Rascally Rabbit

That may not be the best title for this post, but it was the only thing I could think of! I mentioned in my West Side Market post that we picked up some rabbit the other day. Well, I decided to go French with it and make Lapin A La Cocette, or french rabbit stew.

I looked up a bunch of recipes and most of them seemed a little too daunting to me. This was relatively easy and french so obviously a pretty sexy recipe. I don’t think I’ve ever had rabbit before but I was expecting something pretty gamey and tough. I’m not sure if it was the way we cooked it, or if it’s just better than I thought, but it was nice and tender. Way better than chicken! I’m pretty anti-chicken these days. It’s not chicken’s fault, it’s probably mine for overcooking it. But you can’t undercook it, so what can ya do? I can’t seem to get it right! But anyway, back to the rabbit. Here are the ingredients I used:

Lapin A La Cocotte (French Rabbit Stew)

• 1 rabbit, quartered, about 2 1/2 pounds
• 3 slices of bacon, cut into thirds
• 1 1/2 cups sliced onion, I used white onion
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1/4 cup red wine, I used Pinot Noir
• 1 tsp dried thyme
• 2 tsp dried parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 red potatoes- this was not in the original recipe but I thought it would go well with the dish.
• half a bag of baby carrots-I added this in too.

The woman we bought the rabbit from actually cut it up for us, so the hard part was done. First, I threw the bacon in a large pan until it was completely cooked then removed it (I was tempted to leave it in!). The bacon is just to provide some additional flavor not to actually be consumed. Next, I  added the chopped onion and garlic to the pan and cooked them in the bacon drippings.

I actually did leave a few tiny bacon pieces in the dish…my husband called me out on it when he was taking pictures. It’s not like it would ruin the dish! 🙂

Once the onions were transparent, I added the rabbit. I let the rabbit brown a bit, then I sprinkled on the flour.

Once the rabbit looked a little brown, I added the potatoes, beef broth, wine, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves.

I covered and simmered the dish for about an hour. About 15 minutes before the timer went off was when I added the carrots.

This was a really easy dish! I think the hardest part is finding rabbit, which I’m sure any butcher shop has. The rabbit turned out really juicy and tender, not very gamey at all.

There’s a restaurant I went to here in Cleveland last week that had a pretty interesting menu. They serve Elk and Bison! I’ve never had either one so I’d love to try them. I’ve actually heard Elk is really good so hopefully I’ll try it soon and let you all know (in case you were wondering!).

Hope you’re all having a good week! Almost Friday, yay!