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Rabbit stifado with graviera cheese and polenta bread
Serves 6 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 1-1.5kg whole rabbit, cut into 8 pieces
- 150ml white wine vinegar
- 160g butter
- 155g diced onion
- 4 garlic cloves, finely diced
- 155g diced carrot
- 140g diced celery
- 135g diced leek
- 500ml red wine
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 cloves
- 1 cinnamon quill
- 3tbsp tomato paste
- 1.5 litres chicken stock
- 250g graviera cheese, broken into 2cm pieces
For the polenta bread
- 150g plain flour
- 380g fine grain polenta
- 21⁄2tsp baking powder
- 1tsp salt
- 11⁄2tbsp honey
- 3 eggs
- 600ml buttermilk
- 300g butter, melted
- 180g good-quality feta cheese, crumbled
Method
Place the rabbit in a large bowl, cover with the vinegar and marinate for 2-3 hours. Drain and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Heat a large flameproof casserole dish over a medium heat. Add the butter and rabbit pieces and cook gently for 5 minutes, turning as the rabbit browns. Lightly season with salt and pepper (not too much salt as the graviera cheese is salty).
Remove the rabbit from the dish. Add the onion, garlic, carrot, celery and leek to the dish and cook until starting to brown. Return the rabbit to the dish and add the wine, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon and tomato paste. Cook for around 10 minutes, until the wine has almost evaporated.
Add the stock and cook over a low heat for 3 hours, or until the meat is falling off the bone. Add the graviera cheese and cook for 10 minutes until the cheese is soft but not completely melted.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160C/140C fan/Gas 3. For the
polenta bread, mix together
the flour, polenta, baking powder
and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Whisk together the honey, eggs,
buttermilk and 4tbsp of the melted
butter in a bowl.
Heat a 24 x 12 × 6cm baking dish in the oven. When hot, coat the inside of the baking dish thoroughly with the remaining butter (use kitchen paper to get into all corners of the dish).
Combine the honey mixture
with the polenta mixture and 100g
of the feta cheese, then pour
into the baking dish, spreading
evenly. Sprinkle the remaining feta
over the top and bake for 25-35
minutes, until cooked through.
Arrange the rabbit on a serving
platter and serve with the cooking
juices and polenta bread.
NOTE: If you have any leftover polenta bread, it is great toasted and served with fresh butter.
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