Rabbit stewed with black pudding and cocoa, easy royal sauce recipe
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Total: 1 h 30 min Diners: 4
At the beginning of March, the hunting season continues to hurry in Spain and those preparations of stews and stews that we love so much and that warm us so well in the cold winter nights. As if it were a miracle, many classic and traditional preparations are resurrected and enter the scene in every home and in the best restaurants in the world.
One of the recipes that best exemplifies this is the hare a la Royale. A French preparation that, just by naming it, evokes airs of sophisticated cuisine and emblematic dishes of great renown. Cooks with “touch of blanche” who spent hours and hours in front of the stove inventing, modifying and, ultimately, preparing a great cuisine full of flavor and soufflés.
It takes its name in honor of royalty, in particular Louis XIV, who, as was common in his time, lost his teeth and had to invent succulent dishes to feed him. One of them is this hare, whose first appearance is said to date back to 1775 and which was a kind of compote eaten with a spoon. As a distinguishing feature from any other recipe in the world is the fact that its sauce is bound with the blood of the animal itself.
With these premises, the great chef Câreme codified the recipe and to this day. Great chefs such as Escoffier, Oliver, Senderens or Bocuse have given play to a recipe that very few times has been versioned and have always had in common the time it takes to prepare it. Three or four days some say, which is paradoxical as it is one of the fastest animals.
It is a very difficult dish to prepare and there are few who dare to do it, so we, Cocinillas, were not going to be less. The thing is that we are going to use household ingredients and a very particular way of using blood. We are going to elaborate a rabbit with blood sausage and chocolate, an easy, fast and very delicate Royale. A rabbit stewed like so many others, but in a very peculiar way.
Like any great stew, it has to start with a good sofrito. And, once done, instead of binding the sauce with the blood of the rabbit, we are going to incorporate a blood very ours: the blood sausage. And after pouring a red wine over it, we will finish it off with a good piece of chocolate. A centenary preparation halfway between a royale and a mole poblano that will resurrect a dead man and will delight everyone.
If you have long teeth and want to perceive those airs of old French cuisine, Horcher or Saddle are good places for it. For their part, game preparations with a high level can be found in Madrid, in the Desencaja restaurants, where Iván Sáez reflects more and more on tradition and refines his preparations with elegance (now at the height of the lamprey boom), in Salino or in the TreZe restaurant, where his cocido (stew) is well known.
How to make rabbit stewed in royal sauce very easy
Ingredients
. Rabbit, 1/2 pc Onion, 1 pc Leek, 1 pc Carrot, 2 pc Celery, 1 stick Garlic cloves, 4 pc Bay leaves, 2 pc Cinnamon, 1 stick Medium onion black pudding, 2 pc Red wine, 350 ml Chicken stock or water, 350 ml Salt, 1 tsp Ground black pepper, 1 tsp Mild olive oil, 4 tbsp Butter, 1 tsp Pure cocoa powder, 2 tsp Cured/old Manchego cheese, 50 g Cooked white rice to accompany
Step 1
If you buy a whole rabbit, cut it up and separate the different parts into slices of approximately one bite: the legs, the shoulders, the ribs, the loins with the skirt and even the head split in half.
Step 2
Put a casserole with a good amount of oil on high heat and brown the rabbit very well. Turn the rabbit so that it browns evenly. After 5 minutes, remove and set aside. In the bottom of the casserole all the juices of the rabbit should have remained, as well as parts of it which have remained stuck and browned. To rescue this pure essence of the rabbit, with the fire on, pour a glass of water and scrape the base well. Set aside with the rabbit.
Step 3
Peel and cut all the Vegetable Recipes into small squares. Add them to the same pan where we have browned the rabbit and deglazed its juices. Add also the bay leaves, the cinnamon and a pinch of salt (whenever you make sofritos you should always add oil without fear and a little salt to help the Vegetable Recipes to sweat). Cover and, stirring occasionally, cook for 30 minutes over very low heat.
Step 4
When the Vegetable Recipes are completely cooked, add the skinless black pudding and the rabbit insides. With the fire at half strength, break up completely and cook until all the sautéed ingredients are integrated. Water with the red wine, uncover and reduce completely all the alcohol. This step is very important because if it is not well reduced it can be a bit acidic.
Step 5
When the wine has reduced, add the water or broth, from the previous deglazing and a little more. Wait until it comes to the boil and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
Step 6
After the time has elapsed, remove the bay leaves and cinnamon. Grind well in a blender until a fine and velvety sauce. Add the cocoa and season with salt. Return to the pan.
Step 7
Incorporate the rabbit and cook for a further 20 minutes over a very low heat and covered, so that the rabbit is cooked but not dry.
Step 8
Adjust salt and pepper. Turn off the heat and add a teaspoon of butter to shine and bind all the sauce. Integrate everything very well and serve with a good white rice. Grate on top, if desired, a little of the cheese.
