Rabbit with cherry beer and dried cherries - a Belgian delight

If you are among those that are reading this blog since its very beginning, you will remember that back in March I had talked about how butchers and supermarkets' employees looked at us with disdain and horror when we were asking for rabbits to cook at home. We don't sell bunnies, a Whole Foods' employee said to us, treating us as if we had asked for a child's frozen limb.

Anyway, last weekend we finally got our rabbit, at Paulina's meat market in Chicago. It was ridiculously expensive ($30 for a 3lb frozen little beast!!!), but at least we got it. And I am told you can find it a lot cheaper elsewhere. Good to know. My wife cooked it Belgian style, with cherry beer and dried cherries. And it was PHENOMENAL. I am not a huge fan of rabbit: I eat it when it is there, but I will not go out of my way to find it, and I will rarely order it at a restaurant. But this recipe is really to die for. True, this blog is about my discovery of American food...but I guess that a Belgian recipe cannot do any harm, can it? So you will find it below.

The secret of the sauce - and of the whole recipe - lies in the beer: you must use a Kriek, which is a Belgian cherry lambic, spontaneously fermented, made from wheat, malted barley and fresh black cherries. This is essential, because it is the cherries that give the beer its flavor. The most famous Kriek in Belgium are the Belle-vue and the Lindemans brands, which you can find here in the US in specialty liquor stores, susch as Binny's. Whole foods has another imported Belgian kriek, called St. Louis (this is the one we used last Sunday). If you have the chance to live in Wisconsin, you will be able to buy the New Glarus Belgian Red, which is the Wisconsin's Kriek, made with Wisconsin's cherries. It is delicious, albeit a little sourer than the Belgian Bellevue (which is my favorite). If you live around Chicago, you should consider going to New Glarus just for a day, because the beer and the little village are worth it.

If you do not have a Kriek, you can use a normal Trappiste beer, and follow the same steps, just by adding some dried apricots at the place of the dried cherries. The dish will taste completely different obviously,because you will be making an entirely different recipe, i.e. a Rabbit a' la trappiste. Which is also good. But not as good as the recipe below.

Tuscan Foodie's wife's Rabbit with cherry beer and dried cherries
DOWNLOAD OR PRINT THIS RECIPE

The final product, in my plate, served with red cabbage in apple sauce

SERVES 4

• 3lb (1.5 kg) of rabbit, cut in 8 pieces  
• 3 TBS 
• (50g)
butter 
• 7oz (200g) of pancetta (you can use bacon, but it has a stronger flavor)
• 2 onions, peeled and chopped in quarters
• 1 large bottle (750cc) of Kriek cherry beer
• 2 tablespoons of dried cherries (or cranberries)
• 1 TBS all purpose flour
• salt and pepper

1. If you find the rabbit fresh at a butchery, you can ask the butcher to cut it for you...and go to step 2 of this recipe. If, as it was our case, you get the rabbit whole, you need to cut it first. This was actually my contribution to the dinner. If you have never done it, don't worry: it is easy and it is not as disgusting as it may seem. I actually had fun. You will need to lay the rabbit on its back, cut it open, remove the liver, the kidneys, and the heart. Save the kidneys, but throw the heart and the liver (you can also use the liver in the recipe, to add flavor to the dish, but personally I don't like the taste of liver). Google how to cut a rabbit, and you will find plenty of videos, such as this one. 
2. Melt the butter in a dutch oven (or in a deep pan that can contain a lot of liquid). Chop the pancetta in strips 1 inch long and 0.5 inch wide (2cms/1cm). When the butter is melted, add the pancetta, stir it, and let it cook for five minutes, stirring occasionally, so that the fat melts. When the strips of pancetta are cooked, take them out of the dutch oven. 
3. Increase the fire and put in the pieces of rabbit in the dutch oven to sear them, 1-max 2 minutes per side. If the dutch oven is too small, you will need to do this in batches. When the rabbit is well browned, throw in the pancetta, the onions, the dried cherries, and pour the entire beer into the pan. The beer should almost cover the rabbit. If it doesn't, that's not a problem: as long as there is a lot of liquid in the pan, you can just turn the pieces of rabbit once every ten minutes. 
4. Bring to boil, and then reduce the fire to a simmer, and let it cook covered for 45 minutes approximately. You will need to check: you don't want to overcook the rabbit, but you want it to be done. The right moment is when you can easily start to take the meat off the legs of the rabbit with a knife and fork. But you DON"T want it to look like pulled pork. 
5. If you think that the sauce is too liquid, you can add 1 TBS flour towards the end of the cooking, so that the sauce thickens. 
6. Once it is ready, plate and serve. We had it with red cabbage in apple sauce, but it is good with a side of mushroom, green beans or potatoes. Note that every piece of rabbit will be of a different consistence and taste, with the legs being the tougher parts, and the belly being the softest and leanest. 
7. To reheat, DO NOT use a microwave, or the rabbit will taste very bad. Just let it simmer again in the dutch oven.