Rabbit is notoriously difficult to cook, especially the legs, which in the wrong hands can be dry and tough. Cooking them sous vide in oil is a great way to overcome this as the lower temperature slowly breaks down the fibres in the meat making the legs much more tender and moist than in traditional methods.
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
- 4 rabbit legs, approx 400g
- 2 sprigs of thyme
- 1 sprig of rosemary
- 1 garlic clove
- 15g of rock salt
- 50ml of vegetable oil
1
Finely chop the thyme, rosemary and garlic and mix them with the salt
2
Rub the salt mixture all over the rabbit legs and leave in the fridge for 6 hours
3
After 6 hours, rub the salt from the legs with kitchen paper
4
Preheat the water bath to 75°C
5
Place the legs in a vacuum bag with the oil and seal
6
Place the bag in the water bath and cook for 8 hours
7
Remove from the bag and serve immediately. Alternatively, the legs can be pan-fried after removing from the bag for a golden finish
Variations
For a deeper flavour, add a few spoonfuls of Riesling to the bag when cooking the rabbit; it will give a nice acidity to the finished dish.
Uses
Phil Howard serves Rabbit with spring vegetables, peas shoots and tarragon while Matthew Tomkinson uses the picked meat for his Cannelloni of braised English rabbit with glazed spring vegetables and black pudding purée.
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