serves
4
prep
20 minutes
cook
2 hours
difficulty
Easy
serves
4
people
preparation
20
minutes
cooking
2
hours
difficulty
Easy
level
Stream free On Demand
Shane Delia's Malta
series • Travel
PG
series • Travel
PG
Ingredients
Rabbit marinade
- 1 whole large rabbit
- 750 ml bottle red wine
- 2 cinnamon quills
- 3 star anise
- 1 head garlic, cut horizontally in half (no need to peel)
- 3 sprigs of thyme
- Freshly cracked black pepper
Rabbit braise
- Olive oil, enough to cover ½ cm of the bottom of the pan, for searing the rabbit
- 100 g plain flour
- 200 g white onion, diced
- 20 g garlic, sliced
- 2 cinnamon quills
- 2 star anise
- 4 cloves
- 1 sprig thyme
- 3 bay leaves
- 5 g ground coriander
- 5 g ground cumin
- 2 g ground turmeric
- 5 g curry powder
- 5 g smoked paprika
- 5 g ground ginger
- 150 g tomato paste
- Pinch of saffron, steeped in ¼ cup warm water for 10 mins
- 800 g crushed tomatoes
- 500 g baby chat potatoes, washed
- 120 g fresh peas
- 10 g salt
- 5 g freshly cracked black pepper
- 20 g parsley, finely sliced
- fresh wild basil, to serve (substitute with regular fresh basil)
- finely grated parmesan cheese, to serve
Marinating time: 1 hour minimum, ideally overnight
Instructions
- Place the whole rabbit in a large shallow bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight to allow the rabbit to fully absorb the flavours.
- When ready to cook, pre-heat oven to 180°C.
- In a heavy-based oven-proof pan large enough to eventually hold the rabbit, add ½ cm of olive to cover the bottom of the pan.
- Remove rabbit from marinade, shaking off the excess and setting marinate aside. Coat rabbit in flour, shaking off excess flour, then add to the pan to sear. Sear the rabbit just enough so it has a bit of colour on it and set aside.
- Add a little more olive oil to the pan, then add the onion, garlic, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, thyme and bay leaves and sweat it down over a medium-high heat (no lid, without letting it colour).
- Once it starts to sweat, add the ground coriander, cumin, turmeric, curry powder, smoked paprika and ground ginger, stirring to combine, and allow to fry to a minute or two until fragrant.
- Add tomato paste and cook this out until it starts to caramelise. Add in the saffron and steeping water to the mix, crushed tomatoes then strain the marinating wine into the pan.
- Stir it to release all the sediment from the bottom of the pan and bring it to the boil.
- Once it comes to the boil, add in the rabbit, ensure that it is completely submerged. If not add enough water just to cover the rabbit.
- Put potatoes on top of rabbit in the pot, place a lid on and cook in the pre-heated oven for approximately 1.5 hours, or until the potatoes are cooked. By the time the potatoes are cooked the rabbit should be cooked as well.
- Once the potato and rabbit are cooked, add the peas, salt, cracked pepper and parsley. Check for seasonings and allow to sit at room temperature with a lid on for 5 minutes. This will allow for the peas to cook and still be fresh and crisp.
- For serving you can either serve directly from the pot or serve the rabbit meat and potatoes separately and then use the rabbit sauce and sprinkle over wild basil. Traditionally served with spaghetti and seasoned with parmesan.
Cook's Notes
Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.
Stream free On Demand
Shane Delia's Malta
