(serves 6): 1 young rabbit (it's best to buy a small one, because then there's the least risk of getting an old buck); 1/4 l veal stock, 1 cup sweet cream, 1 glass dry white wine, 2 shallots, 1 clove garlic, 1 tsp crushed tarragon. As well as 250 g fresh mushrooms, clarified butter, butter, the juice of 1 lemon, salt, pepper; 1 bunch of flat-leaf parsley. Fine ribbon noodles, spinach leaves.
Divide (leave) the rabbit into 8-10 pieces: 2 each hind and front legs, 6 back pieces.
Preheat the oven to 180°. Sear the barnyard rabbit pieces in a pan in the hot clarified butter until golden brown, taking care not to overheat. Don't salt and pepper too timidly, as you're still adding a lot of liquid. Remove, keep warm in a roasting pan and sprinkle the tarragon over the top. The roasting pan should have a tight-fitting lid and be large enough for all the pieces to lie side by side. Pour off the fat from the pan except for a thin film. Sauté the finely chopped shallots and the clove of garlic in it, but do not let them brown. Add to the meat. Now deglaze the gravy with the wine, boil off and pour everything over the meat; add the stock and cream in equal measure. Stir and season to taste. Cover the roaster, put it in the oven and turn it down to 150° after 10 minutes. After half an hour, remove the backs and keep warm. Put them back in just before the end of the cooking time (about 80-90 minutes in total) so that they don't get dry. In between, taste the braising juices every now and then, seasoning if necessary and turning the meat now and then so that it doesn't always lie well moist.
Meanwhile, clean the mushrooms, not washing them if possible, and quarter them lengthways. Fry them quickly in the hot butter, stirring constantly. You may need more butter; after all, you don't want the mushrooms to burn. Salt, pepper, and add the lemon juice. Set aside.
When the meat is done (and the back is still juicy), remove it from the pot and park it in a warmed bowl in the turned-off, open oven. Drain the braising juices into a saucepan and reduce a little. Keep tasting it, seasoning if necessary, and at the end let the mushrooms get hot in it briefly. If you have done everything right, you can now pour a super sauce over the meat. Decorate with the chopped parsley, serve with the pasta and spinach.
Before, there has been field salad with the rabbit liver. For this, too, is of special delicacy. Admittedly, one is not enough for 6 people, so you try to grab one or two more. Either pre-order and or rely on his powers of persuasion.
With Waldemar Thomas at Rabbit-Lautz
It is strange that rabbit meat is not at the top of the popularity scale among the Germans, who nevertheless love sauces so much. For the braised barnyard rabbit, cut into pieces, produces, virtually by itself, such an inimitably delicious, rich sauce as you can't get with any other meat so easily. Rabbit stew with cream and mushrooms (or, more festively, with morels); with mustard or with prunes, served with ribbon noodles, and I would prefer not to stop eating. Unfortunately, our landlords prepare rabbit far too rarely, and mostly bring it to the table in the form of nonsensically complicated and unflavorful tricks (terrine, roast back). Instead of braising rabbits, as is the custom in France, where the breeding of the stable rabbit, closely related to the field hare and the wild rabbit, has been known since the 16th century. Angevin rabbits enjoy the greatest reputation among gourmets.
The meat of the stabled hare is very similar to that of the chicken, and is also very healthy, as it is low in calories, and rich in valuable fatty acids; on top of that it is particularly tender, but after slaughter it must nevertheless hang out. Even if less long than other meat. Above all, however, take care to carry home a young rabbit. Only limited safety goes, who buys a rabbit as small as possible, because there are rabbit breeds with up to 10 kilos heavy animals.
Ellen and Heinrich Lautz keep about 30 female rabbits, mostly from the breed "Deutsche Widder", and in spacious, with straw padded rabbit boxes. Especially in the warm season, the animals must be well protected from the sun. They like to eat cereals and greens, by all means not only dandelions; they love savoy cabbage, carrots, turnips and last but not least apples. All this contains enough liquid so that rabbits normally do not need to drink extra. Lautz rabbits are ready for slaughter after four to five months, then they weigh about 3 kg and cost 7,50 € per kilo. Liver and kidneys, although small, but great delicacies, are of course included.
Of course, the farmer does not have it so easy with her rabbits for slaughter, because children from the nearby comprehensive school have taken some of the rabbits into their hearts, even adopted them. Mrs. Lautz, on the other hand, fights against the consumption of snacks during the breaks with sandwiches (on Saturdays it is the popular homemade bread rolls from her own grain).
Butcher rabbits are only available on order; at Christmas and Easter the demand is highest. There is no shortage of pet rabbits, however, and although they are cheaper than stuffed animals at around 5, they have a limited shelf life: if you squeeze them too hard, they are quickly ruined, warns Ellen Lautz.
As a tribute to the great son of Ober-Ramstadt, the Lautz family named their Hofschänke after Georg Christoph Lichtenberg. In the quaint, 180-year-old vault, which once served as a stable and storage cellar, good beer and (not only) wines of the region, are served; cooked with farm-raised beef and pork. The fried potatoes are made in the pan, which takes time. Homemade sausages and the hams made from the meat of the farm's own pigs are justly popular.
"I forget most of what I have read, as well as what I have eaten, but I know this much, both of which contribute none the less to the preservation of my spirit and my body". Lichtenberg could only have expressed himself in this way because he did not know rabbit stew with mushrooms. One looks for it in vain on the menu of the Lichtenberg tavern; to prepare it oneself at home, however, should succeed without problems.
Farm Ellen and Heinrich Lautz
Steinrehweg 2 (below the comprehensive school)
64372 Ober-Ramstadt (near Darmstadt)
Phone: 06154 / 3590
Fax: 631800
Opening hours: Farm shop: Mon-Fri 8am-1pm & 3pm-6.30pm, Sat 8am-1pm
Lichtenberg Tavern: Wed, Thu, Fri from 7.30pm; Sun from 5pm.
from Waldemar Thomas