"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit." 

~ Edward Abbey

Apple Wine Braised Rabbit

Here's a tasty recipe for rabbit I made the other night. I made some rabbit a few nights prior, using a recipe I pulled from Jamie Oliver's Italian cookbook. I didn't really care for it, but that was most likely due to me simply not being partial to a citrus based marinade rather than any shortcoming with the recipe, as I had seen rave reviews of that particular Oliver recipe.

In any event, as I had a couple rabbits awaiting the table I decided to go the route I almost always enjoy most, and that is coming up with my own recipe. So, I made a quick inventory of what we had in the cupboards and fridge, and then decided to use some of our still unbottled apple wine as the foundation for the marinade.

I snapped some fairly awful pictures of the process, feeling confident that the dish would turn out well. It did in fact come out wonderfully. No doubt this recipe would work well for just about any small game mammal or bird.

Here we go:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup coconut milk
• few tbl EV olive oil
• Almost a whole stick butter
• Kosher salt
• 2-3 cups apple wine
• 2 rabbits, quartered
• 1 cayenne pepper
• few strips of salt preserved lemon
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 tsp Pimenton (smoked paprika)
• 2-3 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 1 big onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• small bunch cilantro, chopped
• some rosemary sprigs
• 1-2 tbl fresh ginger, grated
• 1 lime
• 1 cup canned tomato or puree
• tbl peppercorns
• tbl fennel seed

1. Grind the peppercorns and fennel seed in a coffee grinder or mortar & pestle, add around a tbl of rosemary leaves and continue to grind til well pulverized and mixed.

2. Make a marinade with the apple wine by adding the pepper/fennel/rosemary mix, the grated ginger, cilantro, juice of one lime, Pimenton and a couple pinches Kosher salt. Pour it over the rabbits and let it sit for at least a couple hours, stirring it around every so often.

3. After letting the rabbits soak in the wine bath it's time to get down to business. Heat 1/2 stick butter and a tbl olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the carrots, onion, garlic and a pinch of salt, and cook til they start to soften a bit. (If I had had celery on hand I would have added that to the mix as well...next time.)

4. Add the coconut milk, cider vinegar, tomato puree, lemon zest and cayenne pepper and continue to cook.

5. Take the rabbit out of the marinade and dry it off. Add the marinade to the stewing veggie mix, making sure to get all the spices at the bottom of the bowl.

6. Heat rest of butter and tbl olive oil in another large skillet over medium high. Add a bit of salt and pepper to the flour and dust the rabbit pieces in it.

7. Brown the rabbit on each side in the oil/butter.

8. Add the remainder of the flour to the veggie skillet and stir it in well.

9. Add the browned rabbit pieces to the veggie skillet and cook over medium to medium low until the rabbit is cooked through and tender, around 45 minutes or so. Turn the rabbit pieces over after 25-30 minutes. The sauce will reduce and thicken.

10. We plated it with some of the sauce/marinade and served with a small salad of greens and some garlic mashed potatoes (sweet potato/russet potato mix).

11. Our friend Pat joined us for dinner, pronouncing on facebook, "This was very good! I only remember having rabbit once before and it was fried in an Air Force dining hall. This was tender. The garlic mashed potato/sweet potatoes were excellent too." Pat brought a six-pack of Leinies Amber Bock, which looked and tasted great with the meal.

12. For desert we had a little shot of the rosemary peach noyau I made last summer. Candy alcohol heaven.

Slow Food local chapter?

Yesterday I made a facebook post about the possibility of starting a local chapter of the Slow Food organization. Initially I was just thinking of joining a local chapter and getting involved that way, but discovered that there is no local chapter for the North East Wisconsin area. There are two primary Slow Food chapters in Wisconsin: one in Milwaukee (the Wisconsin South East chapter) and one in Madison (Slow Food Madison). There is also a chapter in the Madeline Island area called Slow Food Chippewa, but that one seems to be in some state of uncertainty at this time.

Reading through some of the information on the Slow Food website I thought, "Why not start a local chapter for our part of the state? There are certainly enough people in this region who embrace the ideals of Slow Food." There are a lot of folks just in my own relatively small sphere who are foodies and who are supportive of local artisan food production and urban farming activities such as bee keeping, in-city chickens, farmers markets and gardening. We also have a group of friends who get together about once a month for what we call Foodie Potluck (Foodie Potluckers is the group name) and who enjoy and support the kind of things that Slow Food advocates.

Point being that there ought to be enough interest and support for a Slow Food chapter around here. My friend Alex Galt, who owns Kavarna Coffeehouse and Parisi's Delicatessen in Green Bay just happened to make this facebook post today: "Guys, just want to let you know how excited I am that the infrastructure for Wisconsin food is getting better all of the time. Things that just were not possible are slowly but steadily getting super possible." He's right, things have improved tremendously over the last several years and they keep getting better as more and more people become "aware of the social, economic and environmental impact of the food choices we make every day." (Slow Food, "What We Do") 

The purpose of this blogpost is to offer a little insight into what Slow Food is and does and what might be involved for any of you friends who think it might be a good thing to pursue as a local chapter. I'll copy and paste a few highlights from the Slow Food website below and include a few links that will provide more than the cursory overview I'm presenting here.

Slow Food "advocates for food and farming policy that is good for the public, good for the planet, and good for farmers and workers."

The Good, Clean and Fair page indicates that, "the idea of good means enjoying delicious food created with care from healthy plants and animals. The pleasures of good food can also help to build community and celebrate culture and regional diversity...[and] When we talk about clean food, we are talking about nutritious food that is as good for the planet as it is for our bodies. It is grown and harvested with methods that have a positive impact on our local ecosystems and promotes biodiversity...[and] Food that is fair should be accessible to all, regardless of income, and produced by people who are treated with dignity and justly compensated for their labor."

From the Plate to Planet page:

Our members are involved in activities such as:

• Raising public awareness, improving access and encouraging the enjoyment of foods that are local, seasonal and sustainably grown
• Caring for the land and protecting biodiversity for today's communities and future generations
• Performing educational outreach within their communities and working with children in schools and through public programs
• Identifying, promoting and protecting fruits, vegetables, grains, animal breeds, wild foods and cooking traditions at risk of disappearance
• Advocating for farmers and artisans who grow, produce, market, prepare and serve wholesome food
• Promoting the celebration of food as a cornerstone of pleasure, culture and community

Slow Food also promotes a number of Programs that fall under the headings of Campaigns, Children and Food, Ark of Taste and more (click here).

Under Start a Local Chapter:

What local chapters do

• Create projects and plan initiatives and events that fill a need in the community.
• Work to create access to and awareness of healthy, local and sustainably grown food.
• Work to connect producers and consumers.
• Grow the movement. Chapters involve and engage new members in their work and the food movement.
• Work collaboratively with other chapters and local partners to share resources and ideas.

Finally, a local chapter needs 5-10 founding members to make it happen. I'm just wondering or sending the call-out to folks, wondering if there is indeed interest in pursuing this. Are there enough like-minded people out there that would warrant starting a local chapter? If you're interested and motivated then please let me know (via comment here or, more likely, via messaging me on facebook). If it looks like it could be a go, then I'll do the paperwork, inquiries and initial bull work to make it happen.

Personally, I think it's a good thing and would only serve to enhance our extended communities and the kind of lifestyle and things so many of us enjoy (good food, community, fairness, support of local and small scale farming practices and so on...).

My facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/JavaTikiKing