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Maria Shebets

And a little bit of meat will be featured too! As well as poultry!

Meat & Poultry

Pulled rabbit in rich mushroom stock

pulled rabbit in stock

Pulled rabbit is one of those dishes I cook quiet often not only because it’s really delicious by itself but also because it could easily be combined with many different ingredients and make a proper meal. You can use pulled rabbit meat in sandwiches, soups, pasta, risotto… The variations are endless! I strongly recommend you to make a big batch of it, since the meat will only get tastier in a couple of days and you will always have something to cook a quick but enjoyable dinner or lunch with.

Today I used pulled rabbit meat in rich brown chicken and mushroom stock with some sliced button mushrooms simmered for a couple of minutes and wilted local spinach.

I happened to have a chicken carcass in my fridge, so I used it for my stock. Well, I guess any ingredient cooked in brown stock seems to be delicious, right? Especially when you further enrich its flavor with a good handful of dried porcini. So, first I had my pulled rabbit meat ready, then I prepared the stock and, finally, threw everything together, adding a handful of button mushrooms and a bunch of spinach, which turned into a warming winter lunch dish.

Having the two main ingredients ready, all you need to do is to bring the stock to the simmer, add sliced mushrooms (I used six of them) and a few spoonsful of rabbit meat and cook for 2 minutes. Add a big handful of spinach (washed and stalk removed) and let it wilt there for about 30 seconds.

Voila! Enjoy!

Pulled Rabbit

To fill approximately 600 ml container

Ingredients

  • 4 rabbit hind legs
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 medium onions, peeled and cut in halves
  • 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 2 celery stalks
  • 2 bay leaves
  • A good handful of fresh marjoram or thyme
  • A small handful of coriander seeds
  • ½ (125 ml) cup dry white wine
  • 4 cups (1L) chicken or vegetable stock, homemade preferably

Instructions

  1. Wash rabbit legs and pat them dry thoroughly. Heat oil in a large heavy based pan over a medium to high heat. Season with salt and pepper.  Cook the rabbit legs well until golden brown on both sides. Remove from the pan.
  2. Add onions, carrots, celery, bay leaf, marjoram and coriander seeds to the pan. Let the vegetables brown nicely and spices release their flavor.
  3. Deglaze the pan with wine and let it reduce by half. Return the rabbit into the pan and pour the stock over it.
  4. Bring to the boil then turn the heat down to low, cover the pan and allow to simmer for 3 hours. Turn the heat off and leave to cool in the liquid, if you are not in a hurry.
  5. Now you should have a super tender fall-of-the-bones meat. All you need to do is to pull it carefully from the bones, making sure there are no small bones left in it.
  6. Strain and boil the cooking liquid to reduce a little to make it more concentrated and richly flavoured, then pour it over the rabbit meat.
  7. Strain the cooking liquid and boil it to reduce a little bit and concentrate the flavours and pour it over the rabbit meat. Pour just enough to coat and keep it moist.

Brown Chicken and Mushroom Stock

To fill approximately 600 ml container.

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken carcass
  • 4 shallots
  • 2 carrots
  • 2 celery sticks
  • 3 garlic cloves, unpeeled
  • Olive oil
  • 20 gr dried porcini
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 220 C.
  2. Cut the chicken carcass into a few pieces. Remove the outer layer of shallot skins, do not peel it. Cut shallots in half. Peel carrots. Cut the carrots and celery into chunks.
  3. Put everything apart from porcini on a shallow baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil.
  4. Roast until well browned, for approximately one hour.
  5. Transfer the roasted chicken and vegetables to the stock pot, add porcini and pour the water over (approximately 2 L).
  6. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for a couple of hours or longer to get a rich and flavorful stock. Reduce it to approximately 600 ml.
  7. Strain the stock and discard the chicken and vegetables.
  8. Try the stock and season it well with salt and freshly ground black pepper

Notes

This is a simple version of a traditional brown stock (no bone collecting).

 

Meat & Poultry

Chicken tagine with quinces and preserved lemons

tagine

These days I was lucky and, thanks to Claire Borg, got a big bag of local quinces! Don’t know if you guys have ever tried them, but I really love these fruits! Despite quinces are actually not edible when raw, they are perfect for cooking. They remind me of my childhood when we used to make jam from them, which was probably one of my favourites. Now I’m not that much into sweets and rarely make jams at home, but I like to use fruits when cooking poultry and meat dishes. Quinces could also be matched with lamb, as well as they could perfectly substitute apples in any pork recipes. As these yellow fruits nicely complement poultry dishes, today I’ve decided to cook this simple but heavenly luscious chicken tagine with quinces and preserved lemons.

Hope you will enjoy try it out and enjoy! And don’t miss Clair’s article about quinces, which will be out with Taste December issue!

Chicken tagine with quinces and preserved lemons

Ingredients

  • 1 corn fed chicken
  • A big pinch of saffron threads
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tbsp paprika
  • Olive oil
  • Salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 3 onions
  • 3 big garlic cloves
  • Cinnamon stick
  • A small handful of the cardamom pods
  • 200 ml of light chicken stock or water
  • 2 medium quinces
  • 3 preserved lemons (I used baby lemons, you might need only 2 if you have bigger ones)

Instructions

Joint the chicken into 8 pieces. Mix ginger, turmeric, paprika, coriander and cinnamon together. Rub the mixture over the chicken and leave to marinate as long as you can (even overnight).

Take the chicken out of the fridge and bring it to the room temperature.

Soak saffron in the hot water.

Heat some olive oil in a heavy-based sauté pan over a medium heat. Season chicken pieces with salt and pepper and place them in a pan skin side down to render the fat and brown the skin. It may take around 10 minutes and you just want to leave the chicken to crisp and not to move it. It is also important to keep the pieces in a single layer.

When the chicken pieces browned nicely and skin is crisp remove them from the pan and set aside.

Peel and dice the onion and crush the garlic using a press. Cut preserved lemons in quarters and remove any pips.

Clean the sauté pan and heat some more olive oil. Sweat the onions over the low heat until soft. Add the garlic and cook for 1 minute more.

Return chicken to the pan, add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, saffron with soaking liquid, preserved lemons and 200 ml of the light chicken stock or water. Bring to the boil, cover and reduce the heat. Let it simmer for 15 minutes.

Wash quinces very well, core them and cut into wedges.

Add quinces to the chicken and cook 25 minutes more. Chicken should be cooked and quinces tender but not falling apart.

Check if chicken is ready. Lift one piece, put it on the white plate and cut down to the bone, you want to see the juices run clear.

Cook some couscous and serve chicken on top, pouring the sauce over it.

Copyright 2021 Maria Shebets