Buttermilk fried rabbit

This is another dish from the southern states in the US - great with collard greens and a little home made blackberry chutney.

It also compliments home-made soda bread very well, and you normally use buttermilk for that - so its a great way to use up buttermilk.
Food is only as good as the ingredients used, and I would not hesitate to recommend Cuinneog buttermilk.



It works well with chicken, but is particularly good with rabbit as it stops the game drying out.
Perfectly tender, well flavored, crunchy - just what one wants in fried rabbit or chicken.

With the crunchy, fun texture it is an easy way to introduce more squeamish kids to rabbit.

Its also so much healthier than chicken nuggets, which are packed with preservatives, salt and re-constituted meat which is pretty gross - Mechanically separated meat, a chemically treated slurry - may not be described simply as "meat" on food labels, but must be labeled as "mechanically separated". Most chicken nuggets are made from this.

I had some belly and shoulder off-cuts left over from the Dublin Bay Paella so this is a very handy way to use them up - as I find the fore quarters of a rabbit too finicky to cook in any other way - like chicken wings.
Its also a great way to prevent waste and save some money.
For chicken wings this makes a great, and I believe healthier choice than the usual preservative sugar salt packed off the shelf mix that people normally use.

You need a lot of oil for this, as with Spanish omelette's - but you can reuse it a few times.
When you’re done, let the oil cool and then pour it through a fine-mesh strainer with a piece of paper towel set inside it that has been set over a bowl.
The paper towel will filter the brown bits and you can just pour the strained oil back into the container

INGREDIENTS

SOAKING
350 ml - about 2 cups - of cuinneog buttermilk
1 large onion, sliced
1/4 cup chopped mixed fresh herbs (parsley, tarragon, thyme) or a teaspoon each of the dried herbs.
Clove garlic, minced or grated
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

I really like to add a 1/4 cup coriander or cilantro in this recipe as well - but only if fresh.
Recently in the centre of Galway I found an absolutely brilliant fruit and veg shop in the Eyre Square shopping centre called Mister Beans
It's run by a very helpful, nice guy called Paul Bradly. Great range of products, especially the harder to find herbs and veg - with a far better range than the nearby supermarkets.
Its well worth a visit - probably the closest thing Galway has to what you can find in Corks English Market, and I always try to support the smaller outlets against the retail giants.

COATING
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

As a highly recommended optional extra 1/2 cup rolled porridge oatlets - I just use Flahavans.
The idea is actually Scottish, they fry herring in rolled oats and it gives real extra crunch in this recipe
METHOD
1 Soak rabbit or chicken overnight (at least 8 hours and up to two days) in buttermilk with onions, herbs, paprika, and cayenne pepper.

2 Drain in colander, leaving some herbs on chicken. In a plastic bag, mix flour and oats with seasonings.
Meanwhile, heat 2 cups of oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet on medium high heat until a pinch of flour starts to sizzle when dropped in the hot oil (but not so hot that the pan is smoking)

3 Place rabbit or chicken pieces in bag with the oat and flour mix - shake until thoroughly coated.
Add the meat to hot pan and fry on 1 side for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown, and then turn the pieces over and fry for another 10-12 minutes, again until golden brown.

Be careful to keep the oil hot enough to fry the meat, but not so high as to burn, and a lid on the side just in case.

As always, I hope you find this post of use - please take time to comment or make other suggestions, and feel free to let others know about the blog.

UPDATE

Same marinade and batter recipe shown here using chicken - served with creamed potatos and collard greens

Dublin Bay Paella - Shrimp and Rabbit

Lidl are currently doing an offer on Langoustine - or whole Scottish scampi as they are labelled - at €9.99
We know them better as Dublin Bay prawns.

A thing you may not know is the reason the Scots write whisky and we write whiskey is about branding.
Irish distillers altered the spelling to differentiate their product from that of Scotland when exporting overseas.
At the time, Scotch whisky was of quite poor quality, but as they improved in addition to whisky, they also introduced the word Scotch to be synonymous with the drink, a very clever piece of marketing.
It looks that they are doing the same with re-branding langoustine.

Rabbit is not the easiest meat to source in Ireland, its a little different out here obviously being able to hunt them - but chicken makes a good substitute for this recipe.
Rabbit is high protein, low fat and low cholesterol, I am surprised we don't eat much more of it in Ireland, and that it is not that widely available.

Rabbit was actually introduced to Ireland by the Vikings, it is not a native species. The Irish for rabbit - Conin (cuh-neen) - is derived from the Norse word for the animal, in Dutch for example the word for rabbit is konijn.
I detest the practice of snaring animals, it's indiscriminate and cruel. For this dish, if you are shooting, get a head or chest shot with a .22 - if you cant do it, then in fairness you should not be hunting - please take note Mrs. Palin.

The reason for the shot, in addition to humane reasons, is that the back end of the rabbit is used for the meat, most of the front end is used for the stock - but I do advise you keep belly and shoulder cuts for a recipe from the American south - buttermilk fried rabbit - great little dish.
Paella is for some the definitive Spanish dish - It is a rice dish that originated in Valencia and got it's name from the type of frying pan in which it is cooked, a "paellera". The ingredients of a paella vary a lot depending on whats at hand.
It really is a great, colourful dish at this time of year.


This dish is very easy to adapt for other combinations like mussels, squid etc.
If you are using rabbit or game for the first time, it might be wise to add some fatty offcuts from a pork chop to stop it going too dry.

1 tbsp olive oil
2 rabbit saddles, boned and cut into pieces (or chicken)
Dublin bay prawns, shell and head on
Cup of frozen, tailed prawns (also available from lidl)
3 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 can chopped tomato's
2 Onions
Bell peppers
200g/7oz paella rice, you can also use a risotto rice.
Tsp Paprika
Tsp Oregano
a pinch of saffron or turmeric
1 litre/1¾ pints rabbit stock, made with rabbit bones boiling
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the rabbit, seasoning, onion, garlic, herbs and spices.
Add the rice, making sure the grains are coated.
Transfer to a casserole dish.
Add the prawns, tomato's and peppers and mix gently.

Add the stock - bring it up to the top of the rice.
Cover and put in a pre-heated oven - 180 deg C for 30 minutes - or until liquid absorbed.
Ideally, if you have a big enough frying pan you can leave it cook on the hob if covered, but I don't so I had to adapt the cooking method.

Serve hot, its great fun to eat - breaking open the Dublin bay prawns.
Keep the heads, don't discard them as they make the basis of a lovely bisque.

I served with a spicy chorizo and kidney bean side dish with lemon soured cream, it compliments the prawn.

As always, please take the time to comment - the feedback is really cool