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Rabbit mushroom and tarragon casserole recipe

 

Photo: Rabbit casserole

Photo: Rabbit casserole

Finding myself with 600g of diced wild rabbit and no pheasant to go into a game casserole, I decided to glide onto the internet for inspiration and found this delicious recipe on We Are Never Full. Unfortunately I didn’t have some essential ingredients such as bacon so I made my own version using the tarragon, mushrooms, white wine and cream as a starting point.

The slow cooker was busy cooking the shin of beef disguised as a pheasant so I cooked the rabbit very slowly on the stove top. It took over three hours and was wonderful – the best rabbit dish that I’ve ever tasted. This would feed 3 or 4 normal people. Danny had four helpings, I had one and we fought over the last spoonful.

Rabbit mushroom and tarragon casserole recipe

Ingredients:

600g of diced wild rabbit
2 tbsp of plain flour
200g of ordinary mushrooms (remove the stalks and slice into disks. Cut the mushrooms in half and slice roughly)
50g of salami (use a chunk from a whole salami – remove the skin and cut into small cubes a half centimetre square)
2-3 tsp of garlic granules
1 tsp of anchovy essence
1 tsp of dried tarragon
800ml of stock made with 2 tsp of vegetable stock powder
To be added at the end:
1 tbsp of dry white wine
3 tbsp of single cream
Fresh ground black pepper and sea salt to season
2 tbsp of fresh chopped parsley

Method:

Roll the diced rabbit in plain flour and put in a large heavy bottomed saucepan.

Add the chopped mushrooms, salami, garlic, tarragon, anchovy essence and vegetable stock. Stir well and bring slowly to boiling point then turn down the heat to the minimum and simmer (lid on) for about 3 hours until the rabbit is tender.

Strain the rabbit (or remove with a slotted spoon) and leave in a warm place whilst you reduce the juices.

Boil the juices hard with the lid off until the sauce has reduced to a third. Let the sauce cool a little before adding the white wine, half the parsley and the cream. Gently simmer, stirring all the time to let the cream thicken. Season to taste.

Pour the sauce over the rabbit, scatter with the rest of the parsley and serve with mashed potatoes and green beans.


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8 Comments

  1. cooked this today; followed the recipe from we are never full more, but melanged the two!
    It was DELICIOUS – even our daughter who is unwell today wolfed it down!!
    It also turned out to be a fascinating lesson for the kids as the rabbit came skinned, and gutted but with all other organs; our son loved trying to identify it all and was fascinated; so different from the sterile prepackaged food we usually get nowadays.
    Thank you for this recipe; we will be using it again soon
    shelley

  2. Michelle in NZ

    So, so yummo, Had we been there Michelle and Zebbycat would have battled each other to eat our serving. Mind you, if faced with a real, live rabbit, Zebby would run away or yowled for rescue. SO pleased you got to enjoy this.

    My first ever raddishes are outside in a great big pot. Grounds from made coffee as a snail/slug deterrant, meanwhile nastertiums in another pot with standard (non-organic) snail/slug deterrant. We will see – Zebby is a complete carnivore.

    Love and care, I often misstype it as Micehell – here’s a hoping, coz Zebby ain’t a hunter!

  3. fiona you should visit us in toulouse; loads of rabbits in the supermarkets here; we were thrilled to see this recipe as we have been meaning to try rabbit for ages as meat prices have just got silly here (a small chicken now costs 10 euros!!!!!)

  4. Fiona Nevile

    Hello Alex

    It was very good indeed. Now I need to find someone who will shoot a whole rabbit for me 🙂 as they are treated like vermin here.

    Hi we are never full

    I’d love to spend some more time on your site – I bet that it’s packed with great recipes.

    Hello Tamar

    I’ve learnt that if I want to save some food for another meal I have to put it away before we sit down 🙂

    Hi Dan

    Thanks for the invitation, I’d love to drop by.

  5. Looks tasty!

    There’s lots of chatter about cooking over at Cofacio.com .

    Would be great to get some of your expertise. Drop by.

    Dan

  6. So, let me get this straight — Danny had four helpings and then fought you for the last spoonful. What a guy!

    Then again, I’ve fought for the last spoonful of food that wasn’t nearly as appetizing as this, so I guess I can see where he’s coming from.

  7. we are never full

    we are soooo pleased you tried this and even more pleased you liked it!! thank you so much for giving our lil old recipe a whirl. I need to revisit my own recipes soon – this cooler weather is calling out for dishes like this!

  8. It looks so rich and creamy – no wonder you fought over it!

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