RABBITT'S BRAISED RABBIT RAGOUT

I thought it fitting for my first new recipe from Italy to be rabbit. Not sure why, but it seemed 'right'. And when I visited my local market here in Castiglione D'Orcia, in the heart of Tuscany, sure enough I found fresh coniglio for sale.

One of the things different about food shopping in other countries is that meat doesnt generally come cut up and packaged to look like something different from its original self. Here is one half of a rabbit.

I have not cooked domesticated rabbit before, but grew up eating lots of wild rabbit. The wild ones can be fierce little creatures and their flesh can be tough. My Mom used to par-boil them before frying and pan searing in butter and bread crumbs; simple, very moist and delicious! And even though I figured farm raised rabbits were not as tough, I still decided to braise, rather than pan fry.


I cut this rabbit down (thank goodness for the beautiful clever in my rental pantry-VERY impressed!) And then seasoned generously with salt / paper and browned in butter and locally produced olive oil.

Here's the recipe, but please take lots of liberties as I used what I had on hand and I believe one of the most fun parts about cooking is being creative with the ingredients you have available. I think green peas and wild mushrooms would be a tasty addition.

Rabbitt's BRAISED RABBIT RAGOUT aka 
Rabbitt's BRASATO CONIGLIO RAGU

Ingredients:
2-3 pounds rabbit, on the bone
1 Tbsp. Butter, plus more for sautéing veg
4 Tbsp. Olive oil for browning rabbit, plus more for veg
1 large leek, white part only, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, chopped chunky
6 tomatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
3 stalks fennel, not cut up
1/2 cup roasted red pepper
Salt / Pepper
1 cup red wine
2+ cups water (I think chicken stock would be even better.)
1 Tbsp. each: thyme, oregano, rosemary (I would prefer fresh herbs, but did not have them.) These were in my Italian pantry.

Preparation:
Cut rabbit into 4 inch pieces. Liberally salt and pepper. Place butter and olive oil in a heavy-bottomed frying pan. Cast iron would work well. Heat til nearly smoking. Brown rabbit on all sides and set aside. I used the head because it came with the rabbit, but if your rabbit comes minus the head I do not think that will pose a problem.
Broil Red Pepper:

You can either broil the pepper under the broiler making sure all sides get evenly blackened, or broil right on top of your gas range. I'm not getting a very even broil, but kept moving the pepper on the burner until it eventually got scorched. With tongs, place the pepper in a paper bag and let cool. When it's cool enough to handle, rub off the charred skin, discard seeds and pith. Dice 1/2 cup and set aside. You will have left over pepper.

My adorable kitchen in Tuscany!

The view from my kitchen window! Yes, right next door is a fabulous restaurant. Making friends with the chef and will get a cooking lesson from her next week!

In the same pan you browned the rabbit add 1 Tbsp. Butter and 2 Tbsp. Olive oil. Saute the sliced ​​leeks and garlic over medium high heat until leeks wilt, stirring occasionally. Add herbs and fennel stalks. The fennel adds a little sweetness. Add the red wine and 2 cups water. Reduce heat to very low and allow to cook down while you prepare the tomatoes. Taste for seasoning.

To remove tomato skins:

Bring enough salted water to boil and drop in tomatoes. Boil vigorously until the skins pop. Remove carefully with tongs. Cool. Rub off skins. Remove the hard stem area. Make sure you catch all their juices. Cut tomatoes into chunks and add to the ragout sauce. Keep an eye on the ragout so it does not boil off. Add water (stock) as needed. Now add the browned rabbit. Cover. Cook on low heat for 2 1/2 to 3 hours until the meat flakes off the bones. Check every half hour to make sure you have enough liquid. Cool. Refrigerate overnight. Next day, bring up to temperature on very low heat. Remove from heat and take all the meat off the bone. This is a lot of work and you may need a glass of wine. This is what I had--Il Pozzo, a beautiful, rich sangiovese from the D'Orcia region here in Tuscany. This is also what the rabbit had. Lucky rabbit!

So far, most of the wines I've tasted are very local, all related to the Val D'Orcia region. And so far, all fabulous!

Here's the meat sauce simmering.

Rabbit bones are tiny and it's much more pleasant to eat without having to deal with bones. The best way to remove the meat from the bones is with your fingers, scraping every little bit off the bones. Because you are using your hands you can feel the bones and are able to remove tiny pieces so they do not end up in your sauce. Remove the fennel stalks. Check sauce for seasoning. I served the Rabbit Ragout over fresh, locally made pasta tipico; pasta made with no eggs; just water and farina, and topped with freshly grated local parmesan.

This pasta was light, but also chewy and the perfect foil for my ragout!

ALL FOR TODAY FROM TUSCANY ...

