Brett > wrote:

> Just looking around for some ideas for quick to prepare rabbit recipes.
> Nothing too involved preferably. Nearly all recipes I have found involving
> rabbit uses flour, would be interested to hear about any you know about that
> does not use flour. The rabbit is still whole, so anything using the whole
> bunny or quartered is welcome. Thanks everyone!

Some of my favourite bunny recipes contain no flour. I do not think
they are very involved, either. Here are two - and they are some of the
best of them all.

A truly wonderful rabbit and garlic recipe from the great Fergus
Henderson's _Nose to Tail Eating_.

Rabbit and Garlic
To feed ten

There was a wonderful rabbit I ate in Barcelona, which was dry but wet,
salty but not too salty, and above all garlicky. This recipe came out
of attempting to recreate it. In fact, except for the garlic it is
nothing like it, but still delicious none the less.

2 healthy splashes of olive oil
2 tame rabbits, chopped into sections (if you don't have a cleaver or a
heavy knife, ask your butcher)
sea salt and pepper
300 g smoked streaky bacon, cut into spirited chunks and rind reserved
24 shallots, peeled but kept whole
60-80 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
300 ml dry sherry
600 ml white wine
1 litre chicken stock
2 bay leaves
a bundle of fresh thyme and parsley tied together

Get a large ovenproof pot with a lid, place on the heat, and pour in
enough olive oil to just cover the bottom. Season the rabbit pieces
with salt and pepper and when the oil is hot brown the rabbit. When you
are happy with the hue, remove them from the pot (if all the oil has
gone with them add another splash). Put in the bacon, its skin, and the
shallots, allow to sizzle, and stir for 10 minutes, not letting them
burn. Now return the rabbit to the pot and add the garlic, sherry,
wine, stock, bay leaves, and finally the bundle of thyme and parsley.
Check the seasoning. Bring to a boil, straight away reduce to a simmer,
place the lid on and place the pot into a warm to hot oven for
approximately 1 1/2 hours, but keep an eye on it and check the meat for
giving qualities with a sharp knife (not quite but soon to fall off the
bone).

Serve hot straight from the pot, encouraging your fellow diners to suck
the flesh from the unpeeled garlic cloves, which will now be sweet and
delicious. For the juices you will need both bread and napkins.

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A recipe for a simple rabbit stew. It can also be made with chicken.
The recipe is from Frances Bissell's _The Real Meat Cookbook_.

Coniglio alla Reggiana

1 rabbit, jointed
1/2 oz/15 g butter
1/2 oz/15 g lard or bacon fat or olive oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 celery stalk, trimmed and sliced
1/2 lb/230 g ripe tomatoes, peeled seeded and chopped
1/2 pt/280 ml dry white wine
salt
pepper
To serve:
fresh parsley or chervil

In a deep frying pan or flame-proof casserole, brown the rabbit pieces
in the butter and lard, remove and put to one side. Lightly brown the
onion, then add the garlic, celery and tomatoes. Simmer for 5 minutes,
then put the rabbit pieces on top, pour on the wine and season lightly.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer until the
meat is tender. Serve sprinkled with parsley or chervil.

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And, finally, an improvised recipe that turned out very well, bunny in
pressure cooker!

Jeannot lapin à la moutarde à l'autocuiseur

I did not measure anything.

You need:
one dead, skinned, eviscerated bunny, about 1.2 kg (about
2.6 pounds)
clarified butter
leeks, minced
shallots, minced
mushrooms, sliced
about 10 cloves garlic, sliced
one medium carrot, chopped
1/2 celery root, chopped
potatoes, cubed or sliced
rosemary
salt
pepper
1/2 l (1/2 quart) dry white wine
sour cream
Dijon or Düsseldorf mustard

Dismember the bunny (a nice French one if you can get it) and sear the
pieces very briefly in clarified butter in an open pressure cooker.
Remove the bunny pieces, then add chopped leeks and shallots and, after
a while, mushrooms and garlic and fry for a while, turning them over.
Add the chopped carrot and celery root and cook a couple of minutes
longer. Add some 1/2 l (1/2 quart) white wine, deglazing the cooker.
Return the bunny pieces to the cooker and add the potatoes, as well as
rosemary and the seasonings. Bring up to pressure over high heat,
reduce heat to as low as possible to maintain the pressure and cook for
15 minutes maximum. Release the pressure quickly. Remove the solids
and strain the sauce through a fine mesh into a pot. Add the sour cream
and the mustard, bring the sauce to a simmer, whisking until blended,
and tasting for proportions and seasonings. Serve over the bunny pieces
and potatoes, etc.

Note: Domesticated bunny is very tender, so pressure-cook it for the
time indicated, maximum, or it will be overcooked. It can be
pressure-cooked for just ten minutes, with the pressure then released
naturally.

Victor