It’s always unpredictable having Tony in on a weekend – it’s a time when his thoughts roam undistracted by meetings and veer towards culinary flights of fancy.
This Father’s Day weekend his head was full of rabbit – literally. Prompted by a conversation – and a promise made – at this year’s ‘Salone del Mobile’ design showcase in Milan, Tony wanted to explore the possibility of a making a rabbit pie, right here and right now – regardless that we had no rabbit, no pie dish, and no recipe.
The conversation was with a colleague (and friend), Craig, and the promise made was that Tony would, at some point in the near future, make Craig a pie with rabbit as a star ingredient – intended as ‘favour’ rather than ‘threat’, just to be clear!
Where this conversation came from is anyone’s guess – where it led to was a scrambled weekend shopping spree in search of a local butcher with a rabbit in his cold store (@provenancebutcher in Wimbledon Village came to the rescue), and some swift recipe researching for a rabbit pie ‘idea’ that Tony could put together to gift as an offering from one father to another on this celebratory weekend.
The recipe we ultimately created starts with a classic base for a braise (onions, carrots, leeks), adds in some aromatics that we had to hand (Bay, juniper, and thyme), and took a long slow turn, bathed in some light stock, in a moderately hot oven before being covered with a shortcrust pastry top that Hayley decorated appropriately with some pastry trimmings. See below for pictures and recipe details.
Craig has already offered his hearty thanks – we’re waiting on a fuller verdict once he’s actually tasted the pie.
Rabbit Rabbit Pie: recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 x rabbit (prepped, jointed, seasoned)
- Vegetable oil (enough for frying)
- Streaky bacon (few slices, chopped into 1cm chunks)
- Onions (finely sliced, or coarsely chopped)
- Carrots (large chunks)
- Leeks (coarsely chopped)
- Juniper berries (10-12, lightly crushed)
- 2 x bay leaves
- Thyme (soft tender leaves)
- 2 – 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (optional)
- Salt and Pepper (freshly ground)
- 20g-25g butter, and 20-25g flour
- 450ml (approx,) light stock, or water (preferably hot)
- 1 quantity shortcrust pastry + 1 egg yolk
Method:
- Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan and fry the bacon pieces until they are golden – remove from the pan, set aside.
- Fry the rabbit pieces (moderately high heat) until browned and sealed on all sides. Remove from the pan and place in the bottom of a casserole dish large enough to accommodate them and the rest of the ingredients.
- Add more oil to the pan if needed (enough to just coat the ingredients), sauté the onions, carrots, and leeks over a medium heat until they are soft and beginning to turn golden (they shouldn’t brown), add the juniper berries, bay leaves, bacon, and mustard a few minutes before you are ready to remove all these base ingredients from the pan – season, stir to combine and then add to the casserole dish along with the rabbit.
- Add butter to the frying pan (lower the heat). As soon as the butter has melted and starts to foam, add the flour, stir and cook for at least a minute then, gradually, start stirring in the stock. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a simmer, and let the ‘sauce’ bubble for about a minute, then stir into the casserole dish.
- You need enough liquid to allow the rabbit to braise – if the liquid seems sparse, add some water.
- Place the casserole (covered) into a moderately hot oven (170ºC) – we used a VZug on a ‘Hot Air Humid’ setting – and braise the rabbit for about an hour and a half (the rabbit is ready when the meat is tender).
- Remove the rabbit from the braise, take the meat off the bones, then add the braised mixture to a pie dish.
- Cover the pie dish with a disc of rolled shortcrust pastry, cut at least one vent hole in the top, glaze the pastry with an egg wash, and bake in a hot oven (180ºC) until the pastry is crisp and golden (approx. 20-25 minutes).
- Serve hot!