Rabbit Ginger

Most of the cooking we do at home is experimentation and recipe modification. A large portion of this for us is that we raise rabbits for meat. Due to that, and since other ethical meat is WAY too expensive for us to get our hands on much, we eat mostly rabbit when it comes to our limited meat eating. At some point I'm going to go in to the theory of substituting rabbit for most purposes, but I figure, start with the best recipe I've kludged together from other sources so far. Something you'll probably find about my recipes is that I don't do things like precise measurements.

I keep intending to take photos in process, or at least at the serving phase when I cook, but I never remember to sadly. I thought about including a cute rabbit photo, but this is a food blog not a cute blog!

This recipe was based loosely off a combination of chicken ginger, and chicken terriyaki recipes.

Most of them looked something like:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/indonesian-ginger-chicken-recipe/index.html
And
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/chicken-teriyaki-recipe/index.html

Recipe: Rabbit ginger
Ingredients:
1 Fryer weight rabbit butchered out and jointed

Marinade:
~ 3 Tablespoons soy sauce
~ 3 Tablespoons honey
~ 3 Tablespoons clear alcohol. We used hard apple cider, you could also use sake or other similar alcohol.
1 Tablespoon grated fresh ginger.
Other spices to taste.
I used:
2 generous pinches tarragon
1 generous pinch chipotle

Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a medium mixing bowl thoroughly. A whisk works best, but a fork would also do the trick in a pinch. Once they are thoroughly mixed, place the pieces of rabbit in the bowl and coat them fully with the mixture. Ideally the mixture will nearly completely cover the rabbit as it sits in the bowl. Place the bowl with the marinade and the covered rabbit in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. During this time I'd recommend starting rice if you will be using it as the starch.

After 30 or more minutes heat a medium sauce pan so it is hot, but not oil smoking hot and coat the pan with the oil of your choice. You probably won't need more than a tablespoon. Once the pan is hot and coated take out the rabbit, and brown each piece on both sides in the pan. When you do this just take the rabbit piece by piece, and put it down. As you brown it you should also be caramelizing the marinade on it. Don't cook it, just brown each piece and remove it, placing it on a plate to the side. Don't crowd the pieces in the pan, or they won't properly brown.

Once all of the pieces are browned and set aside put 3 tablespoons of water in the remaining marinade, and place all of the rabbit and the marinade in the medium sauce pan over low medium heat to finish cooking the rabbit. This should take 15 - 20 minutes if you cook it slowly, basically simmering it. Check the thickest piece of rabbit to make sure it is cooked fully before serving. One note about rabbit is, since it has zero fat if you don't slow cook it or do something to keep the moisture in it will dry out and be not so good. The marinade helps, as does the browning, but don't over heat.

I recommend serving with rice, broccoli, and maybe some sweet potato.

Enjoy in good health

-Coureton