SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009
It is Halloween weekend. In keeping with the holiday spirit, what scary thing can I cook? I know! I can cook rabbit! When I told my husband my plans he thought I was joking. When he realized that, no, this truly was my plan he was less than enthusiastic. I wasn’t going to let that deter me. I would invite our English friend and her husband to dinner. Surely her Continental sensibilities would fortify the notion that eating rabbit was a perfectly natural thing to do. (I know, I sound like an icky-squeamish American. I can’t help it. I can’t erase the image of those cute little creatures that I take delight in hopping across our lawn.) Our English friend hesitated when I asked about eating rabbit and that was it! I decided: the meal would be sans lapin and avec poulet. They always say that rabbit tastes like chicken so why not use chicken? So, lapin a la sarriette (savory) became poulet a la thym (thyme). I couldn’t find fresh savory and the recipe states that thyme could be substituted. I still had some in my garden. I would use the tomato sauce, frozen from a few weeks ago. (Remember, that delicate concoction from my first entry?) And I would serve it over the (now frozen) successful gnocchi I made last week.
The result was delicious: a very lovely braised chicken in a tomato sauce with shiitake mushrooms and little white onions. (I used cippollini from the last farmer’s market of the year.) This is a great dish for dinner guests as it can be prepared in the morning and simply heated up at dinner time. For an accompaniment I made braised carrots. They were a big hit – with our guests and me: the guests thought they were tasty and I liked the fact that they were simple to make. I think I'll keep the carrot recipe in mind for a holiday dinner.
I'm so glad you didn't use the bunny!!!!
ReplyDelete