Brace yourself...
Justin Yates liked our rabbit recipe last issue so much, he had a dinner party and gave the recipe his own personal twist ... with memorable results
Several weeks ago OTW were offered a brace of rabbits (not as pets but for eating) with the idea that we could write up an article about cooking them, continuing the theme of cheap meal ideas. Being someone who’s usually up for trying something new especially if that something is free, I volunteered to be the one to take the rabbits & write the article. Returning home with them I put them in the freezer & planned in a few weeks time to invite a few friends over to try the rabbit with me. At that time, having never before tried rabbit I was genuinely quite looking forward to tasting it.
Having never cooked rabbit before, I looked for recipes on the internet. As you can imagine there were loads of meal ideas for rabbit. The majority though seemed to contain quite expensive ingredients & therefore didn’t fit with the theme of cheap, either that or they contained alcohol, which considering the nature of OTW I thought might be inappropriate. Eventually I decided that I would just make up my own recipe, using cheap ingredients. However even though the ingredients were cheap having to cook for a few others would be a strain on my limited finances, being on benefits every penny is used in my weekly budget, or at least this is what I told myself in order to justify having to postpone the rabbit meal for a few weeks because had it been beef or lamb in the freezer I would have easily found the money to cook it. I was starting to have a few qualms about eating the rabbits, which I told myself was stupid, as a meat eater why should I find this difficult? I guess we have developed to be wary of eating the unknown, our ancestors would have realised probably the hard way that food from an unusual or untested source could prove to be dangerous. I knew though where these rabbits had came from & that they were perfectly safe to eat & yet I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable about eating them.
A few days ago, deciding to face my fears & because the deadline for work to be submitted was looming, I took the rabbits from the freezer & set off for the shops to buy the ingredients. Yesterday afternoon feeling increasingly apprehensive, I cooked them & last night with the support of a few friends I ate them.
The result… delicious, very much like chicken (I know, that’s what everyone says when they’re describing the way unusual meat tastes!). In fact so much like chicken that had I not known it was rabbit I would never have guessed. Would I eat it again?, most definitely, so much so that if rabbit can be bought for less than chicken, it will become a regular addition to my normal shopping list.
I would certainly encourage anyone who gets the opportunity to buy & try rabbit, to do so.
