Lapin a la graine de moutarde (Rabbit in mustard)

I actually made this dish a few weeks ago, but only managed to type out the recipe now. I love rabbit. Its a healthy lean meat that is very tasty, although it can cost a pretty penny. Its a treat in this house - I save the innards (liver, heart, kidneys...) for my cat Katiki.

I found this recipe in the Le Cordon Bleu book I borrowed from a friend. I didn't exactly follow it word for word, as I decided to bake it in the oven with potatoes, and reduce the amount of butter and eliminate the cream. I didn't want to make a very heavy dish, and I also wanted to reduce the amount of time I will be spending in the kitchen. I love food that requires preparation and attention to detail, but easy to cook. 

Ingredients: (serves 4-6 people, or 1 husband, cat, and me for 2 days)

1 Rabbit, cut into pieces, preferably 8 or more. (approx. 2kg)

100g of wholegrain mustard

100g of Dijon mustard

A large handful of parsley, chopped

4 shallots, chopped fine

1 glass of dry white wine

2 cups (500ml) of chicken stock

A few small knobs of butter, to brown the rabbit

2 tbsps of olive oil

1 kg of potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters (or into long and fat 'fries' like I do)

Salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation:

1. In a big bowl that you can cover and store in your fridge, add the rabbit pieces (leave the head out - I cook that and the liver, heart etc for my cat Katiki), season with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly with the 2 mustards and cover. Leave in the fridge for up to 12 hours. (I left mine for about 4)
2. Before cooking, take it out of the fridge and let it sit outside until it gets to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
3. In a frying pan, melt some butter. When its hot, fry the meat pieces until slightly brown. Place the pieces into a baking dish.
4. In the same pan, lower the heat and add the chopped shallots. Saute until transparent.
5. Add the white wine (deglaze) and any liquid leftover from the mustard marinade. Scrape the bottom of pan to mix the cooking juices well. Reduce the liquid to about half.
6. While waiting for the juices in the pan to reduce, lightly coat the potatoes in olive oil, and season lightly with salt and pepper. Arrange the potatoes around the rabbit.
7. Once the liquid in the frying pan has reduced by half, add the chicken stock and parsley. Cook for another few minutes.
8. Empty out the pan into the baking dish. Turn the rabbit pieces around so as to coat the rabbit in the sauce.
9. Cover the baking dish with foil, and bake in the oven for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the rabbit is cooked through. The last 15 minutes, I like to remove the foil. This will allow the rabbit and the potatoes to brown slightly and the juices will become thicker.
10. Serve hot!

Halloween Anniversary Trilobite Chocolate Cake

Last week it was Halloween. A few days before that it was also our Wedding Anniversary. * years! The idea to combine George's love for weird creepy crawly looking fossils and my love of chocolate just came naturally.

This was my first attempt at making a decorative cake, and I have to say, George and I did a rather good job. He drew the template of the trilobite and drew the skeleton of the trilobite on the cake with white chocolate. I baked the chocolate cake, shaped it and covered the cake with marzipan and chocolate ganache.

The chocolate cake wasn't too sweet, and extremely chocolate-y. It was moist and rather fluffy because of the meringue mix. Please do try this recipe, it is from Keiko Ishida's Okashi cookbook.

Ingredients:

Batter

35g of good pastry flour or top flour

50g of unsweetened cocoa powder

100g of dark chocolate pieces (55% cocoa and above)

80g of unsalted butter

40g of castor sugar

4 egg yolks

50g of whipping cream (that has about 35% of fat)

Meringue

4 egg whites

100g of castor sugar

Preparation:

1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C. Prepare your baking/cake pan of your choice. Line the sides with parchment paper. I used my silicone cake tin so no additional preparation was needed. 

2. Sift the cocoa powder and the flour together, twice.

3. Melt the chocolate and butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water (bain marie). Once the chocolate and butter has melted, add the sugar, egg yolks and cream and mix well until smooth. Set aside.

4. Make the meringue. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add half the sugar and continue beating for a few more minutes. Then add the remaining sugar and beat until the egg whites are glossy and stiff peaks form.

5. Add 1/3 of the meringue mix into the chocolate mixture and fold with a whisk until smooth. Add the flour and cocoa powder and fold in thoroughly. Add in the remaining meringue and fold in gently until just incorporated. You don't want to lose the lovely air in the meringue - this will make the cake moist and fluffy.

6. Pour the batter into your cake pan and bake for about 45-50 minutes. Its best to check the check with a toothpick in the centre - if the toothpick comes out clean, then the cake is ready.

7. Remove from oven, unmould from pan and leave to cool on a wire rack.

8. Dust cake with icing sugar, slice and serve with some whipped cream or garnish as desired.

Trilobite Genesis:

I used the template that George drew to shape the cake.

I covered the cake with marzipan and made the tail and ridges.

I covered it with chocolate ganache and left it in the fridge to cool.

George made the outlines with piped white chocolate details of the trilobite.