My rabbit stew

I have a wood fired stove and lots of time on my hands. You can do the first part after a late breakfast. I did mine after milking while the milk was cooling, but before lunch. Well, before the goats moved that is....

Go get a rabbit from the hutches. Dress it and put the pelt in the freezer for future tanning. If you get yours from the shop, thats fine. Put it in a large pot and add a carrot cut in big chunks, a onion cut in half with the peel still on it, a few black pepper corns, a few bay leaves, parsley stems, salt and just enough water to cover it. Boil until tender enough to debone. Lift out the rabbit, strain the broth and keep it. Cut as many chipotle as you dare into pieces and soak in some of the hot broth. Discard the carrot and onion. The chickens will love you for it. Debone the rabbit, setting the meat aside and putting the bones back into the pot. Add the saved broth and boil the bones until half the liquid is reduced. Strain and save the broth again. You now have a plate of tender meat, a pitcher of rich broth, bones for the compost heap and happy chickens.

Go about your daily chores. If that also means cheesemaking, save a few deciliters of milk for the stew. Do some crafts, taste the wine and have a good lay down on the sofa. (before the rest come home and all hell breaks loose)

When it gets to about time for dinner. (someone will normaly let you know when that is by pulling the fridge door or complaining about something) Put a pot of good washed spuds on the stove to boil. Any ugly spuds are saved for later. I don't peel spuds. To much work! :-) Peel and cut quite a few onions in eighths. Peel and chop as many garlic cloves as you dare. Strain the chipotle liquid into the rest of the broth. Add a generous dollop of home made goat butter in the pot and wait until golden. Store bought butter is fine too. Fry the chipotle and garlic without browning and ad the onions. When the onions are golden brown, add the rabbit meat and let it brown a little too. Important to not stir to much so everything goes mushy! Sprinkle a few tablespoons of flour over everything and just see to that you stir it in so it is absorbed. Add the broth, a splash of fresh goats milk and stir until thickened. If the stew gets to thick, add more milk.

Make a huge sallad out of whatever greens you have from the garden, woods or shops. Pour out the spud water and let them steam off on the side of the stove for a bit while you add a fistfull of chopped parsley over the stew. (I hate wet soggy spuds!) Put everything on the table and if you have unexpected guests after you started, ad a loaf of sour dough bread you baked the day before. No butter. Force the hungry beggars to mop up the sauce left on their plates. Washing up is made easier that way and they can at least do you that favor for cooking for them.

Bring a glass of wine out on the kitchen steps to cool off, taste the wine a second time and say "Hey kitty!" to kitty. Now shout, cooome and get iiiiit! And get out of the way from the stampede.

Enjoy!

If there's only two of you. I use the ugly spuds for mash the next day and make a cottage(ish) pie from the leftovers. THEN I peel spuds, because half the job of dinner is done already. I don't trust ourselves to leave enough for this. The stew is just to good! So I spoon enough for the pie directly into a oven dish to cool down before putting the stew on the table.