Wosie Makes A Wascally Wabbit.

Mr. Hawthorne had his eye on this little rabbit
along with his buddies at Harris Teeter for some time.
 I guess you could say he had been stalking them.
 Notice the sell by date - 07/19/09.
 He waited months for the sell by date to arrive
 then he swooped in and scooped up all the little bunnies
 that otherwise would be THROWN away.

 And instead of paying $16.83 for wabbit,
he paid $5.61.
 A whopping savings of $11.22.
 Whoot!
Now can I have my own show for Money Saving Meals?

 This recipe is adapted from Julia Child And More Company -
It's Julia's Leek and Rabbit Pie.
 Kind of.

First the marinade:
 6 TB extra light olive oil
4 cloves garlic
 1 - 5-6 inch strip fresh rosemary
 3 TB soy sauce zest
juice of 1 lemon
 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
 4 fresh bay leaves

Whisk all ingredients together
and this marinade is delicious.
 Couldn't stop tasting it.
 (Before the raw rabbit went in
in case anyone out there is thinking
I'm tasting contaminated marinade.)

Pour marinade over rabbit in a zip lock bag,
massaging every now and then for 6 - 24 hours.
 Other ingredients:
 about 8 ounces bacon
 1 large onion
 1 leek
1 celery
4 small carrots
 1 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal
salt and pepper
Montreal seasoning
 1 qt. chicken stock
2 cups white wine

Slice the onions and saute in olive oil
 until the onions are a light mahogany brown.

Set aside.

Peel the carrots, trim and wash the leek very well,
 and julienne the vegetables.

Set aside.

Next I cut the bacon into bits and fried them up
. Save the bacon grease in the pan.
 Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside.

Flour mixture for browning the rabbit:
1 cup flour
 1/2 cup corn meal
freshly ground salt and pepper
 Montreal seasoning

Remove the rabbit from the marinade,
saving the marinade, and pat pieces dry.

Dredge rabbit pieces through the flour mixture, shaking off excess ...

... and brown all sides in the saved bacon grease.

As each rabbit piece is browned, transfer to another pot.

Add the julienned leek, carrots, and celery to the first pan,
 scraping up the goody bits.

Add in about a cup of wine to deglaze.

Any scraped up goody bits went in the pan with the rabbit ...

... along with bacon ...

... the caramelized onions ...

... the rest of the veggies ...

... the marinade ...

... about 1 cup white wine ...

... and enough chicken stock to cover (about 1 quart).
 Bring to a simmer, cover, and simmer slightly
until rabbit is tender when pricked with a fork.
A young rabbit will be tender in about 30 minutes.
 Older rabbits may take up to an hour or hour and a half.
 Mine was a young rabbit.

I liked this picture of Junior standing underneath Dixie.
 They don't know what I'm cooking
 but they sure do like how it smells.
 While the rabbit was cooking, I started on the herbed biscuit crust.

Ingredients for the crust:
 3 cups flour (scoop and sweep method)
2 tsp salt
 4 tsp double acting baking powder
 1 tsp baking soda
 8 TB chilled vegetable shortening
 4 TB fresh parsley, minced
4 TB fresh chives, minced
 2 eggs
 1 1/2 cups buttermilk

First, I mixed the dry ingredients (1st four)
 and cut in the shortening until the the fat
 is broken up into the size of coarse Kosher salt.
At this point, you could wrap up the dough,
 refrigerate it, and finish it off when you're ready to cook.
You add in the liquid only at the end,
 since the baking powder starts its action immediately
when the liquid is added.

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
 scented candle for ambience

Mix the eggs and the buttermilk
 and have a little quantity of flour to sprinkle over the cutting board.

Pour in the liquid.

Add in the herbs.

Turn onto a floured surface.

And pat out into a round about 1/2 inch thick.

I had transferred the rabbit and fixin's into a casserole dish ...

... and lifted the herbed crust over top.

Brush crust with an egg glaze - 1 egg mixed with 1 tsp water.

Bake in the lower middle rack in a preheated 400 degree oven
 for about 20-25 minutes until the topping has risen nicely and browned on top.

This is just a little piece of crust which had been soaking up the exquisite juices.

Serve the bunny with yummy vegetables, sauce, and herbed biscuit topping.

This was such a treat.
Excellent.