Dave Wallace sent in this tasty little gem.
In Australia, rabbit was once known as “Depression Mutton”, but now it has become a darling of the cooking shows.
Matthew Evans provides the rabbits for this traditional Greek recipe, wherein the meat is browned then slow-cooked with onion, garlic and spices, resulting in a richly flavoured stew.
Chop each rabbit into 6 large pieces.
Heat the olive oil in deep-sided, heavy-based pot. Add the butter and oregano. Season well with salt and pepper.
Add the rabbit pieces and brown all over. (Dust the rabbit with flour before browning, if desired.) Add the garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Remove the rabbit when brown.
Add the onion to the pot and fry, stirring occasionally, in the pan juices. Add the orange zest, cloves and cinnamon sticks (plus a bit of cumin too if you want). Add the baby bay leaves and stir. Add the tomato paste and red wine.
Season with freshly ground black pepper. Cook for about 5 minutes.
Return the rabbit to the pan, and sprinkle over the ground cinnamon. Cover the rabbit with water. Cover and bake in oven for about 2 hours at 160°C.
Drink remaining red wine, sing opera, and serve at leisure with bread and more red!
Now, you will note that this is closer to a soup than a stew, and that it is certain that if it was on the menu in any metropolis in the USA, somewhere, sometime, somehow, some clown will complain “Waiter, there’s a hare in my soup”