CookEat Recipe
Rabbit Pie
Rabbit, small onions and potatoes braised with white wine and demi-glace, then baked under a folded butter pastry lid.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Heat a conventional oven to 350°F. Use one fresh food rabbit, already skinned and well cleaned, weighing about three and a half pounds. Cut that same rabbit into eighteen even pieces. Keep the rabbit and salt pork refrigerated at 4°C or colder until cooking.
Step 2
Heat two tablespoons rendered leaf lard in a heavy frying pan. Add the rabbit, season with one teaspoon salt and half a teaspoon white pepper, and brown gently for about ten minutes, turning occasionally. Lift the pieces into an ovenproof saucepan with the tablespoon butter and cook briskly on the hob for about five minutes, mixing lightly.
Step 3
Add the six finely chopped shallots and half a garlic clove, finely crushed; mix for one minute. Sprinkle over the heavy tablespoon flour and stir thoroughly. Measure two gills of finished demi-glace, then loosen that measured portion with a little hot unsalted White Broth prepared with veal bones and aromatics only. If the demi-glace was refrigerated or thawed, bring this diluted portion to a full rolling boil while stirring and check that it reaches at least 74°C.
Step 4
Add the gill white wine, half pint water and prepared demi-glace to the rabbit. Add the remaining half teaspoon salt, two saltspoons white pepper, half teaspoon chopped parsley, half teaspoon chopped chives, bay leaf and whole clove. Mix lightly, cover and let boil slowly for ten minutes.
Step 5
In a separate frying pan, brown the twelve peeled very small white onions in the remaining tablespoon leaf lard, tossing frequently, for about ten minutes or until nicely browned. Peel the two raw potatoes and scoop pieces from them. Add the pieces actually collected and the browned onions to the rabbit, with the ounce raw salt pork cut into small dice.
Step 6
Mix lightly, cover and braise in the oven for about forty minutes as a guide. Continue until the rabbit is fork tender, the potatoes and onions are tender, and the rabbit and salt-pork mixture reaches at least 74°C throughout, probing thick meat away from bone.
Step 7
Increase the conventional oven to 220°C. Transfer all the hot filling into a suitable deep baking dish. Brush the dish edges lightly with beaten whole egg. Roll out the chilled folded butter pie paste needed for one lid, keeping any unused paste cold. Cover the dish, press the paste around the edge with your thumb, trim neatly, make a few small incisions on top and brush the surface lightly with beaten egg.
Step 8
Bake for about twenty minutes as a guide, until the lid is golden and baked through, including its rim and underside, the egg wash is cooked, and the centre of the filling is at least 74°C. Protect the pastry edges if they colour too quickly while the pie finishes. Serve promptly.
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