Rabbit civet "à la normande"

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 6 people, you will need:

• 1 1 carrot
• 2 2 bayleaves
• 3 1 Bouquet garni
• 4 1 onion
• 5 1 kg 500 g rabbit meat
• 6 1 litre cider
• 7 30 g olive oil
• 8 2 tablespoons flour
• 9 200 g small pieces of smoked bacon
• 10 300 g mushrooms
• 11 250 ml liquid cream
• 12 2 tablespoons cornflour (optional)
• 13 3 tablespoons water (optional)
• 14 salt
• 15 pepper
• Total weight: 3,420 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
12 hours 35 min.	2 hours 30 min.	15 hours 3 min.

Step by step recipe

• 1:

  Prepare the marinade

  Peel 1 carrot and slice into rounds.
  Prepare and chop 1 onion.
  Set aside.
• 2: Have your butcher joint 1 kg 500 g rabbit meat for you.
• 3: Take a large bowl and add the carrot, onion, 2 bayleaves and 1 Bouquet garni. Lay the pieces of rabbit on top, then pour in 1 litre cider.
• 4: Cover with plastic film and refrigerate overnight.
• 5:

  Cook the meat

  Next day, drain the pices of rabbit and keep the marinade for later.
• 6: Pour 30 g olive oil into a large casserole or saucepan on high heat. When hot, fry the pieces of meat until browned on all sides.
• 7: It is much easier to do this in batches.
• 8: Return all the pieces of rabbit to the pan and turn the heat down a little.
• 9: Dust the meat with 2 tablespoons flour...
• 10: ...and stir well until evenly fried.
• 11: Pour the marinade (and all it contains) into the casserole, then salt and pepper.
• 12: Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to its lowest setting. Cover...
• 13: ...and leave to simmer for about 2 hours.
  Please note: the cooking should be long and slow, but this can be done in the oven, at 300°F (150°C), just as well as on the hob.
• 14: Meanwhile, fry 200 g small pieces of smoked bacon in a frying pan with no added fat.
  Set aside.
• 15: Peel 300 g mushrooms and cut into chunks.
• 16: Sauté the mushrooms in the frying pan used for the bacon, using the fat left.
• 17: After cooking for 2 hours, remove all the pieces of meat from the casserole.
• 18:

  Prepare the sauce

  Strain the liquid from the casserole through a sieve. DIscard everything strained out and keep just the liquid.
• 19: Pour the cooking liquid back ito the casserole, add 250 ml liquid cream, salt and pepper, then check the seasoning.
  Bring back to the boil.
• 20: From here on, there are 2 possible methods:
  - Either leave the sauce uncovered to thicken on low heat for about 1 hour,
  - Or use a whisk to incorporate 2 tablespoons cornflour mixed with 3 tablespoons water (cold) to thicken the sauce quickly.
• 21:

  Finish the civet

  In both cases, once the sauce has thickened sufficiently, return the pieces of rabbit to the sauce, along with the bacon and mushrooms, until ready to serve.
• 22: Your rabbit civet à la normande is ready. You can serve this with any accompaniment you like: mashed potato (shown here), pasta, rice, vegetables...

Remarks

For the cider, opt for a dry farmhouse type. You can use a perry instead (made with pears instead of apples), as this will also give a really good flavour.

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