Rabbit Stew is a Brewing...

Rabbit Stew with Rosemary Polenta Cakes

So sometimes she cooks too….with mucho help from him of course. He kinda guides her along but lets her drive at the same time, and last nite was one of these times. The kitchen was filled with the smells of rabbit stew. An homage to her Nonna and rustic Italian cooking (she can recall stories told by her mother of her PaPaw going out in the yard and shooting a rabbit for dinner) they decided to give it a whirl.
Unfortunately frozen rabbit was all we could get our hands on in the time frame allotted. The next time we decide to do a rabbit dish we will most definitely be purchasing a local little furry farm friend and dealing with the slaughter ourselves. So he suggested she brown the rabbit , then deglaze with wine and chicken stock. She added onions, celery, and carrots to the mix and threw it in the oven for 1 ½ hours. When that timer went off and thoroughly scared our dog (she hates kitchen noises) she strained the veggies and tossed them out. The trio of yummy flavor making carrots, onions, and celery were replaced with fresh cuts and were joined by a sweet potato….why not…he just bought way too many and they must be put to use remember?! So this all goes back into the oven for another hour or so. When it has had its time to slowly cook at a low temp (200 degrees only here guys) it was removed, strained, and the cooking liquid was reduced to a velvety saucy, stewy thickness. Whilst she is handling this stew he has spent time making perfect rosemary polenta cakes made crusty right before serving by quickly sautéing them. So the plating was all that was left and she always leaves this up to him. He likes things to look beautifully placed on the dish….she does not care too much what dinner looks like at home….she is just going to make it disappear quickly anyways. But anywho….the dish came out tasting pretty darn good…a little work will be made in the future to keep the rabbit more juicy but other than that I think Nonna would be proud of her granddaughter’s version of Rabbit Stew!