12/08/2020
Winter food.
I thoroughly enjoy this crisp, cold air, a good hike into the mountains, the smell of wet forest, so fresh and so earthy! After a couple of hours out in a bush, a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of hearty stew feels just right!
I like to cook meat with lightly coloured wines like Pinot noir or Grenache, yet with a developed palate. It has so much to give away to the meat including a beautiful burgundy colour, and they are just acidic enough to make the meat tender and flavourful. I do like European wineries, which still stick to their roots making old-fashioned paramount wines with earthy-herbaceous aromas, perhaps neglecting contemporary demands and economic/financial sense. The mainstream and common tactics of these days directing winemaking more and more towards citrus, light, brisk and energetic, fruity palate. Maybe I am just a slow learner, and eventually, I will fall in love with new line of Pinot, Chardonnay and Syrah from Australia, New Zeeland and South Africa, Chile and California. For now, I do prefer the good-old oaky Chardonnay both, to cook and to drink.
Well, enough "wining", back to my rabbits.
This dish, the Rabbit stew, had been served to Medieval European kings and nobles for centuries.
It is still a very popular ethnic food in many European countries to this day. To name just a few: Coniglio al cacciatora (hunter’s rabbit stew) in Italy, Ragu od Zeca in Croatia, Estofado de conejo
(rabbit stew) in Spain, Hasenpfeffer in Germany, Lapin à la cocotte (rabbit casserole) in France, Garkoe iz Krolika in Ukraine.
Growing up in Ukraine, I was spoiled to have once a year a lavish Rabbit stew that my mom cooked.
My father was a hobby hunter, and twice a year he was away for a week at a time - once for the ducks, and second time for the rabbits. The recipe for cooking Duck stuffed with Apples is coming. As well as the recipe of the Summer Rabbit stew in White wine.
Nevertheless, if you buy your rabbit from a butcher, ask him to chop the little carcass into several chunks. I do like cooking meat with the bone. The dish seems to have more flavour at the end.
So, once you have your rabbit in chunks, just place them in a pot and pour the Red over it till the meat is covered. I usually toss in a few whole buds of Clove, along with a small roll of Cinnamon bark - I think it's okay to create a Christmas food/mood more often than once a year.
I thoroughly enjoy this crisp, cold air, a good hike into the mountains, the smell of the wet forest, so fresh and so earthy! After a couple of hours out in a bush, a cup of hot chocolate and a bowl of hearty stew feels just right!