THIS HAPPENS TO BE MY BIRTHDAY AND AM PLEASED TO SAY IT'S BEEN ONE OF MY BEST!

DREAMED FOR MANY YEARS OF BEING IN TUSCANY ON MY BIRTHDAY AND FINALLY HERE I AM!

KEEP COOKING, DREAMING, AND

BELIEVING IN YOURSELF!

HERE ARE A COUPLE MORE SHOTS FROM 
Castiglione d'Orcia!

PLEASE TUNE IN AGAIN SOON FOR ANOTHER EPISODE OF CINDY COOKING IN TUSCANY!

WWW.COOKWITHCINDY.COM 

Fabulous tiny restaurant in Castiglione. 
Great attention to detail.

Ficco di maile alle erbe aromatiche

Bow pork with herbs

Oggi si Mangia

La vita e troppo breve per 

mangiare male e bere peggio

Life is too short to eat badly and drink worse.

Baled hay as far as your eyes can see.

Let's Go Fishing!

I love salmon! It is one of my favorite fish and the good news is that it is good for you...at least the wild salmon. I am going to share with you a couple simple ways to cook salmon. First, we'll discuss Poached Salmon, both wild and farm raised.

Wild Coho Salmon ready to poach

You can poach salmon in just about any liquid with herbs or spices that you like, but a very simple recipe follows:

Ingredients:

Salmon filets, about 6 oz. per person

(This time I will poach 4 filets.)

1 carrot, peeled and sliced

1 small onion, peeled and sliced

1 stalk celery, sliced

(Yes, this is the holy trinity commonly known as Mirepoix!)

3 slices lemon per filet, 2 go under the salmon and 1 on top

Several sprigs of parsley

3 bay leaves (1 per filet)

Salt/Pepper to taste

1 cup dry white wine (Sauvignon blanc works well and is nice to sip on while you are poaching.)

Juice of 1 lemon; lemon zest*

Preparation:

Cut the salmon filets if necessary. Make sure there are no pin bones in the filet. Run your hand over the filet, especially along the edges, and if you feel any little bones they must be removed. Either use tweezers or grasp firmly with a paring knife against your thumb and pull them out.

Place the carrot, celery, onion, lemon, parsley and bay leaves in a large skillet.

Add the salmon filets skin side down, cold water to cover, Salt/Pepper (I like to use white pepper which is very finely ground and a little more spicy.), the wine, and the lemon juice and half of the lemon zest. Bring the water to a boil, uncovered.

Adjust heat to simmer and let fish cook for 5 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave the fish undisturbed (covered) for 10 minutes. then remove it carefully to a serving platter. As you remove the filet from the pan, the skin should come right off. Top with remaining lemon zest. The salmon will be perfectly done. It is delicious served either hot or cold or at room temp.

* I use a micro plane to zest lemons. Make sure you do not go deeper than the yellow color of the rind. The underlying white layer can be bitter.

Wild salmon is much firmer in texture than farm raised salmon. I actually like farm raised better for poaching as it stays very moist, whereas the wild is a bit more firm and almost dry in texture. Both cook for the same amount of time. To enhance the Wild Poached Salmon, serve with SAUCE! I am sometimes known as the 'Sauce Queen' and I like to put  sauces on just about everything. Here are a couple of my favorites.

Salmon lends itself to many different sauces so the choices are nearly endless. I like a Roasted Red Pepper Sauce with salmon. Red peppers are easy to roast. Here's how...

Roasted Red Peppers

Heat broiler to high. Place peppers on a baking sheet lined with foil and put under broiler. Broil until they become blackened. Keep turning to blacken all sides. When all sides of pepper have been charred, wrap up in the foil and set aside and let them cool. Once cool, strip off the skin. This comes off very easily by grabbing a corner of skin with a paring knife and pulling the skin to release; just make sure you remove all the blackened skin. Split the pepper open (the pepper will probably split as you are skinning) and remove seeds, stem and membrane. Put peppers into a blender or mini-max or my new favorite little blender, the Ninja!, and blend until smooth. Add salt to taste, about 3 Tbsp. cream cheese (for 4 peppers), 4 Tbsp. sour cream or non-fat Greek-style yogurt and blend until smooth. If the red pepper sauce is too thick, thin it with more yogurt/sour cream.

This is the basic red pepper sauce. From here, you can add fresh chopped basil, finely minced garlic, hot pepper flakes or other herbs and spices. I like to keep it fairly pure for the salmon saucing.

Here is a salad plate of farm raised poached salmon (notice how much paler it is than the wild salmon). I have served it here on a bed of micro-greens lightly dressed with viniagrette, peeled and steamed asparagus tossed in EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil), salt and a hint of balsamic vinegar, hard cooked eggs with smoked paprika garnished with the Roasted Red Pepper Sauce.  I got a little carried away with the red pepper garnish....this is a case where LESS is definitely MORE!, but I liked making the little blobs of sauce so just kept doing it! I think I should've used a bit more restraint! (Not my strong suit!)

