Rabbit Stew

This stew is made for a traditional Greek Easter meal and I got the recipe from my friend's family for Easter this year. The rabbit is simmered in red wine for a few hours until it is tender and tasty and then fried potatoes are added to soak up the extra juices so that it becomes a hardy stew that goes great with a salad and homemade bread. Make sure to start early if you have a whole rabbit because deboning can easily take an hour. This recipe makes enough for four.





Ingredients


1 whole rabbit
1 - 2 yellow onions
1/2 cup olive oil
2 cups red wine of your choice
3 cinnamon sticks
1 Tbsp whole cloves
3 small bay leaves

2 Tbsp tomato paste, dissolved in 1 cup water
2 lemons, juiced
salt and pepper to taste
5 medium russet potatoes
Cheesecloth

Preparation


If you have a whole rabbit, the rabbit must be deboned. You can buy rabbit already deboned and cut into pieces (in which you would want a few pounds of rabbit), but the bones add taste so if you have enough time and want to try your hand at rabbit deboning I would go for the whole rabbit. I am also not going to pretend to be an expert on rabbit deboning so if you have never deboned a rabbit, I watched this tutorial on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6ud68Qmdyc. Also, you will need to dice the onion before beginning.

Cooking


Heat up the olive oil in a large pot. Once the oil is hot, add in the diced onions and cook them for 5 minutes over medium heat. Add the rabbit and cook over medium heat until brown. Douse the rabbit in the wine and then add enough water to cover the rabbit. Put the spices in the cheese cloth and tie off with twine and then submerge the cheesecloth in the stew. Simmer the stew for 2-3 hours. Twenty minutes before the stew is done, peel and slice the russet potatoes into wedges. Fry the potatoes in a large frying pan in about 1/2 an inch of oil until they are soft. Once the stew is done, add in the lemon juice, tomato water, and salt and pepper. Now your stew is done!! Enjoy with some nice bread.