I don’t recall the name of the man who raised rabbits commercially on mainland St. Vincent, but I DO remember how excited I was to discover nicely packaged rabbit parts in the frozen food section at C.K.Greaves Supermarket! Unlike today, fresh chicken was hard to come by; it was either imported and rather tasteless, or tough “yard fowl” that had to be “stewed to be chewed”! I was therefore pleased to find a tasty and healthy alternative to chicken, and although I had never cooked rabbit before I was more than happy to experiment.
Rabbit is lean; most of its caloric content is from protein rather than fat, making it a healthier option than chicken, pork or beef. The meat tastes quite a bit like chicken, but with a more intense, slightly gamey flavour, and I found that rabbit could be substituted in most of the chicken recipes I used. Noting that rabbit tended to be dryer than chicken, I marinated it for a longer period so that it stayed moist while cooking, and was soon turning out delicious meals fit for a King.
Frying rabbit was just like frying chicken except it didn’t take quite as long. I seasoned the meat with minced garlic, salt and cracked black pepper, adding snips of coriander and sweet basil. I then dredged each piece of meat in seasoned flour, dipped it in a bowl of beaten egg, then again in the flour. The pieces were fried in hot oil until golden brown, then patted dry with paper towels. The end result was incredibly tender as well as tasty, much better than chicken in my opinion. I also tried my hand at braised rabbit, stewed rabbit, grilled rabbit, BBQ’d rabbit, even rabbit pate! I could also make a lovely and easy pasta sauce by cooking seasoned pieces of rabbit in butter, adding cream, wine and garlic slowly as the meat cooked.
Most of the people I knew (myself included) had never eaten rabbit before, although I understood the meat was quite popular in Europe. With this in mind, I invited a German couple who lived on Bequia to the house for supper, wouldn’t they be surprised when I dished out some good European food!? I decided to serve rabbit pate for an appetizer, followed by rabbit baked in a cream wine sauce.
My guests arrived, and we nibbled on the pate while we sipped pre-dinner drinks and watched the sun set. Although they ate every bit of the appetizer they didn’t comment on it, and as the cognac in the pate somewhat masked the taste of the rabbit I figured they didn’t realize the extent of the treat they had just consumed! Once seated in the dining room I served the rabbit over wild rice, along with salad and vegetables, and while the couple ate with gusto they once again didn’t say anything about the rabbit. When I rose to clear the dinner plates the lady (with her heavy German accent) thanked me, and said the chicken had been delicious.
“That wasn’t chicken” I proudly informed her, “it was rabbit!”
My guest’s face went sheet-white. “Rabbit! You fed me Rabbit”??? It really looked as though she was going to be sick, and her husband hurriedly helped her from the room. The expression on his face was one of outrage, and they left shortly afterwards without having any of the dessert I had toiled over. I could only assume that this particular European couple did not like rabbit. I have since learned that serving rabbit to Germans, especially those of an elevated class, is akin to feeding them squirrel or manicou, in other words I had fed my dinner guests rodent in cream sauce!
Years later we raised a few rabbits of our own, and though they grew to size we didn’t eat them. Buying rabbit already cleaned, cut and packaged in the supermarket is one thing, dealing with the butchering of the cute furry critters is another! In the end they did what rabbits do best, which is breed, and when I saw the newborn babies I was horrified! Rabbit kittens are without a doubt the ugliest freaking creatures on the planet earth. Seriously ugly! I haven’t eaten rabbit since, although that has more to do with its absence at the supermarket…..