When you spend as much money as I did on a pot (even though I got about a hundred off by waiting and shopping hard) you just feel this overwhelming need to fill it up as often as you can, even though it will be with you for the rest of your life. Somehow I got rabbit stuck in my head this week, so I headed over to Iverstine Butcher on Perkins where they keep dressed whole rabbits in the freezer along with a lot of other things you probably would love to check out. Be prepared to spend when you go in though. Place is like a Christmas store for home cooks and it is very easy to get over-excited and blow a lot more of your paycheck than you intended to. Stay focused. Exercise some self control. Who am I kidding? “Took one look at those pecan colored eyes and said Go crazy girl!” Wise Blood 1979 directed by John Houston based on Flannery O’Connors 1952 novel by the same name. Cult classic we used to watch over and over at the Varsity Theatre along with Eraserhead and Rocky Horror Picture Show. We could quote every line. “I reckon you think you been redeemed?!” was always one of my favorites, and I would throw it down at the most inappropriate times. Right. Rabbit. After I thawed the rabbit, I salt and peppered it and let it sit overnight.
I timed it up so that was Friday and I could hit the Red Stick Farmers market Saturday for the freshest possible produce. It was going to be an all day rain so everyone was set up on the ground floor of the Galvez parking garage. I was able to score a very nice spread of ingredients to go with the rabbit.
The thing I love most about my new Le Creuset dutch oven is how it was designed specifically to go from stovetop to oven. The handles make it super easy to move and the lid fits perfectly to keep everything in when it goes into the oven. I was able to use my poultry shears to cut up the rabbit for browning.
After I had the rabbit where I wanted it, I pulled it and set it aside while I sautéed and seasoned the vegetables aggressively. I was going to hit it all again with a last round of seasoning when I added the chicken gravy I had going on the side ( 1 quart Swanson’s chicken broth, four packets of McCormick chicken gravy mix) but I like to get the seasoning in deep with the veggies whenever I do a one pot dish like this.
Once the onions softened up, I put the rabbit back in the pot, poured the chicken gravy over the whole thing, secured the lid and ran it in the oven for a couple of hours at three hundred. Yes, I could have just dumped it in the slow cooker to finish, but that’s another pot to clean and it isn’t nearly as dramatic and fulfilling as pulling the Le Creuset out of the oven, placing it back on the stovetop and then lifting the lid to bask in your success and achievement and affirm your raison d’être.
