We have been wanting to cook rabbit for a while but did not really know where to start. When George Calombaris from Masterchef cooked rabbit for the masterclass it gave us a good starting point.
I was not confident enough to deal with the rabbit so I had told my husband that he would have to do it! He remembered a recipe from way back where rabbit was paired with black pudding and so we began.
Firstly the whole rabbit had to be broken down, the idea being to use every part of the rabbit in the recipe.
There were many components to prepare.
The stock was made using the rabbit bones and spare meat. We attempted to clarify the stock using egg whites but were only semi-successful.
The cannon of rabbit was prepared by laying out prosciutto and covering with a black pudding mousse (black pudding and cream). The back straps and the fillets were then rolled up in the middle and tightly sealed in the foil. This was then baked for ten minutes before being rested. Once removed from the foil it was seared in a hot pan ready for slicing.
The racks, kidney and liver were all cooked off in olive oil and butter in a hot pan.
I prepared the garlic custard by softening some garlic and spring onion in butter before adding milk and simmering for a few minutes. I then strained this and slowly incorporated into the egg before returning to the heat briefly. I poured into ramekins and baked in a waterbath for about fifteen minutes.
For the vegetable component we used swede and heirloom carrots. Our purple heirloom carrots turned all our vegetables purple!
Wow this was really really good! The cannon of rabbit was amazing, and all the components worked together so well. The kidney and liver both tasted really nice (yes I was a bit tentative). The rack was tender and tasty. The custard was cooked perfectly and had an amazing silky smooth texture that was a great contrast to the other elements in the dish. The stock was nice but next time we would add less. Overall we enjoyed an incredibly delicious dinner (my daughter also demolished it - she loved it!).
I had to make a dessert to have with this incredible meal so we finished with pumpkin pannacotta topped with an orange caramel (Inspired by the lovely Mary from One Perfect Bite). It was delicious.
