Ravioli di Coniglio

As I meandered through the Nashville Farmers Market one meltingly hot Saturday morning, I happened to pass the stall of Chigger Ridge Ranch. John and Debbie Mays raise lamb and rabbits on their hormone, antibiotic, herbicide, fungicide, and insecticide free farm in Charlotte TN. While I wasn't in the mood for lamb that morning, I was intrigued by the rabbit. Turns out they had sold out for the day a wouldn't have more for a couple of week due to holidays and processor schedules.
So I would have to wait. And wait. Then I had scheduling issues that made me wait... I thought I would never lay hands on a little cute furry bunny wabbit to grind up into forcemeat for rabbit tarragon sausage.
I did finally catch John and Debbie on a fine (read miserably hot) Saturday morning with a fine stock of individually frozen leporidae and separately packaged livers. I chose a nice looking rabbit and a single pack of livers and I was off to make sausage.

While I don't have pictures of the act, boning a rabbit carcass is not an easy task. While the legs are similar in size and shape to chicken legs, that's were the similarity ends. The bones are different and the meat is a little more resistant to removal from said bones. Plus all the connective tissue makes it interesting. After a few minutes with a good sharp knife I had a pile of meat that resembled so much chicken. It wouldn't look that way for long.

My grandfathers meat grinder served well to render the chunks into a nice fine textured ground meat. The livers (ground also) added to the meat served the same purpose that pork fat would serve in regular pork sausage, flavor and binding. My hands were covered in meat and liver, so snapping a pic was out of the question at the time. Picture ground chicken in a bowl and you will have the visual.

So here is my take on:

Rabbit Tarragon Sausage

1 1/2 lbs ground rabbit meat
1/2 lbs ground rabbit liver
1 tsp rubbed sage
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black or white pepper, finely ground
2-3 tbsp fresh minced tarragon (I like a lot of tarragon)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl and until thoroughly combined. Try to keep the mixture cold so that the forcemeat doesn't "break". (separate the fat and lean)
To adjust the seasoning, poach a tsp of the sausage either wrapped in plastic wrap in gently simmering water (180°) or sauté over medium heat until well done 3-4 minutes for both methods.

Once you have a nice batch of sausage you need some way to deliver it to your unwitting culinary guinea pigs or to your family. Whichever group you have easier access to and might be more gullible receptive. Remember, not everyone digs the prospect of noshing Thumper. ("heheh heheh" evil chuckle)

I decided on ravioli. Pretty easy to make. Or so I thought... The first batch of pasta was a might on the thin side and kept blowing out during sealing. The second batch was a little thicker (one notch on the pasta roller machine thicker) and was better suited to making the little pasta dumplings.

1 tsp of sausage per ravioli is what I went with. I didn't want to overload the pasta.

I topped the little bugger with a scant 1/4 tsp of ricotta and a pinch of good parmigiano reggiano.

The I used a pastry brush to dampen the edges of the pasta with a little water, folded it over and carefully sealed it. I made sure to remove as much air as possible so that the ravioli wouldn't explode. I trimmed the edges with a pastry crimper and was all set.

So how to cook and serve... 3-5 minutes in gently boiling, salted water (they float to the top) then a quick sauté with a little butter. Plate and drizzle with a little beurre noisette (brown butter).

Again no pictures. Both times I served these was not in my kitchen and I had forgotten my camera. I actually meant for my one guinea pig friend to take pictures when I did dinner with he and his wife, but I forgot.

I really enjoyed the light texture of the rabbit. It has a deeper flavor than the look-alike chicken and is more substantial without being heavy.

Rabbit is going to become a staple protein in my kitchen, just not too frequently. (It's slightly more expensive than other white meat. But nutritionally better.)

I recommend trying rabbit. I recommend getting it from John and Debbie at Chigger Ridge Ranch. Saturdays at the Nashville Farmers Market. Tell em Chris sent you.

Cheers

Chris

P.S. In the interest of full disclosure, this post was in no way sponsored, endorsed or solicited by Chigger Ridge Ranch.

But they do got good meat - psst try the lamb sausage too.

