That rabbit stew from when I was 7
Chasing Rabbits
I got six rabbits despatched to me not long ago. Make sure you, really don’t inquire — I have superior good friends in large spots. And of course, my freezer seemed like a tiny meat locker. So, I have been seeking to recreate this stew I experienced one time as a child in Eutawville, S.C.
The memory is beginning to get foggy now, but I keep in mind smaller things, like the haze in the early early morning air. The odor of grass and soil, and the sound of chickens scurrying together. It was an more mature wood residence, lot’s of what I assume to be shiplap (shoutout to Fixer Higher), and I don’t forget the heat of the small, previous-faculty kitchen area.
I’ve romanticized this location and event most likely a bit in my head, but it’s a fantastic memory, and one that I can figure out now was pivotal in my advancement. So, I cling to it.
I was about 7 almost certainly, it’s possible younger, and I was a region female and tomboy to the core. I’d been running around exterior discovering, and remaining out of developed folks’ business enterprise, and experienced finally been named in to wash up and take in.
Anything smelled definitely superior, and I was handed a bowl and spoon. I noticed rice and I noticed gravy and I went to do the job-likely inquiring for warm sauce at some stage as well. I was a scrawny little ol’ thang, likely all of 50 pounds soaking damp, but I tore that bowl up. I keep in mind asking right after ending what it was I’d eaten, and the male who’d served it to me stated it was rabbit.
I casually shrugged it off, like, “Oh, guess. Nicely, that was fireplace.” (But in a 7-year-outdated Amethyst voice.) Due to the fact it was. It was easy, anything common and in no way relating to or off-putting to me. I likely should really have been extra upset at the assumed of the bunnies I’d usually noticed growing up hiding in berry thickets and tall grass staying slaughtered and served for dinner.
I remember us keeping a bit lengthier, and me inquiring to consider some of the rooster eggs residence to test to hatch on my personal. By the time we’d gotten back again to our home, I’d fallen asleep and smushed most of all those eggs (yikes), and went on about my night time, sleeping peacefully given that I’d worn myself out and eaten a adhere-to-your-bones type of food.
Rabbit was one thing I’d by no means eaten, but that food and that working day has often been 1 that caught out in my head and I have been chasing it ever due to the fact. I want to dwell basically and try to eat well, with chickens in my yard and a screened-in entrance porch. I want to wake up to hazy mornings with dew-stained grass, chirping birds and the audio of sluggish-creeping automobiles, crunching in the gravel as they arrive up a filth road. Comfort to me is uncovered in a form of symbiosis with mother nature and neighborhood and lifestyle. And I’d located section of that that day in a bowl of rabbit stew and rice.
Rabbit has been really hard to get lately, and tremendous costly, as so quite a few other substances that I grew up consuming that have been usually found in abundance and for low-priced simply because they weren’t key butcher cuts. The less-well known styles of proteins our excellent-grandmothers and grandfathers ate bought pushed aside as they assimilated and moved additional into modern day lifestyle, and using local substances became less mainstream, particularly as community farmers obtained pushed over by Big Ag.
I have discovered the ideal way to get these components — if you simply cannot legally and safely and securely get them on your own — is to obtain individuals people in your communities who do. (Or just go online like the fancy chefs do if you never mind expending the extra dollars.)
I have a handful of regular resources now from working in the food industry, so it is been a journey in the course of the pandemic. And with a new shift back to Charleston it is time for me to recreate that dish. My recipe is my individual, and I’m searching for one thing in my thoughts from around 20 many years ago, so it’s not everywhere near what I experienced as a child. But, it helps make my home, actually and I guess metaphorically, truly feel and scent heat. And it is a dish I hope you can obtain consolation in also.
Amethyst Ganaway, a North Charleston indigenous, is a chef, food stuff author and foods historian specializing in Southern, African-American and African diaspora foodways.
Amethyst Ganaway’s Rabbit Stew
This dish can be created in a crockpot, gradual cooker, or on the stove top, and the rabbit can be substituted for chicken.
Ingredients
Neutral flavored oil (vegetable, canola, etcetera.)
1 Three-pound rabbit, minimize into modest parts and patted dry with a paper towel
Kosher salt
Floor black pepper
2 huge yellow onions, thinly sliced
1½ lbs sliced mushrooms of your option (I applied a blend of shiitake, bella, and oyster)
3 tablespoons all intent flour
6 cups water or chicken stock
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Paprika
1 bunch fresh new thyme
2 small bunches refreshing sage
1 modest bunch contemporary oregano
1 sprig contemporary rosemary
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In a significant Dutch oven or oven-secure roasting pan with a lid, warmth ample oil to include the bottom of the pan about medium substantial warmth for about 1-2 minutes. Whilst oil is heating, liberally period rabbit with salt and pepper in a bowl. Diligently include rabbit parts to the pan and sear right up until brown, about 5-6 minutes. Flip and repeat with the other side. When all of the rabbit parts are browned, diligently take away them and set apart and cut down warmth in the pan to medium.
Preheat the oven to 350 levels. Incorporate about 2 tablespoons of oil to your pan and add sliced onions. Stir the onions commonly so that they brown but never burn off, for about 3-4 minutes. Onions need to be softened and somewhat caramelized. Include mushrooms and stir nicely. Proceed stirring onions and mushrooms for about 5-8 minutes until they have cooked down and are comfortable and brown but nonetheless have shape. Incorporate flour and stir very perfectly, earning guaranteed there are no lumps or white pieces, and allow cook dinner for an added 2-3 minutes, stirring until eventually very well merged and flour is no longer white.
Add about 1 cup of drinking water or stock, and carry the warmth up to large, stirring vigorously to combine perfectly. Insert the remaining liquid and carry to a boil for about 5 minutes until the combination has a little bit reduced. Cut down warmth to medium and time to taste. Add in the rabbit and refreshing herbs, convert off the heat, and go over tightly with a lid or foil. Cautiously area into the oven and permit prepare dinner until finally tender, at the very least 2 hours, but the longer the much better. Provide by yourself, or around rice.
