Rabbit, Bakkie and Zorro...

Kyle has come to stay over this evening and I decided to introduce him to rabbit for supper...without him knowing it. He hasn't eaten it before and I haven't made it up for him before now either. So I made an old fashioned rabbit casserole and as usual I thought it was fairly delicious.  :)  :)  When we told him it was rabbit he was genuinely surprized as he thought it was chicken.  You just have to know how to cook rabbit to bring out the flavour of the meat and there is so much you can do with it these days as I discovered when I googled rabbit recipes and found a whole load of new ideas of how to cook it.  Here is the recipe I cooked today...just thought I'd share....

Old fashioned rabbit stew

  

Ingredients

·         3 tbsp plain flour

·         2 tsp dried thyme, or 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme leaves

·         sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

·         15g/½oz butter

·         2-3 tbsp sunflower oil

·         1 large farmed rabbit or 2 young wild rabbits, jointed into 8 pieces

·         6 rashers rindless smoked streaky bacon, cut into 2cm/¾in squares

·         2 onions, chopped

·         500ml/17fl oz dry cider

·         300ml/10fl oz chicken or vegetable stock

·         2 bay leaves

·         350g/12oz chantenay carrots, peeled

·         150g/5oz frozen peas  

     

    Preparation method

1.     Place the flour, thyme and a good pinch of salt and plenty of freshly ground black pepper in a large freezer bag. Put the rabbit portions into the bag, a few at a time, and shake well until evenly coated in the seasoned flour. Transfer to a plate.

2.     Melt the butter with one tablespoon of the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat. Fry the rabbit, a few pieces at a time, until golden-brown all over. Put all the front and rear leg portions into a flameproof casserole dish.

3.     Transfer the saddle pieces to a plate, cover loosely and set aside (these will need less cooking time, so can be added later on). Preheat the oven to 170C/340F/Gas 3½.

4.     Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the bacon until the fat is browned and beginning to crisp. Add the bacon to the casserole dish.

5.     Add a dash more oil to the frying pan and fry the onion for 5-7 minutes, or until lightly browned and beginning to soften. Add the onions to the casserole, sprinkle with any flour remaining in the freezer bag and stir until well combined.

6.     Pour half of the cider into the frying pan and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to lift any sediment from the bottom. Simmer for a few seconds then pour into the casserole. Add the rest of the cider and the stock. Stir the bay leaves into the casserole, cover with a lid and cook in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes.

7.     Remove the casserole from the oven, add the reserved saddle pieces and carrots, turn all the rabbit portions, ensuring that as much of the meat is covered by liquid as possible. (Not all the meat will be covered.) Return to the oven for a further 1-2 hours.

8.     Take the casserole out of the oven after one hour and check the rabbit – the meat should be starting to fall off the bone when the rabbit is ready. Poke the leg portions and the saddle pieces with a knife and if it doesn’t slide in easily, return the casserole to the oven. Check again for tenderness and turn the rabbit portions every 30 minutes or so.

9.     When the rabbit is tender, skim off any fat that may have risen to the top of the casserole with a large spoon. Carefully transfer the casserole to the hob. Bring to a fast simmer and cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the liquid reduces to a slightly thickened, gravy-like consistency. Stir in the frozen peas and simmer for a further three minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and serve.

Here's the latest on our bakkie, which sadly is still not fixed.  Johan has found someone who will look at our 'old' gearbox, to see if he can repair it, so he is taking it early tomorrow morning.  With regard to the 'new' gearbox, we have managed to find a lift for it back to Bloemfontein tomorrow morning.  Big Yah.... Friends are leaving early to go to a wedding and offered to drop it off with Bakkies, Johan's cousin.  I pray that we will manage to get something sorted from one or the other of them and we will have our 'wheels' back again soon.  Patience is a virtue I always say, and I am prepared to wait.  It's amazing how God works in our lives... I was running down my 'whatsapp' list earlier this evening and thought I would send a message through, conversation rolled and it was mentioned that they are going through to Bloemfontein tomorrow.  Obviously this piqued my attention as Johan had said we need somehow to get the gearbox back.  With whatsapp messages going back and forth, voila there we had our lift, with Johan ultimately taking it through to them...God always knows the right time and the right manner...so who are we to question Him!!!!!

The same friend who is taking the gearbox through to Bloemfontein,  asked this evening if he may borrow Zorro in December for an 'outride'.  Every year at this time he rides from home to somewhere in the Free State I think, over 3 days, when he then meets up with a whole load more people and they do whatever theses horse people do, before he rides home again.  The journey is long, hundreds of kilometres but he knows Zorro well and has ridden him before, even though it has only been around our area, but he must think Zorro is capable of doing it.  I will have to speak to him myself and get more information out of him about the event, because I could just be talking a whole lot of nonsense here.  lol  It does mean though that we are going to have to train Zorro up before then as he is very unfit and has become quite lazy... so I guess my work is cut out for me!!!!!    When NiQi is feeling up to it she can help me and guide me as the horses are actually hers and I only work the horses when I have to...hehe....it's hard work training a horse and takes hours from your day but hey it will be good exercise for me too and think of all the added vitamin D I will be absorbing every day....ooh I'm tired already just thinking about it. Time for bed methinks...good night all from all at Larkwood.