Cherry 2000

I read a number of other gastronomic bloggers, celebrity and otherwise, but rarely (never in fact) have I jumped on a post as quickly as this one from Eric Ripert. His post for Raspberry Clafouti was so simple and inviting that I had to try it. I had to try it that night. I had to try it immediately. Like some kind of Pavlovian zombie, I lurched into the kitchen, drooling in anticipation.

Now I am not overly fond of Raspberries but the recipe printed at the bottom of the post has cherries listed as the fruit and Eric says point blank that it was originally made with cherries, so not a qualm was had when I made the substitution to black sweet bing cherries.

So... I recommend you pop over for the video and try it. Here is my version. Double the recipe, using fresh cherries (pitted of course and halved) and vanilla bean instead of extract.

My mise.
(from top left clockwise: 2 cups cherries, 6 tbsp ap flour, 12 tbsp half/half, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 vanilla bean, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp butter)

Butter the skillet and coat with sugar, add the cherries.

Batter poured and ready to bake.

Baked. 15 minutes at 400 in my handy little convection toaster oven. Not a Cuisinart but just as functional.

Service for one.

Self saucing dessert. My clafouti basically made it's own Créme Anglaise because it didn't cook through 100%. Mind you I loved it this way! Wouldn't change a thing.

Simply stated this desert is nearly fool proof. Might want to keep an eye on it during the last 5 minutes that it doesn't burn.

This taste goooooood. Smack yo mama good!

Cheers

Chris

Now your cooking with acid!

Wednesday nights for me are a time to relax on the lake while repeatedly keeping myself from drowning.

I am a white water kayaker and as practice for those times when the river says "you can't float right side up now" there is the activity referred to as an Eskimo Roll.

I meet up with other like minded nut jobs and we take turns flipping over and then righting ourselves, or we spend unbelievably long 30 seconds upside down underwater wondering if someone will come rescue us before we decide to swim.

All of this boat rotation causes much hunger, so we gather together on the shore after such antics along with our flat water brethren and we eat. It's a pot luck dinner that can go either way, Feast or famine . It's a roll of the dice.

So knowing that I would be floundering in lake water Wednesday then chowing down with my friends I stopped in at Publix and picked up a few tidbits to make one of my favorite summer dishes.

Ceviche.

Turns out I have been butchering the pronunciation and spelling for a long while calling it sir-viche. Now I am not sure how to say it so I am just gonna drop the r until someone that speaks Spanish corrects me.

The seafood chosen for this recipe need not match the list below. Just make sure that it is as fresh as you can get. Not fresh seafood is not yummy.
Conch is not a common item in Nashville but Publix in Goodletsville has it, the guy will have to thaw some for you but they gots it. K&S World Market on Nolensville Rd might have it as well.

4 oz deveined shrimp peeled, 25/30 count  10-12 shrimp cut into 2 or 3 pieces each
4 oz bay scallops or 4 oz sea scallops cut into ½ inch dice
8 oz conch sliced 1/8 inch thick slices
1 large Grouper fillet approximately 12 – 16 oz cut into 1x1x ¼ inch thick slices
4 smallish calamari 4- 6 oz – bodies sliced into ¼ inch rings and tentacles split in 2
4 oz fresh Bing or black cherries – pitted and quartered
1 lbs cherry or grape tomatoes
½ a medium red onion sliced into wedges
¼ cup chopped cilantro
1 oz sun dried tomatoes - julienned 
1 large or 2 medium gloves  garlic mashed into a paste with the side of a knife
¼ tsp red pepper flake
dash or 2 of hot sauce – I like habanero based sauces. Lots of flavor without adding as much vinegar as the average pepper sauce.
Juice from 2 oranges  about ½ a cup
Juice of 8 limes
Juice of 6 lemons
Salt and pepper to taste just before serving.

Mix everything in a bowl and refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving.

Alternatively reserve the conch until 15 minutes or less before serving as it tends to toughen up the longer it “cooks”. Technically the seafood is being “denatured” not cooked but the end result is the same.

I didn't take any pictures today but there are bazillions of pics on the web. Google returned 1,630,000 hits and Food Network has 71 recipes...

So my best advice is chose firm, non oily, white fleshed fish, - grouper, tilapia, sole, snapper etc etc. Use only fresh citrus juice. Dress it up with spices you like.

Cheers

Chris