And if you go chasing rabbits...

And you know you're going to fall...
(Jefferson Airplane -White Rabbit)

Lesson 13- Traditional Recipes

Today's menu was braised rabbit meat.

The resulting dish from the demo

I actually really like rabbit meat. It's lean, tasty and something one doesn't come across all that often where I am from.

Of course cooking it is an entirely different matter. We each had a full rabbit (skinned) to work with, and have to learn about the different cuts and split the creature into different bits. The material itself was pretty disgusting. We're not allow to take photos of the kitchen during class, but I just had to snap a few photographs:

The "raw" material.

Step one is to CHOP off its head. Step 2 is to cut out its front and rear legs. Step 3 is.... Okay I'll stop.

Pair of front legs and hind legs from the rabbit I had.

Overall, I was not as traumatized as some other classmates of mine. To me it was just another ingredient to work with. Another day in the kitchen.

I think I did pretty well in this class, with my only fault being I didn't reheat my rabbit when I plated it. The meat was sitting out for around half an hour, and I should have thrown it into the oven for a few minutes just to get it warm again. The first words that Chef Terrien, our practical chef, said was "C'est foid!"Okay. Lesson learned. Chef Terrien was actually very nice and was very supportive, but he made it very clear that he would come down hard on us if we made the same mistakes the next time we have him.

Rabbit with mustard

Cut the rabbit, then sear the individual pieces on a hot pan.

Remove rabbit and saute onions, rosemary, garlic cloves and shallots on the same pan 

Brush mustard onto rabbit and put the pieces back onto the pan. Deglaze with white wine and chicken stock

Put into oven for ~15-25 minutes.

Take out. Reserve rabbit pieces and reduce the remaining liquid.
Saute the rabbit liver. Keep the insides pink.

When sauce is done reducing, put in mustard with whipping cream.

Strain sauce. Reheat rabbit meat.
Remember to season!

Serve

Boom

Quotes from this class:
"You did very well today, Howard. That's all I can tell you. You have to improve on a few things but I've told you what they are. Next time I will be paying close attention to you, and you better not make the same mistakes again." -Chef Terrien after I asked if I could see my grade for this class.

Demo Chef Stril: Each student will have his own rabbit to cut and cook.
Female students: *GASP* No!!!