“Each night the Mavishan had built a fire and
cooked some sort of stew or soup with the gatherings of the day; and once
roasted a rabbit caught in a snare he had quickly set up with springy sapling
branches, sticks and coarse twine, across a trail leading down to the shores of
a tinkling brook.” (Excerpt from Gift of
the Blood God – Drawn)
As young rabbit is the best to roast, and young rabbit is
particularly difficult to come across in New Zealand – honestly any rabbit is
difficult for a city girl to come across in New Zealand unless she has some
avid hunting mates to call on. The furry
bunny is a pest in our little country so not much call amongst the farming
community to farm the little blighters, so not supermarket fodder. The last time someone shot a couple of
rabbits for me, it was my art teacher who took his cute little Jack Russell out
with him on the hunt, and gave me the fruits of his labour, one for me and one
for my dog. My mum made rabbit pie (I
think just because it was the easiest way to shred the meat and get the shot
out of it). In this instance, however, I’ve
settled on a bunny recipe by Matt Tebbutt of Saturday Kitchen Best Bites on BBC
Food and substituted rabbit loin for boned chicken thigh. (I apologise profusely – it was the best I
could do with my non resources, and it was on special too).
Here’s the link to the recipe:-
And here’s my bastardised version:-
Marinade:- Not owning a mortar and pestle, I couldn’t roast
the cumin and coriander seeds, peppercorns or dried chilly, so ground and
flakes it was straight into the virgin olive oil, garlic and chopped mint and
coriander leaves and stalks.
Rabbit loin obviously takes less time to fry than deboned
chicken thigh so before putting it in the marinade give it a quick bash to flatten
it a bit otherwise, like me it’ll take longer than the 2-3 minutes a side to
cook given in the recipe.
For the couscous, not being able to obtain Cabernet
Sauvignon vinegar, I substituted it for the real thing – Selaks Cabernet
Sauvignon actually, a tasty drop from Australia - bonus was that I got to have
a glass or two after the meal which was really nice. If you don’t have the vinegar, and use the
real deal then lose the sugar, you don’t need it, just heat to burn the alcohol
off and throw in your shallots (or spring onions in my case). I had to forgo the piquillo peppers too, this
is Christchurch, New Zealand – Spanish deli’s or supermarkets that carry
ingredients from Spain are few and far between – so no piquillo peppers…
Here’s the result, and don’t forget when
you’re looking at it, I’m not a food photographer, this is my actual dinner:-
It tasted great by the way, despite the colour of the
couscous, however next time when I actually get a rabbit, I think I’ll add
extra chilli flakes to the marinade. The
small amount I did put in bursting across my taste-buds was yum, and just made
me want more.
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