L is for Lapin

French food alphabet advent calendar

We are now halfway through advent and I hope you are enjoying my selection of delicious food posts for my French Food Alphabet Advent Calendar.

It’s the 12^th December and L is for Lapin.

Lapin or rabbit is far more common here in France than I remember it being in the UK and to be honest I think it makes a nice change from chicken. If you are a meat eater I can’t see there is difference between tucking into a lamb, a chicken or a rabbit as they all start out as cute baby animals. We keep birds and bunnies here and in terms of entertainment the ducks and chickens display far more personality than the rabbits have ever done, with the exception of Snowy the house bunny. She was a real character who sulked if we put her in the pen with the others rabbits and loved to spend her evenings hopping around the lounge.

If you’ve never tried rabbit, here is an easy recipe for my favourite slow cooked rabbit casserole.

Ingredients

One whole rabbit jointed

A small amount of plain flour

A knob of butter

Salt and pepper

A couple of bay leaves

One onion

Two carrots

Two cloves of garlic

500ml of Normandy cider

Toss the rabbit pieces in the flour, season with salt and pepper and then brown in a pan with the butter. Finely chop the onions, carrots and garlic and add to the slow cooker pot with the bay leaves. Place the browned rabbit on top of the vegetables and pour over the cider. Cook on low for about six hours and then serve with rice and your vegetables of choice.

If you have missed my previous advent posts you can catch up by clicking on the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J and K. Don’t forget to join me tomorrow for the letter M, one of my summer favourites.