$11 "Rabbits" - Lamb Shank Replacements with Fennel and White Beans

Slow-Cooker Rabbits with Fennel and White Beans
(from Canadian Living's Slow-Cooker Collection)

I only put "rabbits" in quotation marks because the frozen meat that constituted two rabbits' legs and bodies certainly did not resemble the animal. Still, in Belbin's Grocery in St. John's, the frozen meat selection was kind of exciting. No fancy cuts of meat, since this is not a butcher shop, but rabbits can be found cleaned and hacked up. Lamb legs abound, minced lamb, lamb shoulder, pheasant, cornish hen, partridge ("but no pear tree," noted my mother), duck legs, and duck breasts (but no whole duck, I noted, so no opportunity to render anything). Surprisingly, the fish selection paled by comparison. All cod and salmon, with a tiny bit of halibut. When I saw the price on the rabbits, I knew it was time to break out my parent's newest slow-cooker cookbook and show them just how much better than 'like chicken' rabbit can be.

Ingredients
2 rabbits, about 4 lbs (legs and breast meat, or whatever sections you have. Just one rabbit if it's the whole rabbit or it's big. Obviously, use your best judgment. Only so many rabbits can squeeze involuntarily into a slow cooker)
salt and pepper
oil
onion
carrot
fennel or celery
garlic, minced
dried thyme
dried fennel
equal parts dry white wine and chicken broth (about a cup of each)
2 cans navy beans (I certainly did not use cans. 3 cups of dried beans, soaked overnight, and cooked the next day worked much better, though it required a bit of forethought)
sun-dried tomatoes (in oil or not)
fresh parsley

It turns out that Living in Canada generally doesn't require the eating of rabbit, as that magazine does not include any recipes for it in their cookbook. So I looked for a recipe that might work well with a rabbit substitution. Normally I wouldn't go for a lamb recipe, since the meat is so much fattier and richer, so the seasonings would overwhelm the rabbit or it would end up dry, but it's a slow-cooker, so it's hard to make anything dry, and the flavourings in this dish were mild (white wine instead of red and sun-dried tomatoes instead of a whole can of diced tomatoes to make a stew-like sauce).

The original recipe was also very, very high in fat, but that can be cut in half by changing the meat to rabbit, and carefully draining the sundried tomatoes packed in oil (or using a non-oil-packed variety). The oil is good for flavour, though, and a little is definitely good.

I know I talk about loving slow-cookers all the time, but the recipes are so easy:

1. Sprinkle the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper and sear them on all sides in a little oil on medium-high heat. Do it in batches because the rabbit legs stick out in all directions and don't like sharing the pot. Really, they've spent their whole lives with the rest of the rabbit pieces, and deserve a bit of a respite.

2. While the rabbit is browning, dice an onion, a few carrots, the white part of a fennel bulb (or a handful of sticks of celery), and a few cloves of garlic.

3. Put the browned pieces into the slow-cooker. Reduce the heat to medium and add the vegetables to the same pan in which you seared the rabbit, along with a few big pinches of dried theme and fennel seeds. Cook the vegetables for about 5 minutes. If there's excess oil or fat from the searing, you can pour it off before adding the vegetables, but don't scrape off the brown bits that have stuck to the sides. That's one quick way to make the whole meal bland.

4. Now the vegetables should be starting to stick to the sides of the pan and brown (if this happens before they've softened - approximately the 5 minutes mentioned above - add a tiny bit of white wine to keep it cooking without burning). Add a cup of white wine to the pan and scrape all the delicious, stuck brown bits off the sides and into the sauce, as if you were making gravy (in essence, you are. It's just not as thick).

5. Then add a cup of chicken broth, bring the pot to a boil, and pour the whole thing over the rabbits in the slow-cooker.

6. Add the 4 cups of cooked (or 2 cans) beans and dice a half a cup of the sun-dried tomatoes. If they're packed in oil, drain them before dicing.

7. Turn the slow-cooker to high and cook for 5-6 hours. I did it for 6 and it worked fine, but it may have been on the side of too long. It is a lean meat, after all. After the 5-6 hours remove the rabbit pieces from the slow-cooker (easier said than done, since you need to work your way under all the vegetables and sauce) and cover it on a platter to keep it warm.

8. Skim the fat from the liquid, says the recipe...hmm...well that's practically impossible since there are so many beans and vegetables getting in the way. You could take out all the solid contents of the slow-cooker with a slotted spoon, but even then it's hard to isolate the fat. There's not much of it anyway. At least not as much as lamb would have had. So either struggle valiantly at removing fat, or just stir in the parsley and cut your losses (count your gains?).

9. To serve, spoon the beans and vegetable mixture onto a plate or shallow bowl and top it with the lamb. The upside of having failed miserably at skimming the fat after removing the liquid from the vegetables is that you can pour the liquid over the meat at the end, again more like a gravy. You could also reduce the liquid now that it's separated, and make it into a more concentrated flavour by simmering it in a small saucepan on the stove until its volume reduces by about half.

I actually served this a bit differently than the recipe suggested (above) by placing a scoop of mashed potatoes on the plate first, then topping it with the beans and vegetables, and finally by the meat. I also just used the parsley as a garnish since I kind of forgot to add it directly to the liquids. It worked just fine.

Mmm...rabbit. The sun-dried tomatoes made the dish. Without them, it would have been pretty boring, especially since I used celery instead of fennel. The beans were perfect, though, after cooking in the wine and rabbit juices, and I will eat them as a side dish long after all the rabbit meat is gobbled up. I thought this was my new favourite dish until two nights ago when I made my first ever whole leg of lamb with an almond poppy seed sauce. It marinated for 48 hours and then slow-baked in the oven. Not to talk down the rabbit or anything, but if you have to choose, always, always, always go with the Indian leg of lamb. Forthcoming...