We pulled a rabbit out of the freezer a few days ago, and I made a variation of Hank Shaw‘s “Rabbit in a mustard cream sauce” or Lapin à la Moutarde. I made it once before for our first time trying to prepare rabbit ourselves. We loved it, and I felt confident enough this time to mess around with the recipe. I can never leave anything alone.
I mostly added more vegetables, but we also really liked the sauce and had remarked that it was so good, we’d eat it with a spoon. So I made it much soupier so that we could do exactly that. I think it would be especially lovely if I made some rabbit stock, but there is no way I would be allowed to do that in this household, because the Icies stare so intently at us while we eat rabbit, waiting patiently for the bones. They love love love rabbit meat. Maybe I’ll try to prepare it next time without them in the house.
I also added a healthy dose of the roasted garlic spread that I always have on hand. I’d used a roasted garlic mustard the last time I made the dish, tried a different mustard this time and really missed the roasted garlic flavor, so added it to the dish, which really improved the flavor. I love that stuff, use it all over the place.
Ingredients:
1 rabbit, quartered
Salt
4 tablespoons butter
4 large shallots, chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup diced celery with leaves
1/2 cup diced yellow red pepper
1 cup Gewurztraminer (a German dry white wine)
1 cup water
1/2 cup Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon roasted garlic spread
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh parsley
METHOD
Salt your rabbit pieces well and set aside at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour.
Brown the rabbit pieces in butter individually, and then remove each piece to a platter.
Add the shallots, mushrooms, celery and bell pepper, and cook on low until soft, about 5 minutes on a medium heat.
Add the in the Gewerstemeiner wine and turn the heat to high, scraping the pan to loosen the browned bits. Add the Dijon mustard, fresh thyme, ground pepper and water and bring to a boil. Taste the sauce for salt and add as needed.
Put the rabbit pieces back into the pan, lower the heat, cover and simmer for an hour until the meat falls off the bones.
When the meat is ready, remove it to a plate and turn the heat to high to reduce the sauce by half. Then add the roasted garlic spread, the cream and the fresh parsley. Pour the sauce over the rabbit.
After we ate our first meal with a quarter each of meat with the bone, I then removed the meat from the remaining pieces, leaving them to soak up the sauce, and served a second meal with mashed potatoes and that lovely sauce. So delicious!