It's a work in progress for tomorrow's supper. My brother, who finds domestic rabbit bland, is going to visit and I am out to change his mind about rabbit. He's supposed to bring a bottle of his homemade wine to go with it, so it should be quite a feast. Still pondering what to serve with it.
Ingredients:
- meat from one mature rabbit
- 4 small onions, chopped
- three carrots, cut in large pieces
- 1 apple, chopped
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 bay leaves
- 5-6 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 1 teaspoon salt
- flour for dredging, seasoned with black pepper, allspice and cloves
- 1/2 cup apple juice, a dash of apple cider vinegar (or use apple cider)
- about 1/2 cup water or enough to make gravy
Cut meat into pieces the size of your thumb or thereabouts. Dredge in seasoned flour and brown in oil in a large pan. Add liquids and loosen any browned bits stuck to pan. Add onions, carrots, apple, garlic, bay leaves and rosemary, stirring gently to combine. Cover and lower heat to simmer.
We don't normally add salt, but taste testing indicated a bit was needed so I added one teaspoon. Mushrooms would be wonderful, but I didn't happen to have any in the house.
1:00 PM. Smells and tastes wonderful but the meat is still tough and needs lots more time to simmer. I did add a scant teaspoon of salt.
I made the pastry using the Tenderflake Lard recipe. I gather this is a Canadian brand so I will post the recipe, which could be used with any brand of lard. The wording may not be identical to what is one the packaging.
5 1/2 cups all-purpose flour or 6 cups cake flour
2 tsp. salt
1 lb. Tenderflake lard
1 tbsp. vinegar
1 egg, lightly beaten
Water
Mix together flour and salt. Cut in lard with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse oatmeal. (I use two knives to get started and then my fingers.) In a 1-cup measure, combine vinegar and lightly beated egg. Add cold water to make one cup. Gradually stir liquid into flour mixture. Add only enough liquid to make dough cling together and do not "work" the pastry more than absolutely necessary or it may be tough. Gather into a ball. This is supposed to make six pastry shells. I never expect to get more than two deep dish pies out of it. Pastry rolls out more easily if it is chilled and may be made a day or two ahead. Excess may be frozen. I like to roll my pastry on a sheet of parchment paper as it makes it very easy to transfer to the pie dish. Small amounts of leftover pastry can be used for jam tarts, turnovers or meat or cheese pasties.
