Casseroled Rabbit with White Wine & Mushrooms

This is one of the boy’s favourites and it’s a rare treat as (depending on where you live, Wild Rabbit can be hard to find. Then when you do find it, it’s often hanging from a butcher’s hook, with head and feet still on, in all its furry glory. I can’t cope with that and the boy certainly can’t. 

This is based on a Sophie Grigson recipe from the mid 1990s. She says she finds wild rabbit tough and much prefers domesticated (farmed) rabbit as it is much more tender. There is a reason for that. The muscles never get any work as they are raised in the exact same conditions that battery hens used to be. A typical cage is the size of a piece of A4 paper. There are no laws to deal with this yet, so please check with your butcher that it is wild rabbit and put up with it being slightly chewy.

We have found a wild rabbit, skinned and jointed – the 4 legs in 2 pieces each and the saddle in 2.

1 wild rabbit, jointed

225g shitake mushrooms (or a mixture)

16 pearl onions

Seasoned flour

2tbsp oil

25g butter

120ml dry white wine

600ml chicken stock

1 bay leaf

2tbsp chopped parsley

40g buerre manié (half flour and half butter mashed together)

150ml crème fraiche

A good squeeze of lemon juice

Salt & pepper

The boy has been instructed to steal me a bay leaf from the potted trees outside the pub.

Halve the mushrooms and peel the onions. Sophie Grigson has a cool tip, which is to top and tail them and cover them with boiling water for 30 seconds, which makes it easier. The boy is doing this, which, frankly, makes it even easier.

Heat half the oil and half the butter in a pan. Dredge the bunny bits in the seasoned flour and brown them, in batches. I like a little paprika in the seasoned flour. Transfer to a casserole. Add a little more butter and oil and do the same with the onions and mushrooms. You just want a little colour. Add to the rabbit.

The bottom of the pan will now be full of crispy delicious bits, so the wine goes in and it gets a good scrape with a wooden spatula. We’re using a 2012 French Muscadet, for its slightly rich flavour. Let it bubble up until it reduces by half and the bottom of the pan is clean. Pour into the casserole with the rabbit, mushrooms and onions. Add the stock, bay leaf, half the parsley and salt & pepper.

I don’t think one of thyme, sage or rosemary would go amiss, but not all of them!

Bring to the boil and then simmer for 45 minutes with the lid half off so it thickens up a little bit. Check that the rabbit is tender – it might not be, so decide whether to compromise or keep cooking. I think the chewy texture of the shitakes is in keeping with this. To keep us entertained the boy has decided to read us Beatrix Potter’s, Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies. Ha ha!

One alternative would be to put everything in a slow cooker, after browning, instead of the casserole, cook for 6 hours and then finish off in a large pan.

So when you’re ready, scoop out the rabbit pieces – count them – there should be 10, and as many onions and mushrooms as you can find with a slotted spoon. Put into a serving dish and keep it warm.

Make the buerre manie. It helps if you took the butter out of the fridge. As I forgot to do this, the boy is showing off his biceps by doing it – it’s revenge for the Flopsy Bunnies!

Pour all the juices into a wide frying pan and let it reduce by about half. Lower the heat and add the buerre manie in little cubes and stir constantly, so it thickens rather than separates. Once it’s all in give it another 3 minutes so the flour cooks through. Stir in the crème fraiche and a squeeze of lemon juice. Sophie says double cream would be fine, but I’d use a really good squeeze of lemon in this case. Last chance to check for seasoning, though this will taste tarter than it will once it’s on the rabbit.

Pour over the rabbit and sprinkle the rest of the parsley over.

We had it with boiled and buttered potatoes. The boy would have preferred it with mash, but as he wasn’t going to make any, boiled and buttered potatoes it is.