Rabbit With Prunes
- Ready In:
- 1hr 5mins
- Ingredients:
- 15
- Serves:
-
4
ingredients
- 1 lb pitted prune
- 1⁄2 cup cognac or 1/2 cup brandy
- 3 lbs rabbit, cut into serving pieces, liver reserved
- 1⁄2 cup olive oil
- dry white wine
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme, crumbled
- 2 small bay leaves
- butter
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 2 tablespoons flour
- 1 cup beef broth
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 1 teaspoon tomato paste
- 1⁄2 cup creme fraiche
directions
- In a small glass or ceramic bowl, macerate the prunes in the cognac for at least 1 hour.
- In another bowl, combine the rabbit, olive oil, thyme, bay leaves and enough white wine to cover, and chill mixture, covered, overnight.
- Transfer rabbit with a slotted spoon to a plate, reserving marinade.
- Pat it dry and season.
- Brown rabbit in butter over moderately-high heat and transfer with a slotted spoon to a plate.
- Add onion and cook until softened.
- Add rabbit and any juices that have accumulated and 2 tblsps flour, and cook mixture, turning rabbit to coat with flour, for 3 minutes.
- Add marinade, 1/3 of prunes, including 1 tblsp of cognac, broth, garlic, shallot, tomato paste and season.
- Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 20-25 minutes, or until rabbit is tender.
- Add reserved liver, chopped, and simmer 5 minutes.
- Transfer rabbit and prunes with slotted spoon to a plate.
- Skim cooking liquid, strain it into another pot and add crème fraiche, rabbit, prunes, and remaining prunes and season to taste.
- Simmer until rabbit is heated through.
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Reviews
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This is a great recipe which I cook often, though I forego the creme fraiche at the end. It's rich enough already. This recipe is a superb way of counteracting the dryness of rabbit flesh. However, an Australian wild rabbit takes a lot longer to cook than 25 or 35 minutes. Try 90 minutes over low heat with all these delicious flavours. And 3 rabbits is far too many to tackle at once. Try one, and cut back the other ingredients by a half or more. Finally, be sensible about the prunes. One rabbit makes 3-4 serves, so I start off with a maximum of 12 prunes marinating in brandy to cover.
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OK, here goes. I live in Athens, Greece. I moved out here many, many years ago from Ottawa, Canada - so I am blessed in having two wonderful heritages!
I suffer from compulsive obsessive behaviour with regard to food and my psychiatrist thought it would be a good idea to find a 'society' where many have the same problem and try to find a cure.
So far, I've copied a couple of thousand recipes from this site and my psychiatrist has thrown the towel in and refuses to answer the phone when I call.
What did I do wrong?
Got 3 kids that keep me on the go - 10 and under at this point (2008) - I may not get round to updating this for a few years, so you'll have to do your own maths.
I teach English full-time and Greek Cookery part-time. I would like to make the cooking part of it full-time and the English Grammar part of it part-time.
That's all for now.