H&C

21
May
2009

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Rabbit hot pot with chorizo sausage and thyme

(c) Flickr user Arbego

I made this dish up after a day out and it serves as the perfect warm finish to cold day’s hunting.

You can get chorizo from any supermarket; it is a paprika flavoured pork sausage from Spain that can be eaten as it is or be used as part of a dish. The nice thing about chorizo is that when you cook with it, it releases paprika flavoured oils into the food and gives it a slightly spicy flavour.

The union of rabbit and thyme was made in heaven, and in most Mediterranean countries rabbits feed on wild thyme. They naturally have a distinct thyme flavour.

British rabbits feed largely on grass and do not have such a flavour. Add tomatoes, garlic, a few potatoes and you have a real winter warmer. It’s best topped off with a glass of Rioja - an Ondarre Reserve or a Faustino would do well.

This recipe is for four people.

Ingredients

2 Rabbits skinned and jointed
500g Chorizo Sausage
1 Spanish Onion
2 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tins of Chopped Tomatoes
1 Chicken Stock Cube
1 Good Sprig of Thyme
1 Bay Leaf
3 or 4 Potatoes
1 Glass White wine
Olive Oil
Salt / Pepper
Butter

Step one: Preheat oven to full.
Step two: Finely chop the onion and the garlic
Step three: Remove the skin from the chorizo and cut the sausage into slices, about 1cm thick.
Step four: Pull the thyme leaves off the sprigs.
Step five: Add some olive oil to a large pan and heat. Seal off the rabbit so that it appears cooked on the outside. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.
Step six: Add a little more oil to pan and turn the flame down.
Step seven: Sauté the onions and garlic for about one minute then add the chorizo, thyme leaves, thyme stork and a bay leaf. Cook for another three minutes. You will see the paprika oils come out of the sausage. Add the wine and allow to reduce by half.
Step eight: Once the wine has reduced, add the tomatoes and the stock cube dissolved in half a litre of boiling water.
Step nine: Add the rabbit and bring to boil, then turn down to simmer. Mean while peel the potatoes and slices of half a centimetre.
Step ten: Remove the thyme sprig and bay leaf from the rabbit and place into a deep ovenproof dish.
Step 11: Layer the potatoes on top, over-lapping in straight lines across the dish similar to the scales on a fish.
Step 12: Melt some butter and brush this over the potatoes before placing the dish into the oven and turning it down to a medium heat.
Step 13: Cook until the potatoes are golden brown and the rabbit is tender – this will take about two hours, depending on your oven.
Step 14: Serve with some boiled rice cooked in chicken stock.

Jose’s top tips:
Do not use a freshly caught rabbit of that day. Rabbits do well if they’re left gutted and skinned in the fridge for a day or two to relax the meat. If you do use a freshly caught one, the meat will be very tough and it will shrink to half its size.

When sealing the rabbit, just colour it on the outside. Do not try to cook it any further or it will become dry.

When placing the rabbit into your oven dish, add a little more stock if the liquid does not cover the rabbit. Remember, it is going to spend at least two hours in the oven and a lot of the liquid will evaporate in that time