I served this dish for a special birthday luncheon I put together for my friend Kim, who helped me by assembling the plates! Happy Birthday all over again, Kim!

Another very delicious sauce for poached salmon is:

AVOCADO CORN RELISH

Ingredients:

3/4 cup Olive Oil

4 cups fresh corn kernels (about 5 ears)

1 tsp. salt

3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 large avocados, peeled and seeded

1 red bell pepper, cored and seeded

4 Poblano chilies, roasted (just as you would the red peppers above), peeled, seeded

4 scallions, white and light green thinly sliced on the diagonal

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

Cilantro garnish, optional

Preparation:

Heat 1/2 cup of the Olive Oil in a larger skillet over medium heat.

Saute the corn with the salt/pepper about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and set aside to cool.

Cut the avocados, bell pepper, roasted Poblano into 1/4 inch dice.

Add to the sauteed corn along with the scallions, red wine vinegar, and the remaining 1/4 cup Olive Oil.

Mix well and let sit 20-30 minutes to blend flavors. (Also can be made 2-3 days ahead; stored in tightly covered container in the fridge. If you are making in advance, DO NOT add the avocado in advance. Add it just before serving.)

Serve at room temp.

A final sauce suggestion for Poached or Broiled Salmon...

AIOLI

Add to blender: 1/2 cup mayonaise with 3 Tbsp. finely diced garlic and a dash of Tumeric, This sauce, aka Aoili, is absolutely delicious on Poached Salmon! Tumeric is not a traditional addition to Aoili, but I love the taste and really like how it give the mayo a deep yellowish color.

Another very simple preparation for Salmon is to broil it. I like to serve Broiled Salmon on a bed of greens, like spinach or kale. Use about a 6 oz. filet (wild or farm raised) per person. Check for the pin bones and remove if necessary. Rub filets with Olive Oil, sprinkle with salt/pepper and that's it! Place skin side down on an oiled baking sheet and pop into a hot broiler and broil for about 5 minutes per inch.

If you are not using Aoili, another nice way to sauce or garnish Broiled Salmon is with a little Compound Butter (not shown in this picture.).

Compound Butter does not have to be a big production, Here is a very simple way to make it:

Ingredients:

1 lb. butter

3-4 Tbsp. EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, chopped

1 Tbsp. fresh sage, chopped

1 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, chopped

2 Tbsp. fresh chives, chopped

1 garlic clove, smashed and diced fine

Preparation:

Chop the butter into uniform chunks using a sharp knife and place in a bowl.

Place the EVOO into a food processor; add chives. Process until the chives are finely chopped. Add the remaining herbs and blend until the herbs have colored the oil. Keep blending until the texture of the oil softens and lightens-about 5 minutes.

Add the butter to the herb oil and blend for another 2 minutes until oil is fully incorporated.

Spoon the herb/oil/butter mixture onto waxed paper, parchment paper or plastic wrap. Roll into a tight log and chill for 2 hours. Try to get all the creases out of the paper so exterior of butter log is smooth.

When ready to serve slice into 1/4 inch pieces and place on top of hot Broiled Salmon.

Compound Butter is good on just about everything: veggies, bread, rice, meats (especially if you add blue or other cheese)...use your imagination!

Wild Alaskan Salmon Cakes

If you are not able to get good fresh salmon, Wild Alaskan canned Salmon is also very good for you and delicious! Here is my recipe for Salmon Cakes.

Ingredients:

1 can Wild Alaskan Salmon

1/2 cup Bread Crumbs (I like to use a combination of whole grain crumbs that I keep in the freezer at all times.)

1 Scallion, green and white parts, sliced thin

1 Smashed and diced garlic clove

1 tsp. drained capers

1 Egg

2 Tbsp. Mayonaise

Dash of hot sauce

Dash of Worchester sauce

Salt/Pepper

2 Tbsp. Olive Oil for frying

Preparation:

Many canned salmons now come completely cleaned (no bones or skin). If that is the case, just mix all ingredients and form into patties. Let sit in the fridge for about 30 minutes to get the right consistency before frying.

Add oil to a skillet. Get oil hot and saute Salmon Cakes for about 3-4 minutes per side, depending on how thick you make your cakes. The Cakes should have a nice brown finish and be firm.

I like to serve these with mashed avocado under the Salmon Cake and either Aioli or Roasted Red Pepper or both!

Salmon is versatile, easy to work with and yummy! Hope you enjoy these recipes or become inspired to create some new twists of your own. Please let me know what you concoct with Salmon!

See you in the kitchen again soon!

May your creative juices keep flowing, spirits remain high, and joy of cooking continue!