Rabbit on Mushrooms (Králik na Šampiňónoch)
Guys, listen up. Want to blow away your girlfriend? Here is a recipe for a great dish that will definitely impress your date. It’s for rabbit on mushrooms, králik na šampiňónoch.
Wait, what? A RABBIT? Yes, a rabbit. These cuddly critters make for common meal in much of Europe. Or at least used to, before supermarkets popped up all over the land and people got used to purchasing their meats shrink-wrapped. Rabbits used to be (and in places still are) commonly raised in villages. They are easy to take care of – just give them some hay (and a bit of alfalfa) and change their straw bed few times a week. The bed makes great natural compost. And yes, they breed like, well, rabbits.
So where do you find a rabbit? I found mine in Grand Mart, chain of Asian grocery stores here in the Washington, D.C. area. Or you can order it online, from places such as Ardeng Rabbit. Rabbit tastes much like chicken except that it’s leaner and has slightly sweeter taste. You can substitute chicken, if you can’t find a rabbit or have little queasiness about eating it, but that would be cheating a little. You will also need mushrooms. This recipe is made with the common button mushroom, called šampiňón in Slovak.
Ingredients: (these are from the original recipe) 1.7lbs of rabbit meat from front half, 2 larger onions, 150g (5oz) sliced mushrooms, 80g (3 oz) root vegetables, 4 tablespoons butter, ground nutmeg, one yolk, 1.5dl (0.6 cups) heavy cream, 2 tablespoons flour, parsley leaves, salt
Prep Time: 3 hours
Here is what you’ll need to make rabbit on mushrooms: one rabbit, carrots, onions, mushrooms, etc…
Start by washing and dressing the rabbit (králik). The recipe called for 0.8kg (1.7lbs) of meat from the front half of the animal cut into medium sized cubes. This particular rabbit (the biggest I could find) was not much more than skin and bones! It was nothing like the chubby silver fox rabbits I saw the day before at the National Zoo here in Washington, D.C. Even after cutting all the meat from front and back, I had only one measly pound… Save the bones for later, you can use them to make rabbit soup.
Peel two carrots, little bit of parsnip (should use parsley root instead, but those are hard to find), plus the onion. Cut them up, and along with the rabbit, put in a pot of boiling salted water.
Cook covered for about an hour, until the veggies and the meat softens. Then carefully (it will be hot), remove the meat and set aside. Strain the vegetables, but save the broth.
Place the vegetables in a blender and add equal amount of broth. Blend to make thick sauce. The traditional way is to use a metal strainer and push the veggies through. This is how I did it when making tenderloin on cream. Never again! Although I am very much fond of following traditional methods, this is one time I’ll gladly reach for a modern gadget. You will get much smoother sauce by using the blender, and it’s much faster and whole lot less messy.
Also while the veggies are cooking, stew mushrooms on butter. I used about 3/4 of the container and about half a stick of butter. Add the mushrooms once the butter is hot, reduce the heat, and cook covered until they get tender. This will take some 15-20 minutes.
Remove the mushrooms, and add the flour and crushed nutmeg. Whisk to make roux.
Top off with the creamy sauce. Add the mushrooms.
And the rabbit.
Then break an egg, separate the yolk from the egg white by tossing the yolk back and forth between the two halves. Add the yolk to the cream, whisk well, and pour in to thin the sauce.
And that’s it! Very easy, right? Add more salt, if needed.
This dish should be served with the steamed dumpling. But after cooking all day, I didn’t feel like making it, and we had macaroni instead. Garnish with few parsley leaves. Also serve with a side of fruit cocktail (kompót). The dish went great with the pea soup. My mom and few other friends joined in for dinner. The dish got really good reviews – the best one was that there were not leftovers. The cook (that’s me) had to make by with scrubbing the pot clean with a slice of bread…
Looking for similar recipes? Then take a look at chicken paprikash.
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I forgot to mention this recipe comes from “Slovenska Kucharka”, the 6th edition. My mom just recently returned from Slovakia and she brought me this cookbook. It has many great recipes and I’ll be using it quite a bit in future cooking.
Do you cook rabbit? If so, what recipe do you use?
Oh my, now you are getting into my cooking territory. When growing up, it was my chore to raise /take care of rabbits, all the way to kill, skinning, dressing, and all that “nasty stuff” before turning it to my mom for cooking. I made rabbit frequently, as I like it.
First, in DC/Northern Virginia, you can get rabbits in Asian stores, though I don’t like them much (too small and skinny). You can get much better (and sometimes fresh rabbits) in Whole Food, and Wegmans. I like Wegmans but they are not everywhere.
As far as cooking. You can relly make it anyway you want. E.g., frying it like a pieces of chicken, stewing it, or baking it.
I used a bunch of different recipes in the past. I’ll just post a couple that are easy.
