By DEPHINE MUTINDA
Ever tried rabbit meat? Thought so, many of the people I know have never had rabbit meat and have no interest in even trying it for different reasons. Rabbit meat is known to be white, fine grained and with mild flavor. It is very nutritious because it is known for the high protein levels. It also tastes very good. Since it’s a small animal, it’s pretty easy to butcher at the comfort of your home hence increasing family’s ability to consume fresh meat within their reach. I would personally recommend rabbit meat to each and every one of you for the countless benefits that come with it.
Study shows that rabbit meat has the following benefits:
A very high protein content, more than beef and poultry. 33g protein.
It is very low in fat, the leanest actually. 100 g/3.5 oz. contains 3.5% fat.
A rabbit is very low in calories, making it a very good choice for people who are trying to lose weight, 173calories per 100g.
Highly concentrated in iron.
Very low cholesterol levels.
Rich in minerals.
Contains less sodium than beef and the rest.
There are different methods of preparing rabbit meat. I am going to sample out a few methods that were going to be discussing today.
They include;
1. Rabbit stew.
2. Pot roasted rabbit.
3. Stuffed rabbit.
4. Delicious BBQ grilled and marinated rabbit.
5. Crispy Deep fried rabbit.
6. Rabbit curry
1. RABBIT STEW WITH RED WINE.
If you are a fan of meat in a wine sauce, then you’ll probably want to give this recipe a chance. It has a lot of different ingredients, but they are all natural so they should be pretty easy to locate. However, if you aren’t a fan of red wine, you could possibly substitute regular grape juice and see if you like the taste any better.
Ingredients:
1 rabbit.
2 tablespoons vegetable oil.
2 large onions.
11/3 cups of water.
Two medium carrots.
1 large red bell pepper.
11/4 cup beer(pills)
125grams cup pureed tomatoes.
3-4bay leaves.
Fine sea salt and pepper.
Instructions
1. Cut the rabbit into 5 or 6 smaller pieces
2. Heat 2 table spoons of oil in the oven or on a heavy bottomed pot and fry the rabbit on both sides until golden brown. Then remove from the pan.
3. Cut the onions into halves and slice the halves thinly. Pour the remaining oil in the pot and fry the onions on low-medium heat, stirring often for about 20minutes. Add some water from time to time to prevent it from drying out or burning.
4. As that boils, dice the carrots and the red bell pepper. Add the vegetables to the onions and continue cooking, and stirring in between for about 5minutes. Add the sweet and smoked paprika powder and stir well for one minute.
5. Press the rabbit pieces back in the pot, add the beer, pureed tomatoes, and enough water to barely cover the rabbit. And add the bay leaves, the juniper berries, some salt, and pepper.
6. Cover the pot, bring it to boil and gently simmer for about 11/2 hour or until the meat is really tender, it should basically fall of the bone for you to know it fully ready.
7. Add salt and pepper for a great taste and serve while hot with mashed potatoes and pickles or anything of your choice.
2. POT ROASTED RABBIT.
This recipe contains mushrooms, bacon, and rabbit. Is your mouth watering yet? Because mine was from the get go.
So if you’d like to fry your rabbit meat and combine it with some other delicious ingredients, then you should certainly give this recipe a go.
Ingredients
5 slice of bacon
1 1/2pound rabbit,
Red pepper
ground black pepper
1 cup flour
4cups of fresh mushrooms,
Slice 1 small onion,
Chopped 2 clove garlic,
Chicken broth
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
Instructions
1. In a pot, cook the bacon until crisp, drain it on serviette or a towel, and leave the draining in the pot. Later, crumble the bacon and put it aside.
2. Marinate the rabbit with black pepper, then coat it in flour. Brown the rabbit in the drippings in the pot over medium heat, later remove the rabbit from the pot.
3. Remain some of the drippings in the pot, about 4table spoons, add mushroom, onions, green pepper and garlic. All into the pot. Cook until tender, stirring from time to time.
4. Stir the chicken broth, Worcestershire sauce, and dry mustard into the vegetables in the pot. Now add the rabbit to the pot. Cover and simmer about an hour until the meat is tender.
5. Later serve the meat on a plate, spoon a mixture of everything over the meat and sprinkle the rabbit with the scrambled bacon.
3. STUFFED RABBIT RECIPES
These is just like any other stuff that all stuffing lovers do, be it your baked chicken stuff or turkey.
Join me and you will love these simple recipe.
Use your favorite homemade turkey stuffing to fill the cavities of one or two rabbits. (We had enough stuffing for one rabbit.) You can, of course, fill as many rabbits as you have stuffing for. Bake the rabbits in the oven. This also makes a great crock pot rabbit recipe.
