This week’s recipe was Kaninchen mit Pilzen, or rabbit with mushrooms. It comes from the section for the state of Nordrhein-Westfallen. This state is home to the cities of Düsseldorf, Köln (Cologne) and Bonn.
This is the first of several rabbit recipes in this cookbook. Germans are very fond of eating rabbit, and while I’m sure it’s delicious, I really can’t even fathom eating a rabbit because of these guys:
That’s Grumpy on the right and Franklin P. Bunny on the left and they were our beloved house pets (we sadly had to give them up for adoption because Rainer developed serious allergies and couldn’t breath around them anymore).
I substituted chicken for the rabbit, I used two frozen pre-cut up chickens, and left out the breast pieces, since I figured the breast meat is probably nothing like rabbit at all.
I ran into a snafu, I bought mushrooms to use in the recipe, but when I pulled out the package the next day, they had spots of mold. I had invited a friend over, so I called and asked her to stop at the local market on the way up. She did, but they were out of fresh mushrooms. She grabbed a bag of frozen mushrooms, and they actually, surprisingly, worked pretty well in the dish.
I served the chicken with 7-grain wild rice. The dish was totally delicious. The chicken was melt in your mouth tender and the sauce was full of flavor. Rainer says this is one of his favorites so far. It has a toddler and child stamp of approval as well. If you want to know how the recipe went with rabbit, check out some of the other participants.
Other participants:
- Stephanie at A Greenville Life
- CN Heidelberg at Heidelbergerin
Upcoming challenges!
- October 26 -Miesmuscheln in Weisswein (Mussels in white wine)
- November 2 -Märkischer Rindfleischtopf (Mark Brandenburg Beef Stew)
- November 9 – Zwiebelmarktkuchen (Weimar Onion Festival Cake)
- November 16 – Muschelsalat (Mussel salad)
- Sächsischer Weihnachtsstollen (Saxon Christmas Stollen) – This needs to be made several weeks beforehand. I’m thinking we make it at the end of November/beginning December and publish either right before or after Christmas (Dec 21 or 28). Let me know if you have a preference.
Feel free to join in anytime. Want more Real German Cuisine? Check out the full recipe list organized by German state.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
made the rabbit yeaterday and had a couple of friends over. they all loved it. unfortunately i forgot to take pictures of the prepared dish so i’ll have to wait till tonight to write the follow-up. i still have one piece of meat as leftovers so that’ll have to do.
ps. you seriously want to make Christstollen yourself? woah! you’ll be in for quite some work there.
@rita: Not just one Stollen, FOUR!
Hey, Christina, have you ever seen the rabbits they raise for food? Hardly the cute little bunnies in your picture. They’re huge, fat, stupid-looking critters. And rabbit does taste good, trust me. Not at all like chicken, although you were right in that the consistency of the flesh is similar.
.-= Ed Ward´s last blog ..Fall Comes To The Market =-.
@ed: I know, I’ve seen them. Rainer’s best friend used to raise them, so did Rainer’s grandfather. Still too close to fluffy, happy bunnies for me. I don’t much approve of them being locked up in a tiny hutch their whole lives either. I offered to make this using wild hare (I figure they’ve lived in the wild and had a pretty good life, so I wouldn’t mind eating them), but Rainer said he still couldn’t eat a hare, too close to our bunnies. I’ve never had rabbit, so I have no idea how they taste, I know chicken and rabbit taste nothing alike, but I figure it’s a meat that could also work well in the recipe.
enjoyed this dish- loved the mustard and thyme flavor. Just tasted my dish – we are going to eat it tonight for dinner. I think that rabbit is like a combination of chicken and turkey in taste.
Your frozen mushrooms look like you used fresh! I don’t think it matters since it is cooked for a while longer after adding them.
Looking forward to the mussels this week – one of my favorite dishes!
.-= Stephanie´s last blog ..Kaninchen mit Pilzen (Rabbit with mushrooms) =-.
FOUR stollen?!?!?!? you’ll need a break from baking after that!!!! honestly. it usually takes three people just to prep the ingredients — and then those three people go looking for a fourth victim to knead the dough.
ps. hare doesn’t taste anything like bunny-rabbit because hare is game.
.-= rita´s last blog ..new pretty =-.
Finally posted this one!
http://cndrnh.blogspot.com/2009/10/amiexpats-kaninchen-mit-pilzen-rabbit.html
I gave this one a try!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theblythespirit/4044540237/
I think it could be delicious with pork as well. Perfect for a cool autumn afternoon.
.-= Blythe´s last blog ..Lessons =-.
Just for clarification: is it unusual in the States or in the UK to eat rabbit? I didn’t know that. I know it’s quite common in France, too.
We had rabbits too when I was a child. Nobody but an awful uncle was able to kill them. But everybody ate them. I believe, this was my first reason to become vegetarian.
Re Stollen: my mother used to make 12 large ones in time for Christmas every year. Some of them she gave away as gifts. But every year a few days before Christmas she had to make another batch – all the Stollen were eaten up! She had tons of butter going into them and hot, liquid butter on top of them after baking before the Stollen were thickly coated with icing sugar. Her Stollen always have a filling of marzipan. Yummy!
.-= Molly´s last blog ..In Christmas Mood already? =-.
Hi
Just glanced at the website and saw a recipe for rabbit and then a couple of pics of (live) rabbits and didn’t know what to think!
Am busy baking Christmas cookies-we like vanilla crescents best.
My ex relatives used to get tons of real Dresdener stollen, sent to them for Christmas by relatives in the Eastern part of Germany, and eat it every single weekend until Easter (Unfortunately in the former DDR they didn’t have many other products, not even bananas). They had the raisin and the almond kind. It has turned me off stollen forever!