Rabbit Fricassée Food

RABBIT FRICASSEE: FRICASE DE CONEJO

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, heat the oil and brown the rabbit on both sides. Add onions, peppers, and garlic, and saute for 10 minutes. Add paprika, bay leaves, oregano, tomatoes, sherry, and chicken stock. Cook for 1 hour. Add potatoes, capers, and dried cherries. Cook for 1 more hour, or until potatoes are tender. Serve and garnish with sweet peas and parsley.

FRICASSE OF RABBIT WITH 'REISLING'

Steps:

• Blanquette: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Season rear legs with salt and pepper, dust with super-fine flour. Lightly brown in butter. In a large rondeau over medium heat, lightly brown bones, all vegetables and aromatics and sweat slowly. Place rabbit legs on top of vegetables and deglaze with Riesling. Bring to a slow simmer and reduce until all of the liquid has nearly evaporated. Add the chicken stock 2/3 of the way up the meat. Cover and braise in oven until tender, approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
• Spaetzle: In a small mixer, blend egg yolks, flour, fromage blanc, nutmeg and salt and pepper. Whisk slowly to form a paste. Whisk in milk slowly until mixture is slightly heavier than a pancake batter. Pass through a small colander into the boiling water until the spaetzle comes to the surface. Remove spaetzle to a baking sheet lined with a paper towel. Once spaetzle is dry, heat vegetable oil in a saute pan until hot. Add the spetzele and cook until crisp. Remove spaetzle from pan onto a paper towel lined baking sheet. Drizzle with white truffle oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

RABBIT FRICASSEE WITH BACON, PEARL ONIONS AND MUSHROOMS RECIPE

Steps:

• Peel the onions by first plunging them into a pot of boiling water, boiling for 1 minute, draining in a colander, rinsing with cold water, and then cutting the tiny root ends off with a paring knife and pulling away from the peel.
• Trim 1/8 inch off the bottom of the mushroom stems if they are dark, dirty or dried out. If the mushroom caps are more than 1 inch in diameter, quarter the mushrooms vertically.
• Season the rabbit parts with salt and pepper, and melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet, or two skillets just large enough to hold the rabbit parts in a single layer. When the butter stops foaming, add the rabbit parts and brown on both sides for 8 minutes.
• Sprinkle the flour over the rabbit and cook for 2 minutes more on each side to eliminate the flour's starchy taste.
• While the rabbit parts are browning, cut the bacon slices crosswise into 1/4-inch strips and cook the strips gently over medium heat in a small skillet until they barely begin to turn crispy. Remove them with a slotted spoon and reserve.
• Tie the parsley, thyme and bay leaf together in a piece of cheesecloth.
• Pour the wine and chicken broth over the rabbit parts, and deglaze the skillet with a wooden spoon. Add the wrapped herbs, pearl onions, and mushrooms, and move them around a bit, so they're evenly arranged between the rabbit.
• If you're using 2 skillets, use half the liquids, onions and mushrooms in each one and nestle half of the wrapped herbs (meaning, you'll need to wrap up 2 parcels in cheesecloth).
• Bring the fricassee to a simmer over high heat, then turn the heat down to low to maintain a very gentle simmer. Simmer covered for about 15 minutes, until the rabbit feels firm to the touch.
• Transfer the rabbit, onions, and mushrooms to a bowl and cover them loosely with aluminum foil. Pour the liquid in the skillet into a small saucepan and gently simmer the sauce, while skimming off fat and scum, for about 10 minutes, until the sauce has a slightly syrupy consistency.
• Portion out the rabbit parts onto plates, spoon each portion with sauce, mushrooms and pearl onions. Sprinkle parsley over each portion and serve at once. (Adapted from "Glorious French Food" by James Peterson, © 2002 James Peterson, John Wiley & Son Publisher.)

RABBIT FRICASSEE WITH DUMPLINGS

Steps:

• 1. Use a heavy dutch oven for this dish. Lightly dredge rabbit pieces in flour seasoned with the salt, pepper and paprika. You only want a very light coating, NOT thick as for fried chicken. You can also use the leftover seasoned flour from dredging as part of the 1/4 cup in the gravy, as it will be cooked.
• 2. Heat shortening in dutch oven and brown the rabbit pieces well on all sides, turning as needed.
• 3. Add onion and chicken stock (I used 3 1/2 cups) and bring to a boil; lower heat to a simmer. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.
• 4. Make dumplings: In mixing bowl, cut shortening into self-rising flour with a pastry cutter. Stir in the chopped parsley. Stir in milk just until blended. (Note: I had to add 2 tablespoons more flour to get dumplings to the correct consistency for dropping. They should not be too liquid but should hold their shape, like drop biscuits.)
• 5. Drop dough by spoonfuls ONTO the rabbit in the pot, but not down into the liquid. (OK, some of my dumplings did get down into the liquid, but they were fine.) Cook dumplings UNCOVERED at a good simmer for 10 minutes, then cover and simmer 10 more minutes. Remove rabbit and dumplings to large serving platter.
• 6. Make gravy: Stir the flour into the milk until smooth. Gradually stir this into the hot remaining chicken broth until smooth. Season with salt and pepper if necessary (if you use the leftover flour from dredging, you will not need much extra seasoning). Heat to a gentle boil until it thickens.
• 7. Pour gravy over and around the rabbit and dumplings to serve.

RABBIT FRICASSEE CUBAN-STYLE

Steps:

• Place the rabbit pieces in a deep skillet or Dutch oven over medium heat along with the onion, garlic, and green pepper. Season with saffron, cumin, salt, pepper, lemon juice and the bay leaf. Pour the water over all. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 20 minutes.
• Add the potatoes, and cook for about 20 more minutes, until tender. Add the raisins, capers, white wine, tomato sauce, olives and olive oil. Simmer for about 5 more minutes. Finally, stir in the peas and remove from the heat.