Rabbit Tajine

Super day today! I had some lovely rabbit that I picked up from Quails R Us. The weather was a little warmer also; 38F(3C). Sultry :)

These are nice, meaty, perfectly cleaned rabbits, heads off. The people at Quails know what they’re doing!

They even provide you with a little plastic pouch with the offal from the rabbit! I’ve fallen in love with these people! I thought I did an excellent job of cutting the rabbit into pieces. Look at that “rable”!

I like it that they do their own slaughtering, butchering and packaging of the rabbit and their labeling is reassuring. I’m getting some guinea fowl when they have it :)

Serendipitously, my husband discovered a bottle of Pascal Bouchard Petit Chablis in an unpacked carton of our affairs today. Hallelujah! I was really going into a decline ?

Lifted, I sliced the baby bellas for my rabbit tajine. These were the closest to the Paris(crimini) mushrooms I could find, and they were good. Earthy.

This is a ragout that tempts you to eat it even before the final cooking but, sipping my wine, I just put the cover on, put it into the oven and walked away.

Rabbit Tajine

1 normal sized rabbit, cut up

2 tbsp olive oil

6 bacon strips, sliced

1 tbsp of butter

2 onions, halved and sliced

4 celery branches, sliced

4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped

10 sprigs fresh thyme, stripped of leaves

2 tbsp fresh parsley, coarsely chopped

1/2 lb large crimini mushrooms cut in half

6 small potatoes, quartered

1 glass white wine

Brown the rabbit in the olive oil and put into a large bowl. In the same pan, brown the bacon, remove from the pan and put in the bowl with the rabbit. In the same pan, add the butter and saute the onions, celery and garlic. Mix in the thyme and parsley, then pour all into the pan with the rabbit. Add the mushrooms and potatoes, stirring to blend.

Put the rabbit mixture in a tajine and pour the wine over all. Cover with the top and bake in a 350 degree oven for 60 minutes.