I tasted my first rabbit hot pot recipe at a Moroccan restaurant in Los Angeles when I was 19 and on a cross country trip with my brother helping him with a West to East Coast move.
Moroccan restaurants are a real cultural experience because you sit on the floor on cushions and eat with your hands. The rabbit hot pot was delicious but for some unknown reason, I’ve not eaten it since.
Moroccan Hot Pot
It’s not surprising then that this rabbit recipe for Moroccan Hot Pot in Arabella Forge’s fantastic book Frugavore caught my eye. In Australia, where Arabella lives, rabbits are considered a nuisance – a non-native species that damages the natural environment and represent a major threat to flora and fauna alike.
Killing rabbits in Australia is considered a public service, and Arabella writes in Frugavore that “you can often spot young kids selling rabbits for next to nothing by the side of the road in rural areas.”
I recently noticed that my local butcher carries rabbit, so I really must learn to cook it using Arabella’s excellent rabbit hot pot recipe. If any of you are experts at cooking rabbit, please share your thoughts and tips in the comments section!
To check out another recipe from Frugavore (you really need to check out this book!), this recipe for sweet potato hummus is amazing!
By the way, this recipe is best using rabbit bone broth, but if you don’t have it on hand, any type of traditionally made bone broth will do.
Moroccan Rabbit Hot Pot Recipe
Delicious Moroccan recipe for rabbit hot pot that will have your family wanting to eat this nutritious, frugal meat more often.
Ingredients
- 2 rabbits
- 3/4 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
- 8 tomatoes large, ripe
- 1 lemon rind small lemon, rind cut into strips
- 1/2 cup sherry or white wine
- 2 cups homemade stock
- 3-4 thyme sprigs
- 1 red onion finely sliced
- 1 bunch fresh coriander or parsley finely chopped
- 2 tsp black peppercorns
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
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Ask your butcher to cut the rabbit into joints at the shoulder and hip.
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Combine the peppercorns, garlic, salt, cinnamon, ginger and olive oil.
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Rub the mixture over the meat, cover and refrigerate for 6-24 hours.
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Preheat the oven to 350F/177C.
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In a frying pan over medium heat, fry the rabbit for a minute or so on each side until it seals. Put the meat, tomatoes, lemon rind, sherry, stock, thyme, and onion in a heavy pot with a tight fitting lid. Ideally, the ingredients should take up 3/4 of the space in the pot. Check that there is enough liquid to just cover the meat. Put the hot pot in the oven and cook for 30 minutes or until the meat is soft.
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Do not overcook hot pot as rabbit becomes dry and leathery if cooked too long.
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Remove the hot pot from the oven and season the stew to taste. To thicken the sauce, remove the meat from the pot and simmer the pot on the stovetop uncovered for 5-10 minutes. Finely chop the coriander or parsley and stir into the sauce. Serve each piece of meat with a generous helping of sauce. *
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Refrigerate any hot pot leftovers.
Recipe Notes
2 cans diced tomatoes can be substituted for the fresh tomatoes.
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We love rabbit, we eat wild we just have to wait until a hard frost.
Rabbit meat is excellent! Such a frugal way to get quality meat.
Southern women from my mother’s generation surely knew how to cook rabbit, the wild ones that were hunted for meat. I raised domestic ones for several years for the meat and never had any special recipes, just prepared them as I would chicken.
Mother Earth News has an article about raising meat rabbits in the current issue.
Ive never tried rabbit but I would like too. Not sure how how readily available it is here in Aus but id like to try it
@simaoclan what’s for supper? http://t.co/192cj5BN (grin)
Moroccan Rabbit Hot Pot – The Healthy Home Economist http://t.co/FbVnEoQg
I made rabbit stew yesterday. It was my first time cooking rabbit and it turned out pretty good. I’ll have to try this recipe.
I had my first rabbit-cooking experience in France this summer. We got a rabbit at the store and used the Rabbit in Mustard Sauce recipe from The Joy of Cooking. Seven out of seven of us thought it (combined with ratatouille, grilled pork loin, roasted fingerling potatoes and tart tatain) was the best meal we’d ever eaten.
Leah, that meal sounds amazing!
Leah, is this the recipe you mentioned? I found it on French Cooking for Dummies:
Preparation time: 10 minutes — Cooking time: 50 minutes
Ingredients (for 4 servings)
1 whole rabbit (cleaned, in pieces)
4 tablespoons of old fashioned mustard
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons of creme fraiche
1 glass (25 cl) of dry white wine
1 tablespoon of olive oil
3 shallots
Salt & pepper
Instructions
1/ Season rabbit pieces with salt and spread them with old fashioned mustard using a kitchen brush or a knife.
2/ Pour olive oil in a large iron-cast casserole. Heat it over medium heat.
3/ Peel and chop shallots.
4/ When oil is hot, add rabbit pieces and leave them 2 minutes on each side or until they get a golden color. Take them off casserole and set aside. (If your casserole is too small to broil all rabbit at once, repeat this step several times).
5/ Pour shallots into the casserole.
6/ Once shallots are translucent, add white wine and get to a smooth boil until the strong smell of alcohol is gone.
7/ Return rabbit pieces to the casserole. Cover and leave over medium/low heat for 25 minutes.
8/ Combine creme fraiche with Dijon mustard and the old fashioned mustard you have left (if any).
9/ Uncover casserole, add mustard sauce and stir well so your sauce is homogeneous.
10/ Leave it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or until sauce thickens.
11/ Serve with potatoes, rice or tagliatelle and top generously with mustard sauce.
Hi Sarah!
I love your easy to make recipes, I was wondering if you could add a printer friendly widget to your posts so that is it easier to print them?
My grandma used to keep rabbits as food, and the kids’ chore was gathering fresh grass for them to munch on! I always see rabbits at the farmers market but am hesitant to get them since not sure what to do with them….Will try this one.