Rabbit and spring vegetables

Pip Lacey rabbit
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This elegant rabbit dish from Pip Lacey uses all parts of the animal - kidneys, liver, bones, shoulder and loin. It is served with spring vegetables, crunchy cavolo nero, picked shallots and a buttery carrot purée. Check out our guide on how to break down a rabbit for some guidance. If you don't have Moscatel vinegar, you can also use chardonnay vinegar as Pip does in the video.

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First published in 2023

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Rabbit

  • 1 rabbit, whole, with organs
  • salt
  • 10g of thyme
  • 50ml of extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for cooking
  • ice

Rabbit sauce

Pickled carrots and shallots

  • 2 shallots, peeled and sliced into 2mm rings
  • 2 purple carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds on a mandolin
  • 400ml of water
  • 200ml of moscatel vinegar
  • 10g of salt
  • 10g of cane sugar

Carrot purée

  • 6 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp of olive oil
  • 100ml of white wine
  • 400ml of water
  • 50g of butter
  • salt

Spring vegetables

Crispy cavolo nero

Equipment

  • Vacuum bag and machine
  • Sous vide or water bath

Method

1

First you will need to butcher the rabbit. Remove the head, and then remove and set aside the kidneys, livers, heart, legs and shoulders

2

De-membrane the kidneys. De-bone the legs and separate the muscles. Remove the loins and take off any sinew. Remove and French trim the racks. Chop the bones

3

Take a medium-sized pan and heat over high heat. Add some oil and, once hot, sear the shoulders until coloured and caramelised. Remove and set aside

4

Add the chopped bones, and cook until browned. Remove the bones and add shallots, garlic and thyme for the rabbit sauce. Cook until softened, and then deglaze the pan with sake. Reduce the sake until it has a glaze-like consistency

5

Lower the heat, and add the stocks. Slowly bring the pan up to a simmer, and then add the bones and shoulders back into the pan. Cook everything for 30 minutes, or until the shoulders are tender. Remove the shoulders from the pan, and then continue to cook the sauce for another 30 minutes, or until it has reduced to a sauce-like consistency. Season with a pinch of salt and the sherry vinegar, and pass through a fine-mesh sieve

  • 600ml of chicken stock
  • 200ml of beef stock
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 10g of sherry vinegar
6

Take the rabbit loins, leg muscles and racks and season them. Put each one into a separate vacuum pack bag with some thyme. Drizzle olive oil into each bag and vacuum seal the bags tightly

  • salt
  • 10g of thyme
  • 50ml of extra virgin olive oil, plus extra for cooking
7

Cook in a water bath at 65°C. Remove the loins and racks after 8 minutes and the legs after 12 minutes. Put the bags into an ice bath

  • ice
8

To pickle the shallots and carrots, place the shallots and carrots in a heatproof bowl. Add the water, vinegar, salt and sugar to a pan and bring to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat and then pour it over the shallots and carrots. Set aside to pickle

  • 2 shallots, peeled and sliced into 2mm rings
  • 2 purple carrots, peeled and thinly sliced into rounds on a mandolin
  • 400ml of water
  • 200ml of moscatel vinegar
  • 10g of salt
  • 10g of cane sugar
9

For the carrot purée, sauté the carrots in a medium-hot pan with the olive oil for 1 minute. Add the white wine and reduce it by half, and then add water to cover. Simmer the carrots until very soft

  • 6 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp of olive oil
  • 100ml of white wine
  • 400ml of water
10

Transfer the carrots to a blender and blend with butter and some of the cooking liquid until smooth. Season with salt

11

Preheat the oven to 180°C

12

Take the radishes and slice them thinly with a knife or mandolin. Keep in water until plating

13

Take the baby carrots and baby turnips and clean them thoroughly, but don't peel them. Cook the baby carrots and turnips together in a pan with water, butter, sugar and salt. Cook them for around 8 minutes on a low rolling boil or until just tender. Remove from the water and cut in half lengthwise, then toss with the chives

14

Place the cavolo nero on a baking tray with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of flaky sea salt. Cook for 4-5 minutes or until crispy

15

To reheat the rabbit, place it in a small pan with some of the rabbit jus, and warm up very gently for a few seconds. Season the heart, livers and kidneys, then sear them off in a hot pan until just cooked with some olive oil

16

Plate up all of your rabbit, and finish the plate with the carrot purée, dressed baby vegetables, pickled carrots and shallots, more rabbit jus, crispy cavolo nero and nasturtium cress. Add the liver, kidney and heart to finish

Pip Lacey may have first donned her whites at twenty-seven, but she has since worked in the kitchens of Gordon Ramsay and Clare Smyth, been mentored by Angela Hartnett, headed up Michelin-starred Italian restaurant Murano and built her profile through her debut restaurant Hicce.

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