Rabbit: the delicious white meat.

What? You never had rabbit before? Oh, you're missing a lot !! Before you dismiss it as "bizarre food", give yourself a chance to have a taste.. you'll love it. It's white meat, lean and delicious. As I said before, Mediterranean culture cooks everything found in its natural habitat, and never lets anything go to waste. We try anything at least once, we eat everything, and enjoy it. So I grew up eating rabbit, without thinking twice about it. The first time I discovered rabbit in New York, I was elated. We have a traditional Egyptian dish "Meloukheya with rabbit". They say it's the best, by comparison of course to the one made with chicken or meat. I really never saw the difference: in any case it's a delicious green soup made with special green leaves and, you guessed it, rabbit (chicken or meat) soup. But the thing about rabbit here is that they are huge. I am used to rabbit the size of a Cornish hen or a small chicken, but the ones I usually get are roughly the size of a small deer (I'm exaggerating of course, but this is how it seemed to me the first time I bought it). I thought, because of the size that they would be tough and hard to cook, but no, they were still delicious. But because of their size, I had to figure out how to best deal with a whole rabbit and get two dishes out of it.

RABBIT WITH VEGETABLES

I had this dish for the first time in Milan, Italy. I was visiting my Italian mammina, and she made it for us. We were sitting with her in the kitchen, so I guess that between drinks and chatting with all the friends, I managed to notice what she was doing. The first time I tried to replicate it was many years later, when I was looking for different ways to cook a rabbit I just bought, because, after all, how much Meloukheya can a person eat in a week? You'll need:

4 pieces of rabbit (2 legs and 2 pieces of waist)

5 celery stalks chopped

1 1/2 cups baby carrots chopped in small rings

4 to 5 tbsp flour

1 cup white wine(optional. You can use stock or even water)

1 1/2 cup skim milk or 4 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp olive oil (I use extra light)

Salt and pepper to taste

Rinse the rabbit pieces and remove any transparent film you may find hanging over some parts of the meat. You'll be able to do that by hand. In a shallow dish, mix 1 1/2 tbsp of flour with salt and pepper. Lightly coat the rabbit pieces with the flour mixture. In a dutch oven heat the oil, and cook the rabbit pieces on all sides, trying not to let them brown. Add the chopped vegetables, some salt and pepper and stir. Add the wine if you're using it (or stock or water). Stir to release any bits stuck to the pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and cook covered for about 15 minutes. Dissolve the remaining flour in the milk (or the sour cream with a drop of water to make it easier). When the liquid in your pot is almost absorbed, add the milk with the flour. Stir to make sure that there are no lumps. Cover, reduce the heat and let cook until fork tender. You may need to add some liquid to get the required result. But not too much or your sauce will not be thick enough.

Serve over rice pilaf or yellow rice.

RABBIT SOUP

The best thing about rabbit bought in New York is that it doesn't need much cleaning. It doesn't have those pieces of fat that I usually have to remove from chicken or meat, it comes already skinless, and all you have to do is to remove any transparent film you find over the meat and you're done. Sometimes it even comes without that tiny film, so you just wash it and pat it dry and you're good to go. This is why making rabbit stock or soup is so easy. The original recipe called for sauteing the rabbit pieces in their own juice, then discarding the liquid, then sauteing it again in butter and filling the pot with water in order to cook the rabbit again in it. With the good quality rabbit we have here, you don't have to do all that. You'll just need the remainder of the rabbit:

1 rabbit breast cut in 2 pieces

1 whole medium onion

1/2 tsp ground cardamom

1 tsp celery salt

2 to 3 mastic crystals (sold in Mideastern stores, they look like small amber pieces, each piece about the size of the small pearl you find sometimes on a pin head)

Salt and pepper to taste

Fill a 5.5 qt pot with water, up to the handles. When the water comes to a boil add the rabbit pieces and cover. When it comes again to a boil check if there is any white foam or bubbles on the surface. If you find any remove them with a spoon. When there is no more bubbles coming out, add the onion, the spices, salt and pepper and the mastic. Cover and let simmer over medium heat. The rabbit will be done when the onion is done. You'll have an aromatic soup with a somewhat white color, it's the mastic that makes it white. The aroma comes from the cardamom and the celery salt. Please make sure that you don't put too much cardamom or mastic because they can make the soup bitter. Use it as soup or cook with it. The rabbit you can eat  boiled or lightly sauteed in a thin slice of butter (less than a tbsp).