The head of the rabbit carcass hung over the edge of the bowl. The eyes were small, not like the huge bug eyes on another classmate’s rabbit. I avoided looking at the face even more.
During the demo, Chef M had said, “Rabbit is the new black. Everyone has rabbit on their menu.”
I placed the rabbit carcass on John’s cutting board.
“You do half, and I’ll do half,” John said as he picked up his boning knife.
John cut off one hind leg. I popped the joint, and worked the knife around the other hind leg. Each of us cut off a foreleg.
I grabbed the head and the ribcage and cracked the neck. We chopped up the ribcage.
John worked his knife up and down the grooves of the spine and around the pelvis. Even though the loin meat was attached around the bones, we still had to extract it in one piece.
John finished detaching the meat from the right side of the spine. I worked on the other side, while John seared the legs in a pan.
I felt for the bone with my fingertips, trying to make sure I made clean cuts and didn’t destroy the meat.
John hovered around my side of the work station. "Are you OK? Do you need help?" he asked.
"No. I'm fine," I replied, staring down at the pink flesh.
John had worked in restaurants for 10 years, and was going to school to get the credentials and move up in the industry. Like Henry, my first partner in Level 1, John acted as my mentor and was always there to help me.
I worked the knife slowly and deliberately around the tiny hills and valleys of the spine. I wasn't going to be rushed.
"Jenny, do you need help?" John asked again.
"No," I said, waving him away and telling him to concentrate on browning the legs.
I pierced the knife in the flesh underneath the spine and the loin meat was off. It looked like a jagged butterfly, splayed out on the cutting board.
I rolled the sides of the loin inward to form a cylinder.
Chef M walked past our station, gave me a short nod and said, “Looks good.”
John and I high-fived each other with our rabbit hands.
We braised the rabbit legs in the oven. Later, we seared the sides of the loin and roasted it separately.
The loin was stubborn. The needle on my thermometer wouldn’t go past 125 degrees F. We stuck it back in the oven and waited. We checked again. The internal temperature notched at 140. We put it back in and waited. John took it out, and the loin was at 143 degrees F. We let it rest, but not for long because we had to plate.
John sliced the loin and laid the perfectly cooked meat on the plate. We added mashed potatoes. Then we placed shredded leg meat next to the loin, letting the reduced braising liquid naturally fill the empty space on the plate. We sprinkled parsley, carrots and green beans.
Chef M was pleased with the presentation and how the rabbit was cooked. Then he tipped the plate and the sauce rolled to the front.
“Your sauce is too thin,” Chef M said. “You need to reduce more.”
We brought the rabbit dish back to our station. Earlier during class, we had presented our braised lamb shank with couscous. The dish came out really well. The meat was tender
Braised lamb shank
At home, I scooped rabbit and mashed potatoes in my mouth as I wrote e-mails. I looked down at the smooth texture of the shredded meat. Maybe rabbit had a slightly gamier taste, but it reminded me of chicken.
4 comments:
Well done, I gather rabbit can be a tricky one to cook well.
Interesting and good job. I remember way back when my grandmother cooked rabbit, it tasted like chicken!
Joy: Thanks. Yeah. You have to make sure the internal temperature of the loin is about 145.
Pam: Thanks!
I've only had rabbit once but it was stuffed with really bitter greens so I couldn't taste it. Your dish looks amazing! I want to eat that.
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