By Greg B. A little while ago, my roommate bought two rabbits from H-mart and frozen them, promptly to forget about them.  It was not until last week that he decided it was time to cook them, and gave me free reign to prepare something good with them.  Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind (after bugs bunny, roger rabbit or br’er rabbit) is hasenpfeffer stew.  The recipe is simple, very tasty and comes highly recommended by me!

Stew Ingredients:

• 2 Rabbits, fresher the better
• 2 carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 3 onions
• 2 large tomatoes
• bay leaves
• few cloves of garlic
• few small handfulls of sea salt
• bit of black pepper (I prefer cracked)
• Red wine
• Olive oil
• 1 fresh baguette
• (you can additionally add a potato or two, for starch in the mixture.  If you want to be real adventurous, save the blood from the rabbit and add towards the end of cooking.  Remember, it is high in iron and good for you!)

You may notice that I don’t give exact measurements of the spices I use.  This is because I don’t actually know or keep track of it.  It always depends on how old the spices I have are, what volume of food I am producing, and how it tastes when I test it.   This being said, lets get started with the recipe!

The mirepoix in the pot

Take a large pot, the denser the metal the better (denser metal holds temperature better, so, think cast iron for ideal here), add some olive oil to the bottom.  As that heats up a bit, chop the onions and add to the oil,adding some salt at this time to sweat it.  I like to add my garlic at this time too, using one of those really awesome garlic hand presses… more on this in a later post.  I also added a few leaves of bay leaves at this point, and it is important to note the temperature was not hot enough to burn these leaves.  Chop the carrot and celery and add these also to the pot once the onions start to brown occasionally.  This combination of carrots, celery and onions, usually in a 1:1:2 ratio is known in France as the mirepoix and is really the base for many soups, stews, sauces, etc.  To add a bit of Portuguese flair, I added two large tomatoes, diced.  Let this cook together for a few minutes, stirring and adding the pepper and a little more salt.

Everything Together

In the meantime, you will want to chop your rabbit into manageable and servable sized.  Depending on the size of your rabbits, how many people you are serving and what the situation is (big dinner party?  alone athome and making food for leftovers for yourself?) you can butcher the animal differently.  For myself, since I knew Jer and I were eating, plus my sister might wants some, I decided to butcher the animal into smaller parts.  I removed the limbs, cut down the spine, then cut the rest of the animal into about 6-8 pieces.  One of my rabbits was larger than the other, so he was cut into more pieces.  Now, in an ideal world, you may want to do this an hour or two before you begin the actual cooking process and let the rabbit marinade in the wine with some oil and spices.  In my case (and possibly yours), when you get home from work around 8pm, you probably don’t have time for this, so it is also acceptable just to add this rabbit to the pot, though I would recommend cooking on a slightly lower temperature for a slightly longer time, to make sure the meat is tender.

Ready for eatin'!

Once the rabbit is in with the oil and veggies, let it cook for a minute or two, then add your red wine.  Keep in mind, whatever wine you add you probably want to drink with the meal, so either make sure you have two bottles handy or just keep some for drinking!  I used a Beaujolais nouveau for my wine.  I figured with the amount of vegetables I had in the pot, this dish would have a good amount of sweet underlying flavors and I wanted to match that with a nice, slightly sweet and low tanin wine.  Bring this to a slow simmer, put a top on the pot, and set a timer and walk away.  Let this cook for over an hour or until the rabbit is tender, stirring every 20-30 minutes or so.  This gives you an excellent time to serve things to guests if you are having a house party.  I set out a plate of cheeses, bleu cheese, sliced Parmesan and a Pepper Jack cheese that actually did have a little bit of a kick to it (don’t buy the lucerne pepperjack, you’ll always be disappointed), with a sliced baguette.  This works as a nice appetizer in the time it takes the rabbit to cook.

When the rabbit is done, simply plate, serve with bread (some people serve with potatoes or rice, I could even imagine barley being good here.  I did not do this this time, but it certainly would be a nice addition in the future).  The amount of veggies, meat and juice from the stew should be ample to fill the plate, and garnish with some bread for sopping up the juice afterwards (potentially the best part of the meal?) and there you have it!

Mixed berry pie with Vanilla Ice cream

This recipe is really very simple and while it takes a little time to prepare and cook it is well worth it.  For dessert, (something Iusually don’t eat… why eat something sweet when you could just have another of whatever you had for dinner??) I served a mixed berry pie with vanilla ice cream on the side.  This was a nice change of pace, with the sweet/tart flavor basically relieving my taste buds from the flavor of the meal.  All in all, I’d have to say this is one of the better meals my roommates and I have had at home and I recommend this to anyone who wants to give it a shot.  Plus, if you had additions, comments or suggestions, I’m always willing to take them here, happy eating!