Kill Da Wabbit!

Jorge recently got an air rifle to hunt small critters here in Chile. Jorge and Juan Carlos, a friend of his from work,  hunt at a farm of a friend of Juan Carlos. This weekend Jorge invited Ian, our daughter's boyfriend and Julie, Ian's second cousin to go hunting with him. Julie has been touring Chile and is now staying with Ian in Santiago. Never having picked up a gun before, she practiced shooting at a target, hitting it on her first round.
She then took to the fields gun in hand, ready to 

KILL DA WABBIT!!!

 



Julie spotted the rabbit, took aim and shot. It fell. She shot again for the kill.

Back at the apartment Jorge started skinning and gutting the rabbits (his 4, Julie's 1). Showing her how to prep the carcus he turned to Julie asking if she'd like to just watch or do her own...to which she answered in one word- no. That was a no to both options.

But in the end she gathered up her courage, took hold of the knife to skin and gut her rabbit.
And tonight we feasted on Conejo Tarraconense (Rabbit, Tarragona Style)!!

CONEJO TARRACONENSE
from Cooking in Spain by Janet Mendel

Ingredients:

1 rabbit (about 2kg), cut in pieces
100ml oil
1 onion chopped
4 tomatoes, peeled seeded and chopped
150ml red wine
bay, thyme, parsley and rosemary
salt and pepper
grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3/4 kg new potates
1/2 tsp saffron
1 dry chili pepper (or more) (we used pepper sauce not having any dried peppers on hand)
20g square chocalate
2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp toasted flour
chopped parsley

Heat the oil in a casserole or pot and slowly brown the rabbit pieces and the liver (We did not save liver in the cleaning process- next time =) Remove the liver and reserve it. When rabbit is partially browned, add the chopped onion. Continue frying, then add the prepared tomatoes, then the red wine, herbs, salt and pepper, nutmeg and fennel seed. (To peel tomatoes easily submerge them into boiling water for about 3 minutes to loosen the skin.) Cover the pan and let the rabbit cook very slowly. Meanwhile scrub the small new potatoes very well and parboil them for 5 minutes. Drain, then cut in half. (If using regular-sized potatoes, cook them until nearly tender, then cut in quarters.) In a mortar or blender crush the saffron, fried rabbit liver, seeded chili pepper, garlic, chocolate and toasted flour. (To toast flour, put it in a frying pan with no fat and no liquid and stir it over a low flame just auntil slightly colored. Do not let it scorch or it will be bitter.) Dissolve this mixture in about 100ml of boiling water and stir it into the casserole with the parboiled potatoes. cover and cook another 20 minutes, or until rabbit and potatoes are very tender, about 1 3/4 hours total. Garnish with chopped parsley. Serves 4 or 5, depending on the size of the rabbit.