intact. It's your choice whether you keep them or discard them. I rinsed mine since it was pretty bloody by the time it had thawed.

 From there it was time to butcher it up. If you're not comfortable taking this on yourself and you get your rabbit from a butcher you can ask them to do it, but it's not nearly as daunting as it may seem. 

I followed this tutorial to learn how to cut mine, and once you figure out exactly where to cut it really is incredibly simple,

 How to Cut a Rabbit

As it suggests I cut the rear leg off one side, then the front leg from the same side. 

Then I repeated on the other side. 

Once you have the legs off it gets a little harder. You'll need a cleaver to cut through the back bone and to cut off where the tailbone meets the body. Follow the posted guide for this, since I forgot to take pictures of everything I did until I had already cut the saddle into even pieces. I missed cutting the backbone directly in half, but it still came out just fine. Don't stress it too much if you're not dead even on it.

After you're done cutting the rabbit into pieces go ahead and season your cuts. I seasoned mine up generously with salt, a sprinkling of pepper and just a light coating of garlic powder. Let them set at room temp for about thirty minutes, then it's time to brown it. Do this in batches if you don't have a pan with a lid large enough to do it all at once without crowding it. 

Pat the rabbit dry and add butter to your pan--chances are you know your pan better than anyone else; if things don't stick or they generally brown easily, use just a little butter; if things stick easily or it is harder to get things to brown, use a little more. If, in the process of drying, you feel like you've patted off all or most of your seasoning, go ahead and add more. Turn the pan to a medium low or medium heat--again, this depends on your pan. You don't want the butter to brown, but you want it hot enough to brown the rabbit without leaving it in the pan forever. 

Once it's hot, arrange the rabbit with a decent amount of space between the pieces and let it brown. I put mine seasoned-side-down, then seasoned the other side while the initial side was browning. 

Flip it over with tongs once it's browned and brown the other side.

Make sure to brown all the sides if you can.

While it's browning, get the prep work done for the rest of the sauce. Chop up two shallots, measure out your chicken stock and top off with your sherry, measure out your mustard and your heavy whipping cream and get your thyme handy.

Once that batch of rabbit is browned remove it to a bowl and add a little more butter to the pan if needed for the next batch. Repeat the same process for this batch. I managed to get mine done in two batches, but if you should need three, just repeat the steps. 

After the rabbit has been browned and removed to a bowl add the shallots to the pan and brown them just until they're slightly darker than translucent and have a golden color. While you're moving the shallots about the pan, scrape some of the browned bits off the bottom if you can. 

From there, turn the heat up to high and add half of the chicken stock/sherry mix and use it to deglaze the pan, getting as much of the browned and stuck bits off as you can. After you've gotten as much off as you can, add the rest of the stock mix, the thyme and the mustard and return the heat to medium as you stir it all together. 

Add the rabbit back it and rotate it to cover the pieces in the sauce and cover. Turn the heat to low and let it simmer anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour.

While this is happening, get your sides prepped. This would go fantastically with a crusty bread, mashed or roasted potatoes. Since we're doing the low carb living we had mushrooms, oven roasted asparagus for J and pureed sweet potato (left over from some cupcakes I made for my coworkers) for me. 

 You'll know it's done when the meat is close to falling off or pulling away from the bone. Remove the rabbit to a serving tray or a baking sheet, like I did. 

Return the sauce to a boil and let the liquid reduce by about half. If you make an empty space in the center of the pan about the size of a plum and it takes about a minute for the liquid to completely overtake the open space, it has reduced enough.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the heavy whipping cream and the parsley. Add the rabbit, turn to coat and serve immediately.

 I served mine right out of the pan, but you could make a prettier dish of it all if you're entertaining. Since it was just J and I, I wasn't horribly worried about it.  

  

TA-DA Rabbit in Mustard Sauce. 

Or if you want to feel fancy, Lapin a la Moutarde, just remember to hold your pinky out and use a horrible fake French accent. :)

CONDENSED VERSION 

You will need:

1 Rabbit- about 3 pounds

2 shallots, peeled and chopped

Scant 1 c chicken stock, topped to 1c with dry sherry

Garlic powder

Salt

Pepper

1/2c Stone ground or Dijon mustard

Butter

Parsley

1/2c heavy whipping cream

 Sharp Chef's knife

Cleaver

Cutting Board

Directions:

Cut rabbit up into 8 portions, 4 from the saddle, 2 rear legs, 2 front legs. 

Season rabbit, let sit at room temp for 30 minutes, then brown in butter, working in batches to not overcrowd the meat. 

Set browned rabbit aside into a bowl. 

Add chopped shallots to pan on medium heat and brown. 

Add half of the chicken stock sherry mix to the pan and deglaze over high heat. 

Once deglazed, add the rest of the stock mix, mustard and parsley to the pan and bring to a simmer. 

Add rabbit and turn to coat. Turn heat to low and simmer, covered, for about an hour or until the meat is nearly falling off the bone.

Remove the rabbit from the pan and reduce the liquid by about half over medium-high heat. 

Remove pan from heat, stir in heavy cream and parsley.

Add rabbit, turn to coat.

Serve immediately. 

Hope you enjoy this. If you're not a fan of rabbit, or don't think you're ready to give it a try yet, you can easily use chicken in its place and get a very similar flavor that will be almost, if not exactly as delicious. 

Happy Eating!