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| Nation-style rice cazuela with rabbit, mushrooms and asparagus. |
I used to be positively on the lookout for one thing that wasn’t rooster. Or fish, for that matter. And, what ought to seem, however a package deal of cut-up rabbit within the meat part on the grocery store. Rabbit it’s. Hopefully it’ll convey good luck for a brand new month, a brand new season.
Rabbit as soon as was broadly hunted in Spain, a pleasant addition to Sunday dinner or the paella pan. These days it’s farm-raised. Rabbit is a lean and tender meat, very tasty, not within the least gamey. I’m cooking the chunky items, not in paella, however in a cazuela de arroz, rice cooked in a cazuela, nation type.
“Cazuela” refers to an earthenware cooking dish, normally large and pretty shallow, in addition to the meals cooked in it. Skilled cooks use these clay vessels on a gasoline range in addition to within the oven. Nonetheless, as increasingly residence cooks swap to induction cooking (me included), earthenware is used much less and fewer. Use any large sauté or braising pan or flat-bottomed wok for cazuela recipes.
This country-style cazuela is completed with a majado or picada, a combination of fried garlic and almonds mashed up in a mortar (use your mini-food processor) with items of the rabbit liver (rooster liver may be substituted). In case you should not have or want to not use the liver, use a slice of fried bread as a substitute.
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| Cultivated oyster mushrooms. |
If seasonal wild mushrooms can be found, use them on this nation dish. In any other case, atypical mushrooms resembling oyster mushrooms or different cultivated ones can be utilized. Use any vegetable, foraged or cultivated, instead of the asparagus. (Tip: if you would like the asparagus to maintain its shiny inexperienced colour, as a substitute of cooking it with the rice as directed within the recipe, blanch it in boiling water and add to the rice on the finish of the cooking time.)
Use Spanish short-grain rice, the identical kind as for paella, ideally the Bomba selection. Bomba rice is forgiving, cooking “al dente” with out turning into mushy as different varieties can do if not rigorously timed. The rice on this cazuela is cooked “meloso,” or juicy, not dry like paella. You will have triple the amount of liquid to the quantity of rice: for 1 ½ cups rice, use 4½ cups inventory. Save a half-cup of the liquid to combine with the bottom almonds. Don’t stir the rice whereas it cooks, as stirring develops the starch, making gummy rice.
I’ve used half a rabbit, about 1 ¼ kilos, minimize into two- to three-inch items. You don’t eat rabbit? Attempt the recipe substituting cut-up rooster.
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| Rice is cooked meloso, considerably juicy, relatively than dry, like paella rice. |
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| Nation-style means you possibly can eat the rabbit along with your fingers! |
Nation-Fashion Rice in Cazuela with Rabbit
Cazuela Campera de Arroz con Conejo
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| Half a rabbit, minimize in chunky items. |
Serves 4.
1 ¼ kilos rabbit items
Salt
Freshly floor black pepper
Thyme, leaves and sprigs
4 tablespoons olive oil
5 cloves garlic, peeled
1 rabbit or rooster liver
10 almonds
2 tablespoons parsley
5 peppercorns
¼ teaspoon saffron threads
4½ cups inventory or water
1 cup chopped onion
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1 ½ cups sliced asparagus
¼ cup dry white wine
1 ½ cups short-grain rice
Lemon wedges to serve (non-obligatory)
Sprinkle the items of rabbit with salt, pepper and thyme leaves and permit them to come back to room temperature.
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| Sofrito with meat, onions, garlic, mushrooms |
Warmth 1 tablespoon of the oil in a cazuela/pan on medium warmth. Fry two of the cloves of garlic, the liver minimize in three items and the almonds till they’re golden. Skim them out of the pan and place in a mortar or mini-processor.
Crush the peppercorns and saffron in a mortar and add to the mini-processor with the opposite substances. Mix to make a paste. Mix in ½ cup of the inventory or water. Reserve this combination.
Add remaining 3 tablespoons of oil to the pan. Brown the items of rabbit on medium warmth, 5 minutes. Add the chopped onion and proceed sautéing 5 minutes. Chop the remaining 3 cloves of garlic and add to the pan.
Add the mushrooms and asparagus and sauté 5 minutes. Add the wine and stir to loosen any browned bits within the pan. Let the alcohol prepare dinner off, 1 minute, then add 4 cups of the inventory. Convey the liquid to a boil. Style and add salt if wanted. Add sprigs of thyme. Stir within the rice, distributing it evenly.
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| Add mashed almonds and liver when rice is almost cooked. |
Prepare dinner the rice on medium-high warmth for five minutes. Stir the rice once more and decrease the warmth. Prepare dinner, with out stirring the rice once more, till the rice is almost tender, 10 minutes. Shake the pan to maintain the rice from sticking on the underside, however don’t stir.
Add the combination of liver-almonds-saffron, distributing it with as little stirring as doable. Proceed cooking 3 minutes. Enable the rice to set 5 minutes earlier than serving. Serve with lemon wedges, if desired.
Extra rabbit recipes:
Extra variations of rice in cazuela:
