I have always been partial to a dish of rabbit, so when I first came to Malta, I was happy to discover that this was an important part of the traditional Maltese culinary repertoire, especially the celebratory fenkata.
Since then, pasta with rabbit sauce has become a week-day favourite in my London kitchen too, as I am lucky enough to be able to buy wild rabbit from the local farmers’ market.
The European rabbit, originally a native of the Iberian Peninsula, has had a chequered existence. It has been domesticated for when noble lords had their own coneys, or rabbit warrens.
Before the onset of myxomatosis in the 1940s and 1950s – when much of the world’s rabbit population was wiped out – wild rabbit was so plentiful that it could hardly be given away. But rabbits are a hardy breed and they survived and continue to multiply.
From the same family as the hare, a wild rabbit has darker flesh than a tame rabbit, often with a gamy flavour; much depends on what it has been eating. A young rabbit feeding on a field of corn will be fat and deliciously tender. Farmed rabbit, too, makes good eating and its delicate, well-flavoured white meat is highly nutritious, lower in saturated fat, calories and dietary cholesterol than chicken and supplying 100 per cent of the recommended daily amount of vitamin B12.
Tame or farmed rabbits can grow to a huge size, and reach as much as 4.5 kilos by six months. Young rabbits should have soft ears that tear easily and small white teeth. If the claws are rough and blunt, it is an old rabbit fit only for the stewpot.
Rabbit is best eaten fresh and needs no hanging. If you want to hang your rabbit, it must be paunched beforehand, unlike a hare, and then hung by the hind legs.
Rabbit has much more flavour than the average broiler chicken and I often use it in recipes designed for chickens. As well as stews and casseroles, rabbit can be grilled, fried, barbecued or roasted but care must be taken to keep it well basted and thus moist as rabbits have little natural fat, especially wild rabbit.
As you would expect, wild rabbit is tougher than farmed rabbit and needs slower, gentler cooking.
Rabbit casserole is one of my favourite ways of cooking rabbit, in red wine with prunes, in white wine with baby onions and mustard, or in beer with celery or chunks of celeriac.
Some years ago I devised a recipe for steaming rabbit with lavender, which makes a lovely dish for early summer. Tarragon is the perfect herb to accompany rabbit and will turn it into a really fine dish. In summer think about serving a jellied rabbit terrine using white wine and tarragon.
A clay chicken brick is an excellent way of cooking rabbit. Soak the pot first, put a layer of small onions on the bottom and place the rabbit pieces on top. Scatter uncooked rice into the spaces (enough for the right number of servings), add twice the amount of stock or white wine, and saffron threads soaked first in a tablespoon of hot water.
Similar dishes are cooked in Portugal and Spain, although in Portugal it is likely to be cooked in the strong red Dão wine, giving a dark, rich dish. One of my favourite paellas, the classic country paella, is a simple combination of rabbit, snails, green beans and some chopped asparagus cooked with rice, saffron and stock. In fact, right across southern Europe you will find excellent recipes for rabbit, and today I include some of the best I have collected on my travels.
If you have never prepared a rabbit before, and you are lucky enough to be given one by a neighbour, here is what to do with it:
1. Remove ears and paws. Slit open skin along belly with sharp scissors. Ease away skin from flesh, along cut and around body.
2. Pull skin over each hind leg so that flesh of lower half of animal is completely freed.
3. Holding body firmly, pull skin up and over front quarters and head. Remove head.
4. Cut open belly up to breast bone. Remove entrails, reserving heart, liver and kidneys. Discard rest.
5. Cut away skin flaps below rib cage. The rabbit is now ready for roasting whole or it can be jointed.
6. Holding carcass firmly, divide it in half lengthways down the centre.
7. Remove both hind legs from carcass at thigh.
8. Remove both forelegs from carcass.
9. If you want equal-sized por-tions for casseroling, cut saddle crossways in half.