Rabbit roast with garlic and herbs

Today Miriam, author of El Invitado de Invierno , offers us a really easy recipe that those who love baking in the oven will enjoy: this rabbit with garlic and herbs is delicious.

She has prepared it in a pan that we love, the Le Creuset cast iron pan : it has exactly the same body as an iron cocotte, so it shares the same excellent cooking properties. Due to its size, it is ideal for cooking large pieces, and it has an excellent presentation, so we can serve it directly from the oven to the table.

This roast rabbit is easy and effective because it makes use of one of the most wonderful ingredients of the Mediterranean diet: garlic. Yeah, don't look at me like that, don't you just love garlic? It's one of my favorite seasonings and in this dish it contributes most of the flavor.

Nowadays, rabbits that you find in shops are usually farmed, so their meat is rather bland. All the more reason to season them with garlic, but if you are lucky enough to find wild rabbit, don't doubt that this way of cooking it gives a great and very tasty result.

This roast is done at a low temperature during the first hour of cooking, so a good iron pan like the one I used, which collects and distributes the heat well, works wonders and ensures that the meat is roasted evenly.

Ingredients

2 rabbits cleaned in pieces
1 head of garlic
1 good splash of oil or a little lard
1 splash of vinegar
350 ml white wine
salt to taste
thyme or rosemary

Elaboration

We peel all the garlic, but leave them whole.

Place the rabbit in the dish (like this one from Le Creuse , made of cast iron and glazed interior) and salt it well. Brush it with oil or butter. Add the garlic, vinegar, white wine, a little more salt for the liquid and the herbs, if you are going to use them.

We cover the dish with aluminium foil and put it in the oven for an hour at 130° (with fan) so that the rabbit roasts at a low temperature.

After an hour, uncover the dish and raise the temperature to 170° (with fan) so that the rabbit browns. Roast it for another 30 minutes and turn it over so that it browns evenly on both sides; leave it for another 15-20 minutes. Do not overcook it because the rabbit is cut into very small pieces that can dry out excessively if left in the oven for too long.

When you take it out of the oven, if you feel that there is not enough sauce left, add a small glass of boiling water to deglaze the bottom of the dish and thus obtain more sauce.

We serve the rabbit hot and freshly made with whatever garnish we like; some baked potatoes made at the same time or some baked potatoes are just the thing.