Braised Rabbit with Mash

May 20, 2003

So far we are having a surprisingly mild winter. Considerably warmer, in fact than some of our early summer days. However, as the day grow darker earlier, it's nice to scuttle back home and tuck into some of the winter specials we haven't eaten for several months.

When we visited upcountry for the weekend, we called into a market garden on the way home. There is nothing quite like buying vegetables that were growing in the neighbouring field a few hours earlier. It's also much better than paying twice the price in the city for goods that are half as fresh.

The sight of lovely clean white parsnips soon had the creative juices flowing and I could mentally picture a steaming bowl of mashed root vegetables.

Mash is certainly something that has come into its own in recent times. There is nothing like food fashion to elevate some humble ingredient or other into the gourmet class.

It's not too long ago that mash was something fed to people who had no teeth - babies or otherwise. Now it's a trendy menu item. OK, so it's undergone a few changes. Potatoes were once mashed with a knob of butter and some milk. They days they are whipped with extra virgin olive oil, maybe with a dash of truffle-infused oil. Or they are beaten into a cream with celeriac, or tarted up with sour cream and a liberal sprinkling of chopped chives.

While my sons would never deign to touch roasted parsnip or pumpkin, they somehow never quite twigged to the fact that the mystery ingredients in the mashed carrots they devoured with gusto were actually parsnip and pumpkin. Now, of course, these vegetables often appear in their pureed form under the equally fashionable restaurant lambshanks.

I was down at the local market a few weeks back and I spied some wild rabbit legs in the meat cabinet so I tucked some in the freezer for cooler days. Here they are in today's recipe, although skinned chicken thighs and drumstick can easily be substituted.

Braised Rabbit with Mash

6-8 rabbit legs (or chicken pieces)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chunks
1 red onion, sliced
1 white onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
150ml dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
two handfuls of fresh herbs (thyme, marjoram, parsley, sage, a little French tarragon, rosemary - whatever you have)
salt and ground white pepper
flour and water for thickening
sour cream

Brown the rabbit legs in the oil in a heavy pan (1). Add the carrot, onion and garlic (2) and turn over in the pan until the onion softens. Stir in the wine and fresh herbs (3) and cook a further two minutes then turn all into a heavy casserole dish(4)and add the chicken stock.

Season and place in a pre-heated 180C oven and bake for two hours or until the rabbit is tender (5) and falling off the bone. Thicken the sauce if necessary with a little flour and water. Just before serving, stir in a couple of spoons of sour cream (optional).

Carrot and Parsnip Mash

3 large carrots
2 medium parsnip
2 medium peeled potatoes
1 tablespoon cultured (or ordinary) butter
seasoning

Chop the vegetables into chunks and simmer until tender. Drain and mash with the cultured butter and season to taste (6). You can leave them slightly chunky or whip them with a fork until they are smooth.