Similar to our spontaneous purchase of cardoons at the farmers market, we also recently picked up a rabbit. We'd never cooked with rabbit before, but we sometimes order it out in restaurants, especially at a French bistro here in DC -- Bistro du Coin -- which serves a lovely rabbit stew.
That stew -- filled with cream, vegetables and a bit of mustard -- is wonderful during winter, and we wanted to create something similar at home.
A quick run through some recent food magazines and a scan of the indexes of our favorite cookbooks didn't turn up a recipe that sounded good, so we decided to largely wing it, using a recipe for a Rabbit Cacciatore as inspiration.
We browned the rabbit, sauteed some carrots, garlic and pearl onions (which we always keep on hand in our freezer), simmered the rabbit and vegetables in white wine and then finished the dish with an addition of mustard and cream.
And you know what?
It's pretty good! The flavors are very similar to the bistro dish that we love, and the rabbit had great flavor, making for a comforting winter meal.
Do you ever cook with rabbit? How do you prepare it?
Rabbit in Mustard Cream Sauce
With inspiration from Bon Appétit's Rabbit Cacciatore
Ingredients & Preparation
1 pound rabbit
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Salt and pepper rabbit. Heat oil in a dutch oven. Brown the rabbit on all sides in oil. Remove to plate.
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup frozen pearl onions, thawed
2 cloves garlic, minced
Add vegetables to dutch oven, saute until soft and lightly browned.
1/3 cup dry white wine
Add white wine, scraping up brown bits. Return rabbit to pan. Cover and simmer until rabbit is cooked through, 25-30 minutes.
1/2 cup cream
2 tablespoons mustard
Salt & papper to taste
Add cream and mustard to pan, stirring to combine. Simmer 5 minutes more. Add salt and pepper to taste.
