I often wonder where my love of food came from.
It is doubtful I inherited it from my parents. Although good simple food was enjoyed during my childhood there were never any discussion about it.
I do, however, remember one story that my mother told me concerning rabbit. She had always loved rabbit, especially rabbit pie. But for some bizarre reason while she was pregnant with one of her first three (she couldn’t remember which) children the smell, taste and even thought of eating rabbit suddenly became abhorrent to her.
Perhaps this reflected the changes in tastes following the end of the war!
Where is this conversation leading? To our love of rabbit since we came to live in France.
We occasionally enjoyed rabbit while in the UK but it wasn’t readily available (unless you lived in the countryside and knew a friendly hunter!). Rabbit was rarely available in supermarkets and only then sold in a packets of cubed meat.
Here in France rabbit is very popular. Many older people still breed rabbits for the table and rabbit is always available on the markets and in supermarkets. Not here the packets of neatly chopped rabbit meat, but the complete carcass, including head, liver and kidneys.
Our friend Bernadette prepares annually, a dish of her own rabbit which she cooks in Rose wine.
For Sunday lunch we recently enjoyed a favourite, LAPIN AUX PRUNEAUX
Rabbit jointed, saluted briefly then braised in Marsala wine with prunes (the prunes having been marinated in the wine beforehand). The dish adorned with the fried liver and kidneys and homemade parsnip crisps. The sauce served with this dish is simply the reduced liquor with a little a salted butter whisked into it
Occasionally we serve little triangles of fried bread with the liver on the top.
Other favourite rabbit recipes include LAPIN AVEC MOUTARDE (rabbit in mustard sauce
and a favorite of ours which we prepared for Russel and Simon and co, one drunken night in Spain.
Its a dish with herbs, spices and saffron. LAPIN AU SAFRAN ET AROMATE
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