Finally finally, a month after cooking together with my uncle, I get to post this. My dear uncle Ralph was so kind to set up a huge space in his garage to keep about 10-20 stalls for rabbits. Have a look at the little fellas.
The cause why they are on this blog now is that my uncle likes, more than their soft fur and their cute ears, their meat. That might sound brutal to you, but at least in Germany rabbit meat is quite a decadent thing to have, it’s expensive too, and well this recipe get’s you to make a very special, delicious though easy to do meal, if you’re fed up with your rabbit, or you more humanely buy the meat at a butchers.
We cooked and ate together with the family on the second christmas day, starting off at 10 in the morning like that:
Three rabbits ready for lunch. I think we were about 8-9 people.
So that’s where the debate begins and people might have different opinions. My grandma used to make the rabbit without slicing it, just the whole think in a casserole, cooked for hours on stove or in the oven. But uncle Ralphi insists that this dries out the meat and it stays more juicy when sliced into pieces. So he cuts off the legs and the back into pieces. The back is the best part. Then the pieces should be fried from both sides in olive oil, for about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile you prepare a big pot with chopped onions, tomatoes and mushrooms, together with a bottle of good red wine and some mustard.
When your meat is fried enough you put it into the pot with re red wine, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms and leave that closed in the oven for at least 1 1/2 hour. The longer you leave it in there the more tender your meat will be, so be patient!
If you wanna keep this meal really German, you serve the meat with a thing we call ‘Knödel’, little balls on potato or bread base, you can buy the dough fix in Germany and I guess in other countries too, will try to get a good recipe for homemades soon though.
And then of course, Rotkraut, red cabbage, handmade, lots of work, bought in a glass, great taste, just heat it up and add some apples if you like! Get your meat out of the sauce when it’s ready and leave it in the oven for a few, like that it can get a bit crispy from the outside.
And tada, this will be the end result! Ah of course make a brown gravy-kind of sauce out of the red wine!!!!
yum