Coniglio al Miele con Verdure - Rabbit with Honey and Vegetables

I haven't been around lately. Almost two weeks ago, I started a new workout campaign, the P90X, that involved a nutrition plan. Between getting all our workouts done and eating appropriately for the nutrition plan, I didn't have any time to do much more than just cook whatever would feed our poor exhausted aching bodies.

Now that I've had some time to adjust, I was excited today to plan ahead and get a more interesting meal going. I prepped and chopped before our workout began and then it baked while we did our workout.

The dish was so exciting to me - it was a first! I've never cooked rabbit before... in fact, my butcher seems to have not sold rabbit before. I'd noticed that that Faletti's market carried rabbit and had been thinking about getting one. When I asked the butcher for a rabbit, he was so excited... He said no one ever ordered rabbit from him before!

This recipe was perfect since we'd just gotten our box which had carrots and green beans in it. I just bought a few turnips and some peas and I was all set. The hardest part was figuring out how to butcher the rabbit. I did a "How to" google search and the best thing I could come up with was the fabulous Brett's Flickr image of a rabbit he chopped into pieces. A lovely photo indeed, and fine work on his part, but I needed more help. A step-by-step preferably.

The best description I found was this:

1) With a large, heavy knife trim the ends of the front and hind legs.

2) Cut off the front and hind legs at the joints. Cut the hind legs into 2 pieces at the joint and the body into 3 equal sections. Cut the rib section in half through the breast and back bones and then cut each half in half.

And while there were steps, they weren't quite as detailed as I'd hoped.

Oh well, I figured this will have to do and I forged on ahead, chopping up the rabbit as well as I could. Not nearly as neat and pretty as Brett, but serving pieces nonetheless. I then melted most of a stick of butter and a tablespoon of honey. Sounds delicious already. (Can you tell I've been feeling deprived?)

I put the rabbit pieces in and cooked them for a few minutes, turning them often till they were browned all over and then removed them from the pot and put them aside.

I added 5 tablespoons of white vinegar to the lovely juices and reduced this for a while, scraping up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. While this was reducing, I heated a large pot of salted water and cooked the sliced turnips (4 small ones), sliced carrots (also 4), two thirds of a cup of green beans and a half cup of peas for about 5 minutes. Then I strained them and tossed them in the rabbit juice, added the rabbit, gently mixed to coat everything, put a lid on it and tossed it all in a preheated oven (400º). I baked this for 45 minutes while we did our workout. I have to say, there is something supermotivating about working out while smelling your delicious reward baking for you in the oven. It really did smell fantastic.

I served it with a simple green salad and we opened a bottle of our leftover wedding wine (a bounty that seems to go on and on). It was delicious!!! The rabbit was very flavourful - the sauce fantastic. The thicker parts of the rabbit were a little bit on the tough side, but the smaller ones, where the meat was closer to the bone, were juicy and delicious.

The real discovery though was the vegetables. They were so tasty, Big E suggested always cooking our veggies in honey and rabbit juices from here on out. So good!

Tasty Factor: A Ease of Preparation: B+ Modifications: None.