Wait! What? Rabbit? Do people eat rabbits? I know it is very unusual in the USA to eat a rabbit. I promise it is not bunny bread to be a pet. In the Czech Republic, people bread rabbits for food, just like poultry or pork. Our grandmas usually have a place in the back yard build for rabbits where they lived along with chicken and a pig; my grandma even had a cow. It is super hard to come across rabbit meat here in the USA, and I was surprised to find one. A friend who supplies high-end restaurants with meat could get me one all the way from Spain. This tells even more that you cannot find good rabbit meat in the USA. There are many recipes for rabbit meat in Czech cuisine, and I decided to make Rabbit in vegetable cream sauce.
In this post I will cover these topic:
Why Rabbit?
You do probably think this is not very good for me to eat rabbit. As I said, rabbit is not the typical meat of choice in the USA kitchen. Many countries have different meals and flavors, and that is what makes the whole world amazing. Not everything is the same and boring. Remember, it is absolutely normal to eat beef while cows are saints in different parts of the world or even pork; many people eat pork while some cultures do not.
Can I substituted rabbit?
Rabbit meat is considered white meat, and Czech kitchen, we put rabbits into a poultry group. Many times rabbit is baked as a roast, but that makes the rabbit dry. Often rabbit is made alongside some more fatty meat like pork roast or such.
You can definitely substitute rabbit for chicken. Chicken thighs are the best. They also taste very similar, in my honest opinion. If you decide to tackle this recipe, use bone-in skin of chicken thighs, and you probably won’t know the difference especially, if you never try rabbit food.
Is this “svickova” recipe?
If you are familiar with Czech recipes, you could ask if this is nock off – Svickova” – Beef in Vegetable Sauce.
It is definitely not. The rabbit in vegetable cream sauce is no “rabbit svickova.” It’s not even called a “rabbit with svickova sauce.” Rabbit in vegetable cream sauce is completely “independent” and a traditional recipe that does not imitate anything.
Let’s get cooking
Collect all your root vegetables. You can use your favorite root vegetables, and it is OK when you will switch some. If you do not like celery root, use regular celery. If you do not like parsnip, use rutabaga or used them all together. The sauce is supposed to be full of vegetable flavor, and more is merrier.
Peel and dice your vegetables and set them aside when you will need them it
- 1 cup of carrots
- 2/3 cup of celery root or green celery
- 2/3 cup of parsnip or rutabaga
- 1 cup of onion
- 2 tbsp of unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp of oil
Step one: prep your meat
If you are using rabbit, portion the rabbit into a pieces. Back legs, front legs and the back. You can keep the ribs for later to make a broth. Broth will taste exactly same like chicken broth.
If you are using chicken thighs, choose the one with bone in but take off the skin. The bone will bring better flavor to the sauce.
Salt and pepper meat all over to your taste. Grab dutch oven and melt butter with oil. Sear meat on all sides till nice golden color.
Step two: Make a base for sauce
Once the meat is browned, put it aside and get the ready sauce. Start with adding about 1 Tbsp of butter. Add carrots, celery, and onion and roast for about 5-10 minutes.
The veggies and onion are a golden color, and nothing is sticking to the bottom anymore—time to add sugar and stir well. Let simmer for about 2 more minutes, till sugar starts caramelizing.
Next, add white vinegar, stir well and let simmer for 5 minutes or till you don’t smell the vinegar aroma anymore. The same goes for mustard; after the vinegar aroma evaporates, add mustard and let the vinegar from mustard evaporate. Lastly, add stock or liquid and let the magic happen. (2 cups in total).
- 1 tbsp of sugar
- 2 tbsp of white vinegar
- 2 tbsp of yellow mustard
- 1/2 cup of dry white wine (optional)
- 1 1/2 of beef stock or you can mix 1-2 tbsp of beef bouillon in 1 1/2 of water
Step three: Spices/Cooking
The best way to add spices is to close them into a cheesecloth or a spice ball; that way, you don’t have to fish for every peppercorn in the sauce.
Add the bag or spice ball into your Dutch oven along with meat and all juices from the meat.
Cover Dutch Oven with a lid and bake in the oven at 350F for 60 minutes. Turn off oven after 60 minutes and let sit for 30 minute in just hot oven.
- 2 pieces of bay leaf
- 5 balls of allspice
- 8 balls of peppercorns
- Spring of Thyme
Final Step: Finishing the sauce
Take the meat out of the vegetable base and pull out all spices. Use an emerging blender to blend all the vegetables. The sauce should be orange in color. Add your half & half into your sauce to make it creamy.
Sometimes I use heavy cream, which is used in the traditional Czech version, but half and half make the sauce pretty creamy, in my opinion.
Time to add fresh juice from half lemon, salt, and pepper to taste if needed. This sauce is quite thick already due to all veggies, and I never need to add flour to thicken the sauce, which also does change the flavor of the whole sauce.
If you need to use flour to thicken the sauce, know the flavor to be different slightly. (use about 1 tbsp of gluten-free flour whisked into my cream)
I personally do not like bones in my meat on the plate. Before I add the meat back to the sauce, I de-bone all the pieces and shred the meat a bit into smaller pieces.
- 1/2 cup of half and half
- fresh juice from half of lemon
- salt and pepper to taste
…and this should be all. This recipe is so complex to write, and I hope I covered everything I could remember. If you have any questions, please share them with me, and I will do my best to unswear them.
How to serve: Rabbit/Chicken in Vegetable Cream Sauce
Let’s make it easy. If you feel like experimenting a little bit, this Ease to make Bacon Dumplings would be a perfect side for this sauce. They are fast to make and super easy.
Also, fettuccine cuddles would be good alternative to bacon dumplings.
Who inspired me?
Suppose you wonder who inspired this delicious recipe. You can find it in one of my Czech cookbooks, “Velká kuchařka Čech a Moravy – Roman Vaněk.” This cookbook is something like a Czech cooking bible. It is full of Traditional Czech recipes. Every recipe I had made so far turned out perfect and delicious.
I order cookbooks from Kosmas bookstore in the Czech, they deliver to the USA for a reasonable price. I am not sure if he has any English versions of books.
But, I did not follow step by step recipe from the cookbook; I do add a couple of my own twists to the “mine” version of this recipe. Also, I add different root vegetables, as in the USA where I live, it is not typical to get celery root unless I go to a special store to search for it, and I like rutabaga. I do not add pancetta to meat and so on…
I hope you did enjoy this Gluten-Free recipe. If you try this recipe, let me know! Leave a comment, please. Thank you so much!
Other easy recipes to try
- Czech Schnitzel – Pork Rizek Everybody’s favorite in the Czech Republic and of course in my family!
- Easy to make Bacon Dumplings The perfect Gluten-Free side dish to go with Stuffed Peppers.
- Creamy Marsala Chicken Soup Do you have a craving for a different creamy meal? If you love Chicken Marsala, this soup is perfect for you!!!!
Until next time…!
DOBROU CHUT!
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