Keep your pets out of the pot

Rabbit leg over rice with sweet carrots.

 

I love rabbits!

 As a child I had three of them, and they all died very unfortunate deaths. The one rabbit I remember most was Petey; he kind of resembled the dog from the Little Rascals. Hence the name. Petey was so cute; he had a black patch around his eye and ate everything, even cake.  But that is neither here nor there.

One evening, my nephew decided to give Petey a bath. It was so innocent of him, but that was the last time Petey was ever seen alive. And, although this is a food blog, I feel compelled to tell the story of how my beloved rabbit passed. That bath was more like a deep cleaning. Petey was bathe in Comet cleaner, bleach, toothpaste, and bath soap. Pretty much anything that could be found in the bathroom. And the look on his face when he got caught was so priceless. I wish I had a picture to share. That was Sept. 12, 1996. The next morning I woke up to find out that Tupac Shakur had passed. And my world was devastated. I was 11 then.

For the month of May, particularly mother's day, I set out to make all of my mother’s favorite foods, steak, corned beef, oxtail and rabbit. I am never home for Mother’s day, and this is something that I have grown to regret, but in cooking these meals I am taken back to DC for the entire prep time through consumption. I am reminded of all the kitchen memories, even of the hot comb that she ran through my head in that same kitchen. Preparing this rabbit dish is the finale.

Rabbit is something that was rarely ate in my home, but when we had it; it was always juicy, and served with gravy. It was always delicious, like she prepared it knowing my love for the animal. But rabbit the food was different from rabbit the pet. So no, we did not eat Petey!

Smother Rabbit Ingredients:

1/4 cup of flour

2 tablespoons of salt

2 table spoons of fresh ground pepper

2 table spoons of thyme

1 rabbit about 2 pounds

1 cup of vegetable oil

½ white onion chopped

1 table spoon of minced garlic

1/3  cup of sliced white mushrooms

2 cups of chicken stock

 

Because rabbit can be tough, you will want to boil the meat first for 1 ½ hours – 2 hours before doing the following:

Season rabbit with salt, pepper, and thyme and thoroughly coat each piece of rabbit with flour. In a medium pan, heat oil over a medium heat. Shake off any excess flour, lay the rabbit into the oil, and brown on all sides. Do this in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan. Remove the rabbit from the pot and set aside on a plate.

Discard the oil until the pan is coated very lightly on the bottom. Add mince garlic to the pan, followed by the chopped onions and sauté until browned. Finally add mushrooms. Lower the heat of the pan to low, add ¼ cup of flour while slowly adding the chicken broth and stirring to build your gravy, season your mix to taste. Add the rabbit back to the pot. Simmer, covered for about one hour. 

Served with white rice and carrots.

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