In this family we fish and we hunt.
Contrary to popular belief, we do it not for the “thrill-of-the-kill”…we do it because we love the outdoors and we love the quality, relational time it affords us.
It helps us to remain connected to nature and fosters a healthy level of respect for all the goodness that it provides.
Likewise, we retain skills nearly forgotten in our overly-processed, ridiculously-busy culture.
So as the weather turns cooler here in the Desert Southwest…it calls us!
And upon returning from a weekend spent enjoying the season, our home is full with the smell of hearty fall foods.
Fresh from the garden and field, the crock pot is nearly overflowing with all of the ingredients for our Wild Rabbit Stew.
A Recipe for Wild Rabbit Stew
Ingredients
-2 wild-caught cottontail rabbits
-3 stalks garden fresh celery, finely chopped
-3 large carrots, chopped
-2 onions, chopped
-3 cloves garlic, minced
-1 cup corn, fresh or frozen
-2 cups garden fresh tomatoes, diced (or 1 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes)
-1/4 cup garden fresh herbs (Note: I like to use equal parts of sage, thyme, and oregano)
-1/2 cup rice
-3 bay leaves
-1 cup red wine
-fresh water to cover
-salt and pepper to taste
Method
1. Combine all ingredients into the crock pot, except for the rice.
2. Cover and cook on low for at 6-8 hours, stirring occasionally.
3. At this point, the meat of the rabbit should be super tender. Carefully remove the whole rabbit from the crock pot onto a plate. Allow to cool slightly so that you can separate the meat from the bones.
4. Return the meat back to the pot. Add the rice at this time. Stir.
5. Allow stew to cook for 1 hour more, or until the rice is tender.
6. Serve and enjoy with some yummy crusty bread!
Note: For HUGE savings, I buy all of kitchen herbs in bulk (if not fresh from the garden) from Mountain Rose Herbs.
What fall food is your family enjoying!?!
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Well, I don;t hunt but the Wild Ramp Market had some rabbits and I bought one…..so think I will defrost it and follow your lead here….looks great! Thanks
We raise meat rabbits. I am going to try this with some of the ones we just butchered last Saturday.
That looks amazing. I can use deer meat instead of rabbit since we have that in the freezer.
Lately, I’ve been making soups and stews (cream of chicken, clam chowder, molasses sweet potato beef stew, chicken stew), and today, I’m making a rather large vat of Swedish meatballs (most of which will be frozen for quick dinners).
My late aunt used to make the best rabbit dish that we called Sucu (soo-koo) and I was lucky enough to get the recipe before she died. Essentially, it is rabbit braised in white wine and red peppers, which breaks down into a delectable sauce that we sop up with crusty bread. Unfortunately, there aren’t very many wild rabbits lurking about nearby, so we buy domestic rabbits from a local farmer.
DONT FEED IT LETTUCE!!!!it is too stringy for ratbbis too digest.and yea um you will know it has diarrahea because the poo will be runny and possibly yellow or green. lol
I’m from Newfoundland and grew up in a semi-rural area, eating quite a lot of fish, trout, wild game (rabbit, birds, moose, caribou) and seal, either hunted by my relatives or other locals. Regarding the last item, contrary to the wildly one-sided, outdated and misleading information that is out there about the seal hunt, we do eat seal meat — it’s not just a fur coat slaughter. If the latter were the case, I’d be against it myself. The truth is that seals are not skinned alive, and that “baby” whitecoats have been off limits by regulation for a very long time. Yes, it’s messy (blood is red, ice is white) and seals like other animals are cute. But my family has eaten seal meat for generations as a good, nutritional food source. These days you can event get seal oil capsules because of their ani-oxidant value. My father event recently started to do seal osso bucco, his own twist on that Italian favourite, and also a spicy seal dish inspired my a Mexican food recipe. As for rabbit, the traditional way in our family is to have it in pieces like chicken, in an old cast iron bake pot with onions, root vegetables and stewed in gravy, with a thick biscuit-like pastry over top. Rabbit is prepared the same way. Sometimes some mushrooms go in there too, which is a newer addition. We’ll usually some mashed potatoes, and homed-made pickled beets or other home-made pickles to finish it off. Most or all of the veg is grown by my family. Although we’re now a university-educated crowd with white collar jobs and man, mnay supermarkets and restaurants to choose from, we continue to eat like this often, the way our relatives have for generations. And I for one am happy about that.
Excuse the typos in my message just posted — I was a bit excited! Best to all, -Lara in NL
i grew up hunting and fishing too! rabbit stew is one of my families favs!! great recipe. i’m so glad to see others hunting not for the “thrill” but for the sustainability of keeping the old traditions alive and feeding our families!! showing my children how to hunt, where food really comes from and how to make food out of an animal with respect is one of the greatest joys of my life!
A couple of people have asked me for my aunt’s recipe as well, and I’ve posted it in the comments of this blog post, if anyone else is interested! http://1868pleasant.blogspot.com/2012/10/garden-progress-report.html
Oh that look absolutely delish, good thing hubz is planning on going small game hunting this weekend, hopefully I can whip up a pot!
Aw, this looks so delicious! I’m going to try this one tomorrow. Think it’s gonna be a great meal especially in these cold days. Unfortunately, I have to clean my oven thoroughly before cooking this one or it will absorb the smell of fish from the salmon I cooked yesterday.
Thanks for sharing this awesome recipe!
xxx ,Joanna