Roasted saddle of rabbit, girolles and baby artichokes
Preparation Time: 45 minutes
Cook Time: 1hr 45
Serves 4
INGREDIENTS
For the saddle of rabbit
- 4 whole rabbit, (French, skinned and with kidneys)
- 200g thinly sliced smoked pancetta
- Unsalted butter, for frying
- Olive oil, for frying
For the chicken breast
- 40g chicken breast
- 100ml whipping cream
- 5g egg yolk
- 2.5g salt
- ¼ bag of baby spinach
- 25g girolles
- 1g fresh tarragon, finely chopped
- Unsalted butter, for frying
- Maldon salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the rabbit stock
- 4 rabbit carcasses, reserved from whole rabbit above
- 2 carrots, split in two
- 2 sticks celery
-
2 whole cloves garlic
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
1 litre fresh chicken stock
8 black peppercorns
For the rabbit sauce
- 1 litre of rabbit stock
- 100g button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 100g shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
- 100ml Madeira
- 100ml white wine
- 1 sprig tarragon
- 3 cloves garlic, skin on & crushed
- 25ml sherry vinegar
- Maldon salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the crispy legs
- 8 rabbit legs
- 1 packet of feuille de brick
- 2 large King Edward potatoes
- 1 egg yolk, for wash
For the baby artichokes
- 4 baby violet artichokes
- 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1cm dice
- 1 stick of celery, peeled and cut into 1 cm dice
- 50g pancetta, cut into 1 cm dice
- 2 banana shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 sprig of thyme
- 1 plum tomato
- Splash of olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- 200ml white wine
- Maldon salt, to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the parsley and parmesan puree
- 50g shallots, peeled and thinly sliced
- 50g unsalted butter
- 50ml chicken stock
-
100ml double cream
25g flat leaf parsley, leaves only
25g parmesan, finely grated
For the rabbit kidneys
- 16 kidneys (from the 4 whole rabbit)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 50g unsalted butter
- Pinch of Maldon salt
To garnish
- 150g girolles
- 200g baby spinach
- 100g pancetta
METHOD
1. For the saddle of rabbit, remove the legs and rib cage from each rabbit, set to one side and
bone out the saddle. Heat a little oil in a pan and roast the saddle on all sides before
finishing with butter and removing from the pan.
2. For the chicken mousse, blitz the chicken breast until smooth. Add the yolk and blitz again
until well combined and then fold through the cream. In separate pans, sauté the girolles
and spinach in a little butter and then roughly chop through with a knife. Add the girolles,
spinach and tarragon to the chicken mousse and fold through until evenly combined.
3. To assemble the ballontine, place a double layer of clingfilm onto a flat surface and wipe
with a dry cloth so that it’s completely flat and sticks to the surface. Take strips of the
pancetta and lay out so that they are just overlapping fat side facing up. Top this with the
saddle of rabbit and then fill with a layer of the chicken mousse. Taking the bottom edge of
the clingfilm (closest to you) roll the saddle into a sausage, keeping the clingfilm tight. Roll
and tie the ends so that you have a neat, even ballontine. Repeat for the remaining saddles.
4. Cook in a water bath at 64˚C for 40 minutes, then take out, dry and remove the clingfilm.
Heat a pan with some olive oil and seal the ballontines until golden all over. Finish with a
generous knob of butter and a sprig of thyme. Remove from the pan and rest for 5 minutes.
5. For the rabbit stock, add the legs and carcasses reserved from the whole rabbits into a
pressure cooker with the vegetables, herbs, spices and chicken stock. Fix and seal the lid and
bring up the pressure to cook for 1 hour. After cooking time, release the pressure and
remove the rabbit legs, leaving them to one side. Strain the stock through a fine sieve and
reserve for the rabbit sauce.
6. For the rabbit sauce, in a heavy bottomed pan heat a little olive oil and add the carrots,
shallots, garlic and mushrooms and cook for approximately 8-10 minutes or until well
caramelised. Add the Madeira, sherry vinegar and white wine and reduce on a high heat by
two thirds. Add the tarragon and rabbit stock and reduce to sauce consistency. Season to
taste.
7. For the crispy rabbit legs, take the legs that have been cooked in stock and flake the meat.
Add between 100-150ml of the rabbit stock to moisten the meat and season to taste. Lay
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9.
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out a sheet of brick pastry and fill with a line of the leg meat; you are looking for 2cm in
diameter and 10cm long, and roll up into a sausage sealing the edges with egg yolk. Repeat
another 3 times. Peel the potato using a Japanese turner to make potato strings. Blanch in
salted, boiling water for 10 seconds and then refresh in ice water for 2 minutes. Remove
from the water and drain well. Using 3 potato strings at a time, wrap the potato around the
leg until the pastry is completely covered. Repeat for each pastry package. Deep fry at 170˚C
for approximately 5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain well and season with salt, trim the
ends and cut in half. Repeat for the remaining 3.
For the baby artichokes, peel down and prep the artichoke, leaving whole and removing the
choke. Sweat down the pancetta in a little olive oil for approximately two minutes or until
golden brown. Add the rest of the vegetables and cook for a further two minutes ensuring
they don’t colour. Finally add the baby artichokes with the wine, lemon juice, bay leaf,
thyme and 100ml water. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Once cooked
through, strain off the liquid, remove the baby artichokes, cut in half and set to one side.
For the parsley and parmesan puree, blanch the parsley leaves in boiling, salted water for
30 seconds and then refresh in ice water for two minutes. Remove from the water and drain
well, squeezing out all the excess water, set aside. Sweat off the shallots in the butter for 6-8
minutes making sure that they do not colour. Add the double cream and stock and reduce
to a sauce consistency. Place this and the blanched parsley into a thermomix and blitz until
smooth. Pass through a fine sieve and season to taste. Keep warm until ready to serve.
For the garnish, pan fry the pancetta in a little olive oil until golden. In separate pans sauté
the girolles and spinach in butter.
For the kidneys, season with a pinch of salt. Cook in a very hot pan with the olive oil for 10
seconds on each side or until lightly golden. Add a knob of butter and nape for a further 30
seconds. Remove from the pan and rest whilst plating.
To plate, swipe a large spoon of parsley puree across the middle of the plate in a very gentle
curve. Place the sautéed spinach in the middle of the puree swipe. Slice/ trim off the ends of
the ballontine and then slice in two and place at either end of the spinach. Place each half of
crispy rabbit leg next to each half of ballontine. Place two baby artichoke halves between
the rabbit. Cut the kidneys in half and place 4 halves around the plate. Scatter the girolles
around the plate and finish by spooning the sauce over the rabbit meat and around the
plate.