A Culinary, Cultural Adventure

Roasted Rabbit With Mustard Sauce, Potatoes Beauchamp

This is a wonderful recipe, one of my favorite so far. My only previous experience with rabbit, I left half of it untouched -- I didn't like the flavor very much, and I suddenly felt like I was eating the carcass of a small animal (I could visualize the leg back on the rabbit). But this was great -- the meat wasn't gamy or very strong at all, and the mustard sauce was wonderful. The potatoes were simple and GOOD.

The first task was to prepare the rabbit. It came to us skinned and partially cleaned. We removed the liver and kidneys, cut off the head, cut off the legs and arms, then cut the torso into the pelvis, saddle, and ribcage, and neck. The ribcage was cut, and we prepared a tiny rib roast (more for decoration than anything else). The saddle we treated specially: placed a sprig of rosemary in the center, then coated it with mustard. Then we wrapped the meat of the saddle around to make a small package, and tied it to hold it together. The rest of the torso we just chopped up to make the trimming.

Salt and pepper the pieces of rabbit (legs, arms, saddle), then sear on both sides in a hot pan until lightly browned. Add the trimmings. Brush a layer of mustard on the pieces of rabbit (on side is ok). Put into oven at 220 C for 30 minutes. At 15 minutes, add chopped shallots, garlic, and rosemary (and the miniature rib roasts). Check for doneness by cutting into meat and looking for clear juices (and white meat). There should be a nice crust of mustard on the rabbit pieces. If the mustard is in danger of burning, place foil over it and replace in the oven.

When done, remove the serving pieces of meat, leaving the trimmings. Heat over the stove, deglaze with a little white wine and water, strain through a chinoise. Heat the cream, add to sauce, come to a simmer, mix. Mix some mustard and cream to add as a thickening agent. Put it in, mix, season to taste.

Potatoes:

Shape potatoes into cylinders. Cut little circular slices, about 3-4 mm thick, from the potatoes. Wash (to get rid of excess starch). Dry well. Fry in hot frying pan with oil, browning and cooking. Remove the slices, drain the oil. Add butter to pan, put potatoes back in, add minced garlic and parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

Plating:

Simply place the rabbit and spoon the sauce over. Put slices of potato around the outside. You're done!

Practical Notes:

This is the first time in a few practicals I *didn't* burn myself. When you take pans out of the oven, it is so easy to forget after they are on the stove that they are still extremely hot. The past few times, I burned myself even after reminding myself -- you just don't think before you grab a pan handle. This time, I made sure to leave my towel ON the pan handle, so when I came around to it again, the towel was there. It definitely saved me. :)

posted by chezdavid @ 9:43 AM