Rick Stein’s Rabbit Stifado

MUNCH RATING: 1/5

I knew I wanted to make a stew with the rabbit I bought from the Farmer’s Market in Epsom last Sunday, but as I’d never eaten or cooked it before I looked for some guidance. Even though I don’t like Rick Stein, I decided to have a flick through his Mediterranean Escapes book, which has been sitting unused on the bookcase since Steve’s Mum bought it last year. I spotted a recipe for Rabbit Stifado and thought it would be perfect because I had a packet of stifado herb and spice mixture that Steve’s sister brought me back from Halkidiki.

The herb mixture contained:

• thyme
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• bay leaves
• black peppercorns
• allspice

So I just replaced all of the spices in Rick’s recipe with about a third of my packet and the flavour of the sauce tasted authentically Greek. But the rabbit itself was a huge disappointment. It was really tough and dry and lacked flavour. What a waste of a fiver! I was a bit dubious about the short cooking time of the recipe and I REALLY regretted not cooking this in my Tefal slow cooker! The sauce was also very watery, so I added some cornflour at the end to thicken.

I served the stew with rice and potatoes as that’s what was served to us in the restaurants we visited in Greece. I sautéed the potatoes with garlic and rosemary and they were the best part of the meal!

So now I have even more reasons to not like Rick Stein! Here’s Rick’s recipe if you want to make the mistake of making it!

• Serves: 4
• Cooking time: 55 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 large rabbit, weighing about 1.5kg, jointed
• 6 allspice berries
• ½ teaspoon black peppercorns
• 3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon flour
• 5 garlic cloves
• 50ml red wine vinegar
• 600ml red wine (I used Merlot Pinot Grigio)
• 400g chopped tomatoes
• 5cm piece cinnamon stick
• 6 cloves
• 2 fresh bay leaves
• 50g currants (I left these out as I’ve never had stifado with them in!)
• 15g butter
• 450g small pickling onions or shallots*
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Season all the rabbit pieces with salt and pepper.
2. Grind the allspice berries and black peppercorns into a powder.
3. Heat the olive oil in a flameproof casserole. Dust the rabbit in the flour and knock off but reserve the excess. Add half the rabbit pieces to the casserole and fry over a medium-high heat until nicely browned on both sides. Remove to a plate and repeat with the rest of the rabbit.
4. Return all the rabbit to the pan with the garlic and the remaining flour and cook for 1 minute.
5. Pour over the vinegar and leave it to bubble for a minute or two, then add the red wine, tomatoes, ground spices, cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves, currants, 1 teaspoon salt and some freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil, part-cover and simmer for 55 minutes or until the rabbit is very tender and the sauce has reduced.
6. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a medium-sized pan, add the pickling onions or shallots and the sugar and fry, shaking the pan now and then, until they are richly golden all over. Then add 2 Tablespoons water, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes until tender. Uncover, raise the heat and cook more rapidly for a minute or two, shaking the pan until the onions are covered in a shiny glaze. Season with a little salt and pepper and set aside.
7. When the rabbit has had the required cooking time, stir in the caramelised onions and simmer for a further 5 minutes.

* I bought a packet of baby onions and to make it easier to peel them, I blanched them in boiling water for about 1 minute, so the skins came away more easily.