This recipe has stirred up a childhood memory of mine:
My brother wanted a rabbit. He had made the usual promises to ‘look after
it’ – feed it, clean it out, - as you do, so Gran took him to a local farmer
and rabbit breeder to choose one.
He
brought home a lovely doe, white with brown markings, and kept his promise to
look after her. What he hadn’t known though, was that she was pregnant and
shortly after her arrival, there was soon a writhing nest of fluffiness at the
back of her hutch. She produced eight
beautiful kittens (yes, baby bunnies are called kittens) and most of them found
homes.
One lunch-time, when Dad said all the rabbits had now gone and just
mother rabbit (Mabel) was left, Mum had made stew for dinner. It smelt
delicious and Mum began to serve it with new potatoes and green beans - fresh
from the garden. I looked at my plate, and then at Mum and asked what kind of
stew it was, to be told, as I had feared, ‘Rabbit Stew’. I said I wasn’t hungry
and would just have the vegetables, but my brother declared:
“It
was my rabbit, so I want the most!” – which he has never been allowed to
forget.
Rabbit Stew (or not) and dumplings at FancyPans
To make
(Rabbit) Stew, you will need a casserole dish large enough to contain the
ingredients, leaving three to four inches between the stew and the lid.
Take the pieces
of rabbit (or not – chicken is a good substitute, or you can use any meat,
beef, lamb – but then it becomes more of a hot-pot – or a selection of
root-vegetables like swede, parsnip, sweet-potato, if you prefer a meat-less
treat) and coat them in seasoned flour.
Melt a
good scoop of dripping in a large casserole dish (or use vegetable oil if
preferred) and fry the meat to seal it.
Remove from the dish for a moment whilst you chop an onion and fry that
until it is soft (but not brown). Put the meat back into the pan (or vegetables
if you are no carnivore) and add two sliced carrots and a couple of sticks of
chopped celery.
You then
need to add enough stock to cover the meat and veg – you can either buy stock
or use stock-cubes and make the correct quantity up with boiling water. Chicken
stock is best, (or vegetable if you are veggie - obviously). Add a few sprigs
of thyme, put the lid on and pop it into the oven at around 160C for about an
hour-and-a-half.
Whilst the
casserole is simmering, make your dumplings:
Take 4oz self-raising
flour (remember this is an old recipe when pounds and ounces were used), add
4oz suet (you can get vegetarian suet too) and season well (a good pinch of salt
does the trick). At this point, you can add some chopped thyme if you would
like ‘herby dumplings’. Add about five
tablespoons-full of cold water and bring the mixture together with your (clean)
fingers. It needs to be a firm, but pliable, dough. Split the mix into eight
and make each piece into a ball. After
the casserole has been in the oven for about an hour add the dumplings and
replace the lid so that they cook in the steam as they sit on top of the stew –
about twenty – thirty minutes from when you would like to eat it.
Serve with
potatoes of choice (new, mashed, roasted) and some green vegetables (cabbage,
green beans).
Ingredient recap:
For the
stew:
Prepared
rabbit (or chicken, beef, lamb or root vegetables)
Dripping
(or vegetable oil)
2 large
carrots – sliced
1
large-ish onion – sliced
2 sticks
of celery – de-stringed and chopped
Stock
(chicken or vegetable)
Chopped
thyme (or a few sprigs of thyme tied together for easy removal)
For the
Dumplings:
4 oz self-raising
flour
4 oz suet
Salt –
good pinch
5 tablespoons
of cold water
(chopped
herbs if desired)
© Karen Ette 2014
© Karen Ette 2014
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