French Retreat part seven. The hottest day of the holiday, so I cook Rabbit and Prune Stew.

The headline looks a bit long-winded to me. This is the last in my mini series so you will just have to put up with me being long-winded. We were in the Libourne market and I was suffering from a dose of ‘let’s get creative’. This is not a good condition for me. I was bereft of ideas and decided I needed to do something out of left field. That part of the park can often deliver good results. Hopefully I could translate that into French. With that in mind, I set out to ‘create’…

Amongst the stalls was a man selling prunes.

Just how you would expect to see prunes displayed. But the taste. Mmmmmm…

I got thinking. I then passed a van selling some lovely looking rabbit.

Loin of Lapin for less than €12 per kilo. Wow!

You can guess the rest.

The only issue with my decision to cook a Rabbit and Prune Stew was the weather. The afternoon wore on and the temperature touched a pretty warm 38º C (100º F). Still, I was on a roll and decided to cook on. A rustic stew needs a good quality rustic wine. Our gite host, David Furniss, suggested that I could try the wine from the vineyard outside our window. He then generously supplied a bottle of same. It would have been rude not to use it. Even ruder not to down a glass or two in the process. As it turned out, this wine was quite literally “Out of left field” and pretty tasty too.

I could see the vineyards from my bed. In the morning. Not at night, obviously.

The ingredients list for this stew is pretty short and really depends on the quality of that which went in.

Ingredients

• One loin of rabbit 
• 200 grammes (1/3 lb) of pancetta
• Half a bottle of Domaine De La Bregue or similar nice French wine
• 250 grammes (1/2 lb) of delicious prunes
• 3 or 4 onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 3 or four carrots 
• 1 bouquet garni (rosemary, thyme and a bay leaf)
• 1/2 tablespoon of flour – that’s half not 1 or 2!
• Salt and pepper to season
• Olive oil

Not my best ever ingredients shot. The heat was getting to me.

Slice the rabbit into nice big chunks.

I thought that this photo had a nice ‘butcher shop’ feel to it.

Slice the pancetta into lardons.

A totally gratuitous chopped lardons shot. Like I say, the heat is getting to me.

Fry them in a little olive oil until they release most of their fat.

The lardons add great flavour to the oil. The skin adds to the flavour.

Remove the lardons and skin. Discard the skin. Add the rabbit and brown it on all sides.

Lovely rabbit browning. I too was reddening in the heat of the evening.

Remove the rabbit. Roughly chop the onions. Add them to the pan and fry over a low heat until they are nice and soft. Sprinkle and stir in the flour.

The flour will stick to the onions and absorb the oil. add a little wine if it’s too gloopy (technical term).

Add back the rabbit and lardons. Chop the carrots as shown below and add them along with the prunes and the bouquet garni.

I never thought I would be adding prunes to a stew. Live and learn.

Then add the wine.

Adding wine calls for a pouring shot. You know I love a pouring shot.

Season, stir and cover. Simmer for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. If the temperature in the kitchen is as hot as it was in ours, be sure to drink plenty of water. If it’s cooler, enjoy a glass of wine.

“Here’s one I prepared earlier.” After three-quarters of an hour, it’s ready to serve.

I served it with white rice. We ate outside in the evening heat.

Red wine cooled, plenty of water and a hot stew in 30 degree heat. Delicious!

The red wine was cooled in the fridge. The stew was surprisingly delicious, given the evening temperatures. I can’t wait to replicate this during an Irish winter. If only I can get decent rabbit and great prunes….

That’s it for now on the French Retreat. Until next time, “bon vacances”, as they say over there.