Ingredients:
— 1 or 2 cleaned rabbits
— Your favorite turkey stuffing recipe
— 1 cup water or chicken broth
— Vegetables: potatoes, onions, carrots, garlic cloves
— Optional: 1-2 tablespoons butter
Instructions
i. Preheat oven to 350deg.
ii. Rinse one or two fresh rabbit fryers.
iii. Prepare your favorite turkey stuffing recipe.
iv. Stuff the lung and the abdominal cavity with the turkey stuffing.
v. With cooking twine, tie the cavities closed.
vi. Rub rabbit with olive oil or melted butter.
vii. Optional: dot the rabbits and veggies with butter
viii. Place in covered casserole.
ix. Add 1 cup of water or chicken broth to casserole.
x. Add your choice of chunked onions, red potatoes, carrots, garlic cloves
xi. Cover casserole, and bake for 1 1/2 – 2 hours or until done.
4. DELICIOUS BBQ GRILLED & MARINATED RABBIT RECIPE
Smashed herbs on any grill adds a certain flavor on the meat, especially the rabbit meat we’re about to look into. I’ve written this recipe to be cooked on the barbecue, because the flavor will be amazing.
Ingredients
1 cup of BBQ sauce
Assorted veggies for grilling
1rabbit, preferably wild, jointed
1 handful fresh thyme and rosemary, leaves picked
4 cloves garlic, peeled.
Olive oil
1 lemon, zest and juice of
1 teaspoon honey
4 thick slices higher-welfare pancetta
Salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Instructions
1. Heat the BBQ to medium heat. While heating, cut the rabbit’s rib cage then press down flat.
2. Put your rabbit on a surface, Using a pestle and mortar, or a liquidizer, bash or whiz up the thyme and rosemary leaves to a pulp, then add the garlic cloves and bash or whiz again. Stir in 8 tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon zest and juice and the honey, and pour this over the rabbit.
Now I’m going to talk about flavor. Get a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and tie them together like a little brush. Each time you turn the meat, dab it with a little of the marinade to give you a lovely encrusted layer of flavor. This rabbit is going to be really tasty!
3. Keeping the marinade to one side, preferably the inside part. Remove the pieces of meat and season with salt and pepper.
4. Lay your rabbit on the grill, marinade side down. Turn the heat down and cover. Set your timer for 15-20 minutes. Make sure you turn the meat over every so often. Look after it by controlling the temperature and basting it continuously with the marinade.
5. After 15-20 minutes, coat the other side of the rabbit with half the remaining sauce. Then add tender grilling veggies like zucchini and pepper.
6. Cover the grill and cook for other 20 minutes until the juices run clear and thigh reads 160 degrees.
7. Let the ribs rest out of hit for 10minutes.
8. Chop, and serve.
You can serve the rabbit with any white beans, or roast potatoes, or grilled vegetables, or different salads – it really depends on how you feel and what the weather’s like. Just put a big bowl of your chosen accompaniment in the middle of the table and serve all the meat on a board. Lovely with a glass of white wine. Simple, honest and bloody good recipe.
5. Crispy Fried Wild Rabbit Recipes
These is usually the way to go for most meat lovers, just deep fried. So, were going to make that recipe of yours a little bit spicy.
Ingredients
8 wild rabbit legs
2 pint vegetables or chicken stock
1 glass medium sweet white wine
1 lemon peeling
4 bay leaves
500grams olive oil.
For coatings
1 handful flour
1 egg
Breadcrumbs
Instructions
1. Boil the rabbit legs in the stock, wine, lemon peel and bay leaves for 45 minutes
2. Leave the meat to cool, preferably 12-24hours.
3. Remove the meat from the stock and pat till dry. Deep it in the flour, then in the whisked egg, then coat with the bread crumbs.9repeat these for all legs)
4. Deep fry in the olive oil at 160c for 6mins.
5. Serve on your most favorite plate with a dip in source of garlic mayonnaise and lemon wedges.
6. RABBIT CURRY
If you are a fun of any type of curry, you will definitely love these recipe.
Ingredients
1/4 cup of vegetable oil
Two pounds of rabbit meat, cut off the bones and into chunks
Salt
10
Two cups of white onion
2 table spoons of minced ginger
Two table spoons of minced garlic
A 500g can of tomato paste
One cup of plain yogurt
2 bay leaves
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/4cup of madras curry paste
One table spoon of garam masala
Instructions
1. Heat the vegetable oil in a pot with a lid under medium heat. Pat the rabbit pieces dry with a towel or serviette then brown them well. Salt the meat as it cooks. Remove to a bowl once it browns.
2. Add the onions to the pot and allow them to brown. Add the ginger and garlic simultaneously and keep stirring for a minute.
3. Return the meat to the pot and add the tomato paste, water, bay leaves, turmeric and madras paste. Stir in the yogurt to a gentle simmer. Add salt to taste and simmer for 30minutes.
4. Serve while hot.
So for those of you all that are considering raising meat rabbits but weren’t really sure what you’d do with them, I hope that these 6 rabbit recipes have now inspired you in your culinary efforts.
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