Roasted Stuffed Rabbit with Mashed Rutabaga and Roasted Romanesco and Cornbread

Happy Valentine’s Day!

It’s been awhile since my last post… but with good reason (some good and some bad)… Let’s start with bad: We’ve had a sick kitty and injured dog over the last week. Skiddy our cat must have gotten some bad cat food we are guessing, he was really not doing well up until 2 days ago (I wont go into the details of all that but he had some tummy troubles). Our dog Ginger was playing fetch and scraped her throat… she’s the world biggest wuss (a cute wuss) so she wasn’t handling it too well but was really fine after some new wet food and some doggy pain meds (she made it out to be much worse than it was, think man cold).

The good news: It’s that time of year again and I’ve been EXPERIMENTING for the upcoming Food Experiment’s: Taco Experiment! My recipe is top secret right now…. so I can go into detail what I’ve been experimenting with but I can guarantee you it will be bad ass! Last year I won third place in judges pick so I’m hoping to beat that status this year! I love events like this and cannot wait to compete! If you live in or around Austin, please come out and show Zestybeandog some love – tickets are cheap and well worth it, you get 20 delicious creations to sample, a free beer, and live music. I need you!!!

This is a Farmer’s Market Feast to say the least… If you have never had rabbit, I suggest you try it at least once in your life. It’s really good! It has a very light mouth feel and the way I prepared mine made them not gamey at all. Rabbit meat is a source of high quality protein.^[20] It can be used in most ways chicken meat is used. In fact, well-known chef Mark Bittman says that domesticated rabbit tastes like chicken because both are blank palettes upon which any desired flavors can be layered.^[21] Rabbit meat is leaner than beef, pork, and chicken meat (via Wiki). I roasted 2, 2-3 lb rabbits for 5 people it could have served about 8.

Prep: 45 min

Cook Time: 1.5 hrs (or until done).

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

Rabbit:

• 5-6 lbs of fresh rabbit.
• 2 lemons, juiced
• 2 pads of butter
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• fresh thyme, 1 TBS

Stuffing:

• 3 Cornbread muffins, broken up
• 2 C. French bread broken up
• 4 Stalks Celery, diced
• 2 Carrots, diced
• 2 large shallots, diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/2 C. Chicken stock
• 1/4 C. butter
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 2 green onion, chopped
• 1 TBs olive oil

Mashed Rutabaga: (Has half the calories of  potato version).

• 2 large Rutabagas chopped into 1″x1″ cubes
• 2 TBS. Butter
• 1/4 C. milk
• 1/2 C. parm reggiano cheese
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 2 TBS, Green onion

Roasted Romanesco:

• 1 large bunch of romanesco, cut up into smaller stalks
• 2 TBS olive oil
• Sea salt
• parm reggiano cheese 1/4 cup

Instructions:

Rabbit:

1. Preheat Oven to 325 F.
2. Clean rabbit and pat dry, remove inner organs in any and save for a pate possibly.
3. Stuff with stuffing and place in roasting pan.
4. Melt butter, add lemon juice and thyme and baste onto rabbit, then season with salt and pepper,  there will be plenty left to “re-baste” a second time.
5. Cover with foil and cook for 1 hour and 15 min.
6. Uncover, re-baste, and cook uncovered until internal temp is 160 F.

Stuffing:

1. Heat a large skillet and cook garlic, carrots, shallots, and celery for 5-8 min on medium high in 1 TBS of olive oil.
2. Transfer to large mixing bowl with breads, butter, stock, and seasonings, mix well.
3. Stuff rabbits evenly.

Mashed Rutabaga:

1. Bring lightly salted water to boil in a large pot, add rutabaga chunks and boil until tender, about 30-45 min.
2. Drain water and mash adding spice, milk, butter, and cheese. Add green onion last and mix.
3. Cover until ready to serve.

Roasted Romanesco:

1.  Place cut up romanesco onto a large foil lined cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and seasoning, bake for 2–25 min at 325 F.
2. Top with parm reggiano cheese.

Enjoy this farmers market feast with good friends, family, and lot’s of wine! Cheers!