Recipes from professional Chef Tallyrand:

WELSH RABBIT STEW RECIPE

Bore da . . . . .

Shwd i chi? (How are you?) It is St David’s Day this week: Friday March 1st. Therefore I am kicking this month off with a Welsh recipe, I will all this month be looking at recipes and foods that have a hint of the wilderness about them; game meats, seafoods and many other foods that can be found in the wild.

Why? Because next week here on the Wild West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand it’s our annual Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika. This one day event attracts 20,000 visitors from all over New Zealand and the world . . . not bad for a town with only a 3,000 population! Trust me this is an event that you do not want to miss if you are ever here in March . . . it is a food lovers dream! To find out more about this event <click here>

We are blessed here in New Zealand with an abundance of foods that can be gathered, caught, netted or shot with little effort . . . well okay sometimes it’s a long hike with a deer strapped to your back! Foods like goat, chamois, thar, deer and seafoods not to mention berries, mushrooms and many other edible plants. It is something I think many people have lost and miss out on in this day and age of supermarkets, hyper-markets and pre packaged foods. But what a treasure trove of foods and flavours it can be; there is nothing like the taste of wildfoods, foods with real flavours to them, strong and untouched unlike the dull, lifeless flavours of many of our foods today.

Rabbits are one of these, more flavour than chicken but not as strong as many wild meats making it a perfect introduction to many people. Rabbit pie used to be a staple in the UK, as was this week’s recipe for rabbit stew. Mind you, once you finish cooking this dish, placing it into a clean dish and covering it with a nice layer of short or puff pastry and one has a rabbit pie! How easy can that be?

We have all heard of the dish called ‘Welsh Rarebit’, this dish is actually a hyped up version of cheese on toast with not a rabbit in sight. This week’s recipe however has very much a lot to do with rabbit, why not try it when you next see rabbit for sale. Do not fear it, just treat it like a tough chicken; be careful with your hygiene standards and you will soon be asking yourself . . . "why haven’t I done this before” ? Served in front of a roaring fire, this will soon warm you up after a winter’s day battling the snow and traffic on the way home from work.

If you would like something else to celebrate St David’s day or to serve as a dessert with this stew, then try my . . . well okay my auntie’s recipe for Welsh cakes <click here>

Have a great St. David’s Day, lechyd da and enjoy!

Welsh Rabbit Stew Recipe

Ingredients for Rabbit Stew

rabbit	1	pc
flour	150	gm
chicken stock	500	ml
rosemary sprig	1	pc
onion	1	pc
carrot	3	pc
potato	3	pc
turnip	1	pc
leek	1	pc

How to make Rabbit Stew

1.	Have the rabbit cut up into portions for you by the butcher if you are not handy with doing it yourself
2.	Prepare a casserole dish by spreading the onion; finely sliced on the bottom and crushing the rosemary sprig in your hand to release the aroma and lay on top of the onion
3.	Peel and roughly chop the vegetables
4.	Season the flour with a little salt and freshly ground pepper and toss the rabbit pieces it in to lightly coat (keep the flour for later)
5.	Heat a little oil in a heavy frying pan and lightly brown the rabbit all over and place the pieces into a casserole dish
6.	Add the stock into the frying pan to lift all the sediment off the base and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Strain over the rabbit
7.	Cover tightly and place in the oven at 180ºC for 2 - 3 hours until the rabbit is starting to get tender
8.	Remove from the oven, pick out any fine bones and add the vegetables. Cook for a further 40 minutes, topping up with more stock if required
9.	Remove from the oven and place the rabbit onto a tray
10.	Mix the flour with a little cold water to form a slurry, stir into the stew and cook on top of the stew while stirring until slightly thickened
11.	Add the rabbit back in and re-heat
12.	Serve with mountains (well it is a Welsh recipe) of creamy mashed potatoes

Chef's Tip for Rabbit Stew

While not traditionally Welsh; a garlic clove or two may be added at stage six if you wish.

Enjoy youe Rabbit Stew and bon appetit . . . . .

Published 04 March 2002