This first is the way I usually prepare rabbit. It’s easy & delicious.
Ingredients:
Large pinch of sea salt
Pepper
3 garlic cloves, peeled
Large pinch of crumbled thyme leaves
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 rabbit, cut up (hind and forelegs cut; trunk cut once or twice depending on size
1/4 cup white wine
Prep:
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a mortar, pound the salt, pepper and garlic to a paste with a pestle. Stir in the thyme and olive oil. Put the rabbit pieces in a large bowl, spoon over the garlic mixture, and rub all the rabbit pieces in your hands to completely coat them. Arrange them side-by-side in a shallow baking dish and put in the oven. After 20 minutes, turn the pieces over, bring the white wine to a boil, add to the baking dish, and baste two or three times during the next 20 minutes. Bake for about 40 minutes.
I like this one, learned from my daughter in law
Ingredients:
– 1 rabbit
– Pealed tomatoes, smaller size, cut in half, if you prefer, you can use 15 oz can of pealed tomatoes, I prefer fresh.
– 3/4 to 1 cup of olives, green or black, for easy eating you can use pitted olives
– 3-4 cloves of garlic, sliced
– Salt
– Olive oil
– Fresh rosemary
– White wine
Prep:
– Salt the rabbit and let it sit for a while.
– Cut rabbit into pieces (front legs, rear legs and body into 3-4 parts)
– Lightly brown a rabbit a bit in a baking pan (not much, don’t overdo it as rabbit is not a beef)
– Mix tomatoes, olives, sliced garlic, and add it to the pan
– Add wine, about ½ to ¾ cup
– Sprinkle rabbit with fresh rosemary
– Bake it in covered baking pan at 350 degrees. Covered is important to let juices and other ingredients penetrate the meat. If it’s getting dry, add some water.
– When meat is tender, take a pan cover off and finish the baking uncovered to let the sauce thicken, basting the rabbit with sauce so the meat does not dry out.
That’s it! Serve it with home made dumplings or rice.
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Oh, OK, I throw in one more, wild rabbit (or domestic rabbit made as wild)
Wild rabbit
It’s more elaborate, as all wild meat is, but not so difficult to make
Ingredients:
– 1 rabbit
– ¼ lb of smoked bacon
– 3 tablespoons of oil
– 2 small onions
– 3 teaspoons of mustard
– ½ cup of sourcream
– 2 tablespoons of flour
For marinade:
Ingredients: water, salt, 1 teaspoon of sugar, tablespoon of vinegar, a couple of bay leaves, a few whole black peppercorns, thyme, a few juniper berries, lemon skin, and about ½ lb of cut carrots. Mix all ingredients, boil for some 20 minutes, and let it cool.
Prep:
– Cover rabbit with marinade and let is sit for some 3 days in refrigerator or cold room
– Sauté onion and carrots from marinade
– Spike rabbit with slices of smoked bacon
– Add rabbit into pan add water and stew rabbit for some 30 minutes
– Put rabbit into oven and bake it until meat is well done (some 20 minutes)
– Take rabbit out and cut it into serving pieces (keep it warm)
– Make gravy on a stove; add sour cream mixed with flour to left over juices in a pan and let it thickened. At the end add mustard a bit of sugar and vinegar.
– Strain the gravy, add rabbit pieces to it and serve it over dumplings or egg noodles.
p.s. sour cream is used frequently with wild meat to soften the wild meat taste that some folks do not like, of course marinating for a few days does some of that as well.
I don’t cook rabbit, we tend to stick with the same chicken, beef and pork but this is a good recipe to get out of the routine.
Rabbit was delicious not to mention the soup that I love. Thanks Lubos for making these dishes, Dinner was awesome.
Thanks for coming. Now it’s your turn 🙂
First time at your blog. I love your recipes I will be following.
You can also do this recipe with bacon and bay leaf (while stewing), proceed the same as you have with the veg and finish off with sour cream.
Your recipe reminded me that I have not cooked rabbit for toooooo long.
I make braised rabbit with warm lentil salad — http://easteuropeanfood.about.com/od/polishmaincourses/r/Braised-Rabbit-Leg.htm
Excellent! Where do you buy your rabbit?
Thanks Lubos for this site! I am part Slovak, Polish, Italian, and Croatian and have been wanting some old country foods since my Mother and Grandmother passed away in the past few years. So glad I found this site while looking for a Hurka recipe. I am definately trying this dish tonite although will be using chicken instead. Gonna try the steamed dumpling with it. So hungry already!!!
Michael
Be careful, if it you buy things at Asian groceries, it might not be rabbits.
oh my, don’t go there, if you don’t know how rabbit looks, comparing to other critters, you should not be cooking it, after all you may confuse a big beaver for a piglet after skinned and dressed