Have you tried Rabbit? The first time I tried cooking rabbit was soon after we moved to Prague. I believe it was one of those shopping trips when I went to the store and they were LITERALLY out of chicken – that’s right, no chicken. I’m glad that this doesn’t happen as often now as it used to! So on that fateful day I got rabbit instead. Two rabbit sides are actually quite cheap here and, although I don’t remember how I prepared it that first time, my husband and I quickly learned that rabbit is YUMMY! In a way, it’s like a juicer, tenderer, more flavorful chicken. Last week we made rabbit in the Dutch oven (which we borrowed from our neighbors – have you noticed yet what a moocher I am?). It was the best rabbit I’d ever had. It was so easy and super simple, but sooooo good! My husband raved, and we both had a second helping. So, here’s my Super Simple Dutch Oven Rabbit.

Ingredients:

2 rabbit sides (or more if you want) Onions, cut in quarters (I used very small one’s so I used about 4 of them, but you could use less if yours are big, or more if you just like onions) Carrots, sliced in chunks (I think I used 3 or 4 carrots) Garlic (I used 2 or 3 cloves, but you could use more or less depending on your preferences) Potatoes, cut into small chunks (I think I used about 5 small potatoes, use however many you have or desire) Celery Root, cut into small chunks (I used about half of a large celery root) Water or bone broth (I just used water because I didn’t have any broth on hand) Salt and Pepper

Place your Dutch oven on the stove top and sear the rabbit in a little butter until it is just browned on each side.

Next turn off the stove and add all the veggies to your Dutch oven. Pour in enough water or bone broth so that the veggies are almost covered (using bone broth will add even more flavor to this dish especially if it’s a homemade broth).  Place the Dutch oven with the rabbit and veggies in it in an oven on medium heat (I think I had it at about 150 degrees Celsius) and leave it for about 2 hours. Check on it every so often to make sure that there is still some water in the Dutch oven, especially if you leave it longer than 2 hours. Once the meat is tender, the veggies are all soft, and the liquid has cooked down a good deal, you can pull it out and enjoy it.

We just ate it with a little salt and pepper, some Worcestershire sauce, and big slices of homemade sourdough bread. You could also serve it with sour cream, or yogurt. If you wanted you could add some more spices or seasonings to this as it cooked, but we found that the veggies and meat had enough flavor on their own.

PS – watch out for the bones. Rabbit bones are often smaller than chicken bones so you have to be careful as you eat this!

NOTE: If you don’t have a Dutch oven you can make this dish in a Crock pot or slow cooker. Just sear the rabbit in a frying pan on the stove top and then put the rabbit and all the veggies in your crock pot/slow cooker and add enough water to almost cover everything. Cook in the crock pot until all the vegetables are tender and the meat is fully cooked.

Rejoicing in the journey - Beth Stedman

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