On Saturday morning I bought a rabbit at Whole Foods. I like rabbit, and I have a hard time passing it up when I see it on sale fresh. Usually I have to buy it frozen, and that's a crap shoot in terms of the quality of the meat. At least when it's on sale fresh, I can see there's no freezer-burn.
Sunday evening I cooked the tenderloins and the belly "flaps" in tomato sauce to serve over polenta. That turned out well, though a little scant on the meat end of the equation.
Last night, I made jambalaya. It's not a difficult dish, but it's one that periodically gives me trouble. I have in the past underestimated the amount of liquid required to fully cook the rice, for example. Last night's version went pretty well.
I did most of my prep work during the afternoon, while my son was napping. I chopped two stalks of celery, a green bell pepper, three cloves of garlic, and an onion finely. I chopped a can of tomatoes and strained the seeds from the juice. I chopped around 2/3 lb. of andouille sausage into quarter-moon shapes after removing the casing. I measured out 2 cups of stock, and thinned it with two cups of water.
When it was time to cook, I dried and floured the rabbit pieces (the hind and fore-leg portions), then browned them on high heat in peanut oil. When the rabbit was browned on both sides (around 5 minutes per side) I removed it from the pan and added the onion/celery/bell pepper/garlic to the pan. I sauteed that on medium heat until softened -- around 10 minutes. I deglazed the pan with around 1/2 cup of white wine and let that all but cook off. (That's not a traditional step, by the way.)
I added 1 and 1/2 cups of the chopped tomatoes and their juice, and 2 cups of the stock, along with some fresh thyme, salt, cayenne pepper, and black pepper to taste. I then returned the rabbit pieces to the pot and let them simmer on very low heat for 30 minutes.
At that point, I added two cups of rice, and stirred to combine everything and let the rice begin to pick up some liquid. I added another 1 and 1/2 cup of broth to the pan, and stirred. I covered the pot and let it cook undisturbed on low heat for 25 minutes. It wasn't done, and looked a little dry, so I added the rest of the broth (the last 1/2 cup) and let it cook for another 20 minutes, checking once or twice.
It turned out very well, particularly the rabbit, which was tender and hadn't dried out. The trick to jambalaya is to get the proportions right. To me, it's as much about the rice as about the meat and seasonings. I also like my jambalaya on the wet side, and with less tomato than most people down here seem to use.
Posted by Robert at March 5, 2003 07:57 AM | TrackBack