One-Pot Wonders

RABBIT PAELLA

by:
October 16, 2010
0
0 Ratings
RABBIT PAELLA
  • Serves 6
Author Notes

I have had paella cooked with a variety of ingredients and of methods...oven, over an outdoor fire, and on a stove burner. I love the scope of ingredients that can go into the dish, but frankly, I have never been a fan of surf and surf types of recipes. I don't like to mix meat and seafood (exception is to sneak an anchovy or two into recipes). So I designed a grounded recipe of field animal and earthy mushrooms, bound by a walnut, saffron, anchovy, parsley pesto. The final addition of green olive adds a bright flash of color and flavor. —dymnyno

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 2 1/2 pound rabbit, cut into small (3-4 inch) pieces
  • 1 1/2 cups rice (paella rice such as bomba)
  • 8 ounces pork chorizo, casing removed
  • 3 cups wild mushrooms, 1 c ea baby shitake, oyster and hen of the woods (or your favorites)
  • 3 1/2 cups chicken broth
  • 1 cup yellow onion, small dice
  • 6 ounces dry red wine (syrah, cab franc)
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 cup toasted walnuts
  • 2 anchovies (oil packed)
  • 3 tablespoons parsley leaves, chopped
  • a pinch of saffron
  • pitted green olives
  • salt and black pepper to taste
  • ******4 duck confit legs (OPTIONAL)
Directions
  1. Put 2 tablespoons olive oil in a paella pan and the rabbit pieces and brown well on all sides. Put a few turns of black pepper on the rabbit as it cooks. Remove and set aside.
  2. Add the onions to the pan.
  3. Remove the casings from the pork chorizo, discard the casings and roll the pork into small meatballs about one inch in diameter and add to the onions in the pan. Roll the balls around the pan to release more fat and brown them.
  4. After a few minutes add the mushrooms.
  5. While the onions , mushrooms and the balls are cooking, make a pesto with 1/2 the toasted walnuts, chopped parsley, saffron and anchovies using a mortar and pestle. Add a little broth to get a proper consistency.
  6. Deglaze the pan with the wine...a couple of minutes.
  7. Add the pesto and the rest of the walnuts to the pan and spread all the ingredients evenly around the pan.
  8. Add the rice and the broth to the pan. After you spread the rice evenly around the pan and add the broth, do not stir.
  9. Add the browned rabbit back to the pan. Add the duck confit if you have it already made or if you find it at your grocery deli.
  10. Put the paella in a 375 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Do not open and stir the rice.
  11. Remove from the oven and leave on the counter for 10 minutes. (it will continue to cook during this time) DO NOT cover the pan with a lid...it will steam the rice and it will not be crispy!
  12. Add the olives.
  13. ***to make the recipe quick and easy, read the recipe first and then make the pork chorizo meatballs and the pesto ahead of time and have all other ingredients ready to go!
  14. OPTIONAL: For a dinner party, I added 4 duck confit legs. I really like the extra flavor and often keep a crock of duck confit in my cooler.
Tags:
Contest Entries

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • luvcookbooks
    luvcookbooks
  • theyearinfood
    theyearinfood
  • Midge
    Midge
  • aargersi
    aargersi
  • dymnyno
    dymnyno

Popular on Food52

16 Reviews

luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 14, 2010
Question: When I opened the rabbit package I had rabbit lights. I don't want to throw them away but don't know what to do with them. They must be heart and liver? I put them in the freezer so they wouldn't go bad and await yr response. Respectfully, etc., luvcookbooks
 
dymnyno
dymnyno November 14, 2010
Luv, sorry to say that I don't know what to do with them either...do you have a dog or cat?
 
luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 14, 2010
Addendum: Two nights ago a friend dropped by and we ate leftover paella. It was the bomb (slang for delicious) reheated. How did it get lighter? Where did the anchovy flavor go? Also I realized when I am making it for a meal and not recipe testing in a rush, I can balance the colors and flavors of the paella with a bitter green like broccoli rabe. Maybe the broccoli rabe in lemon and cream from the blog. Hope that recipe went to the recipe section ...
My friend was impressed that you created a meat paella instead of seafood.
Kudos!!
 
dymnyno
dymnyno November 14, 2010
I think that any recipe that does not win whether it is a runner up or editors pic. Goes nowhere.
 
luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 14, 2010
Meant the web site recipe section. Not all the blog posts go to the recipe section and can therefore be hard to find. In terms of the food52 books, you're right.
 
luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 15, 2010
meant Broccoli Rabe in Lemon Cream by Amanda, in recipes on this web site. Next time I make this I'm going to cook the broccoli rabe as an accompaniment.
 
luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 12, 2010
Made this last night. Well reviewed, even by my bunny loving daughter. I got the duck confit (not a common deli item here in the Bronx, dynymo!) but next time plan to make it without meat. The chicken stock and mushrooms, and maybe the chorizo, make it meaty enough for my taste. I also would use one anchovy instead of two. Loved the pesto and want to use it in other dishes. Added extra parsley with the green olives at the end. It lightened and brightened the flavors a little. The directions were clear and the paella cooked up beautifully, although it took longer than in the recipe. I think it's because i don't have a big paella pan, so there was more depth to the dish than there should have been. First time ever cooking rabbit. Feel slightly guilty about the bunny (irrational, I know), but it was good, not really just like chicken, more delicate.
 
luvcookbooks
luvcookbooks November 11, 2010
headed to citarella this aft to get rabbit, hope to have review in comments this w/e
 
theyearinfood
theyearinfood November 9, 2010
Where do you get your rabbit from? I am itching to make something with rabbit. Lovely recipe.
 
dymnyno
dymnyno November 9, 2010
Thanks, I got the rabbit from The Fatted Calf in Napa. They have other stores at The SF Ferry Bldg and a new one in Hayes Valley. The rabbit was the size of a large baby!
 
Midge
Midge October 18, 2010
Surf and turf combos have never appealed to me either. Love the rabbit and duck idea though. This sound fabulous.
 
aargersi
aargersi October 17, 2010
Yum on this - sounds really good, and a change from the usual paella combos ... duck confit is always a good idea!!
 
dymnyno
dymnyno October 16, 2010
thanks...have you every tried wild jack rabbit?
 
thirschfeld
thirschfeld October 18, 2010
Years ago I was out hunting antelope in Wyoming. We would hunt jack rabbits on occasion. We ate them but usually they were tough as nails. I heard jack rabbits got hit hard by a disease over the past few years and the populations are way down.
 
dymnyno
dymnyno October 19, 2010
not in my vineyard...they chew up our drip lines...we fill up buckets of water for them every day so they leave the lines alone. My dogs chase them every day (no luck so far).
 
thirschfeld
thirschfeld October 16, 2010
Rabbit is one of my favorite things to eat but it is one of the few things my wife doesn't like. I like this version a lot. Looks very tasty and woodsy. My kind of dish.