The other day my housemate came back from the butchers with a whole rabbit. The butcher was also kind enough to give him a free pack of black sausages, so after checking the cupboards I came up with this! Rabbit and prunes is a classic combination and the black sausage along with a generous amount of red wine added even more to the richness of the dish. An excellent autumn stew which was delicious with my garlic crushed potatoes (which can be found here), but just as nice with plain boiled rice!
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 large rabbit, jointed (roughly 1.5kg)
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots
- 2 celery sticks
- 1 garlic clove, crushed
- 3 rashers streaky bacon
- 150ml red wine
- 250ml chicken stock
- 4 black sausages, cut in half
- 250g stoned prunes
- salt and pepper
Method
- Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas mark 4.
- Heat the oil in a large plan. Dust the rabbit pieces in the flour, generously seasoned with salt and pepper.
- When the oil is fairly hot brown the rabbit, two or three pieces at a time, and set aside.
- Peel and chop the carrots into 5mm pieces. Cut the celery into pieces of roughly the same size. Slice the bacon into 1cm strips.
- Add the bacon, onion, carrot, celery and garlic to the oil and fry for five minutes over a medium heat until starting to colour.
- Add the wine, scraping all the sticky bits off the bottom of the pan.
- Return the rabbit to the pan, coating it with the other ingredients. Pour over the stock, cover and place in the oven for one and a half hours, stirring occasionally.
- Remove the pan from the oven. Stir in the prunes and black sausage. Season and return to the oven for half an hour or until the rabbit is very tender.