Maltese Rabbit Stew

I once was on the Island of Malta. That sounds like a storybook beginning :-))

The food in the Hotel was on the rather bad side, overcooked fish, dry chicken and every morning burning toast, that could be smelled up on the 7th floor.

I had a rental car for a couple of days and discovered the island.When hunger stroke, I looked for something local, a small restaurant with few to no tourists and had a great lunch there. So Hotel dinner in the evening was nothing to be upset about later.

In the west of the Island I found rabbit stew on the menu, and the proprietor told me, that they hunt the rabbits themselves and it is an inexpensive source of protein there. Cooked with the ingredients that were on hand from their garden, it is some kind of family traditional dish in Malta.

Luckily I found a tea towel with a lovely rabit picture and the written recipe in one of the tourist shops. Since that time I wanted to cook that dish.

Now the tea towel has faded a lot and it was time to finally cook the rabbit. I bought rabbit legs in France yesterday and the other ingredients like carrot and peas. All other things I had at home and as usual, I made it my own dish by adding a few twists.

recipe:
350 g rabbit pieces or a whole rabbit, divided into its parts
100 g smoked bacon
seasoning I used a dry rub from South Africa, but pepper and salt do the trick too
3 tbsp flour

2 onions
2 spring onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 dried of fresh red chili
2 bay leaves
1 stalk of rosemary
1 can of tomato pieces
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 carrots
1 red bell pepper
200 g defrosted peas
150 ml red wine
500 ml chicken stock
salt and pepper

Chop the veggies and the bacon.
Season and flour the rabbit.
In a pan fry off the bacon and add the rabbit pieces so they get some colour.
Scoop out the bacon and the grease into a wide pot and start with the onions and garlic, later add the veggies except the peas and the bay leaves and rosemary. Season and add red wine and stock.


Cook on low heat for 70 minutes, add the peas and cook a little more.
During that time fish out the rabbit pieces and strip the meat from the bones and toss them back into the stew.

Serve over rice or pasta.