African Vanielje on Aug 31 2007 at 10:31 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized
This dish may seem a little unusual and it was invented as part of the meat and chocolate challenge , so here’s what I did:
- I marinated the rabbit joints for a couple of hours in olive oil, garlic, maldon salt, szechuan pepper, and thyme. (I had asked my butcher to cut the rabbits into joints of legs, shoulders, belly and the saddle into four)
- I softened some red onion and celery in a little olive oil
- I browned the rabbit pieces in batches
- I softened some sliced leeks
- I deglazed the pan with a very liberal splash of Maury Vieille
Reserve 1992 ( a natural sweet wine that goes excellently with chocolate). I couldn’t help thinking, though of a South African fortified wine called Pineau d’Laborie which has strong notes of prunes and chocolates. It would have been perfect, I like to layer tastes. - I put the onions, celery, leeks, prunes and rabbit pieces in the tagine and topped up with some hot, well seasoned chicken stock and 1/2 cup of boiling water mixed with a heaped tablespoon of pure bitter cocoa.
- I turned the tagine to low and let it cook for 1 1/2 hours until the flesh was falling off the bone. If you don’t have a tagine you could use a pressure cooker or a casserole dish, just keep checking the moisture levels.
- I flaked all the rabbit and discarded the bones, then let it sit while I boiled up some freshly dug up baby potatoes.
- I served the potatoes (which tasted fresh and earthy) slightly crushed to soak up juices with the tagine ladled over it, sprinkled with fresh parsley and a squeeze of fresh lemon.
The flavours all married perfectly and were sweet and gamey.
If you don’t like rabbit, though, don’t choose this dish as the rabbitiness really is highlighted by the chocolate and prunes.
The chocolate was not a distinct flavour, but did its job of backup well, giving added depth and toning down the sweetness of the prunes.
I would be tempted to try adding a little cream next time and serving it with tagliatelle
