Ok guys, when i get around to it (i have next week off so shouldn't be long) the following recipes will be added:

1) Fragrant Thai rabbit curry.
2) Pigeon pie.

All,

I run a small survival company and am about to run my first proper course. I am quite content to eat rabbit cooked over an open fire but it does get rather chewy. Does anyone have any tips for the initial preparation (in a forest, at night) to soften it up or simply make it nicer and more palettable?

many thanks,

NC

Apologies if this has already been asked, but does anyone have any great venison recipes they wouldn't mind sharing?

I'm doing a 'deer in a day' course next week, and as i'll be coming away with a lot of meat, I thought could do with some decent recipes.

Thanks.

Spanish rabbit casserole: This is a dish of my own creation that i came up with today, it was a total success and i think my favorite way to eat rabbit to date!

Ingredients:

1 x jointed rabbit.
2 x medium onions, quartered.
3 x cloves of garlic, crushed.
1 x tin of tomatoes.
75g of pancetta, or diced streaky bacon.
Sliced chilli, to taste.
1tsp of paprika (smoked preferably).
15 x green olives (whole but, stoned).
2 sprigs of thyme (or 1tsp of dried).
3 x potatoes, quartered.
¾ a pint of chicken stock.
100g of chorizo.



Stage one:

Fry the pancetta / bacon in a frying pan with a little oil, once crispy place in to the bottom of a casserole dish. The lightly fry the quartered onions and again layer in the bottom of the dish. At this point you can also add the raw potatoes and the springs of thyme to the dish.

Stage two:

Roll the rabbit joints in seasoned flour and then brown in the frying pan. Once nicely browned place in the casserole on top of the other ingredients and leave to one side. Start preheating the oven to 180ºC.



Stage three:

In the same frying pan gently fry the chillies, garlic and chorizo for about 2 or 3 minutes. Add a tsp of smoked paprika and stir it in. Then add the tin of tomatoes and the green olives and bring up to the boil. You can then spread this mixture over the top of the other ingredients.



Stage four:

Pour the stock in to the casserole dish and put the lid on and place in the pre heated oven. Give it about 10 mins at 180ºC and then turn the oven right down to 140ºC and leave to casserole for about 3 hours (cooking time will differ depending on your oven). Check the dish every 30mins to and hour to check that it is not drying out (if it is add a little more water / stock or wine. It is ready to eat when the meat is tender and falling off the bone. Enjoy with what ever you want, but I did it with home baked ciabatta bread and some veg.

Sorry I forgot to take a photo of the finished dish till I had eaten most of it….. you get the idea anyway.

All these great recipies for game on the forum should be set in fine glossy print in the Airgun Forum Game Cookbook...30 - 40 good recipies and acompanying pics and you have a winner....there has to be someone somewhere with connections to make it happen...could even get a couple of telly chef's to add their weight to it...well are we up for it.

Hi All,

I have just been reading a thread in the 'Hunting' section of this site. The topic title was 'shot any parakeets yet?'

One of the most rescent entries was someone talking about eating Jackdaws.

I am just wondering if any of you have heard of this or tried it for yourselves?

I have heard of cooking Rook pie around the begining of May etc but never tried it.

I would like to know if anyone has had any experience with this.

Also it would be good to know if there is any airgun quarry other than Rabbit, Pigeon, Squirrel and the above mentioned that would be safe to eat?

Any knowledge or advise anyone could share would be appriciated?

Slugger

How long do you find its best to hang your rabbit before cooking?

Ok guys my second recipe thread and I hope this is as well received as the last one! This is one I found on the internet but adapted the ingredients to my own taste. The ingredients below is my version.

Rabbit in cider (for 4 people):

Ingredients:

1 x rabbit into 6 joints (I used two 1/2 - 3/4 grown which fed 3 hungry blokes)
2 tbsp flour
50g (1 ¾ oz) unsalted butter
4 shallots and an onion (thinly sliced)
1 x Clove of garlic (thinly sliced)
2 x tsp sugar
2 x tbsp cider vinegar (or white wine vinegar)
2 x sprigs fresh thyme
2 x bay leaves
700ml (1.1/4pints) dry cider
1 x tsp Mustard (any will work but I used Dijon)





Method:

Coat the rabbit pieces in seasoned flour (a pinch of sea salt and plenty of fresh ground black pepper to the 2 tbsp of flour). The heat half the butter and a table spoon of olive oil in a casserole dish. When the butter is bubbling and a few rabbit pieces at a time and brown the meat on both sides, once browned remove them from the dish and place to one side.





Into the (now empty) dish add the rest of the butter and add the thinly sliced garlic, onions and shallots. Cook these over a medium low heat till the sweat down and become soft. At this stage add the sugar and caramelise the onions. Before the caramel starts to burn, add the vinegar and scrape up the juices that have stuck to the pan.



When the vinegar had evaporated layer the rabbit pieces over the cooked down onion / shallots and add in the cider, bay leaves and chopped thyme.


Now very gently bring to the boil and skim off any scum that comes to the surface. Dilute the mustard with a little of the cooking juice and mix it well into the sauce. Cover the casserole and put in a moderate oven (180degrees c/350 degrees f / gas mark 4 for one and a half hours.

It should look something like this:



The rabbit should be perfectly tender and come away easily form the bone. Check the seasoning and serve with what ever you want, I did it with crusty buttered bread and cabbage:



Well I hope you enjoyed it, it was one of the tastiest game meals I have cooked so far and my mates loved it! Give it a go!

Hugh

We used a nice half grown one for this.

Chuck the rabbit joints on baking tray with a chopped onion, a bit of chopped garlic and a few bits of red pepper or something similar.

Cover in very generous helping of olive oil.

Cover with foil and stick in medium to high oven for 45mins.

For salad, chop up some lettuce of your choice and make pile on your plate.

When rabbits done take of bone and chop into bite size bits.

Prepare some crunchy croutons and scatter them with with rabbit over the saled.

Cover with ceasar dressing, add black pepper to taste.

Yummy !

Sorry if this is a duplicate topic but i can't see where the topic appeared after i started it last time. Any way any help with the following would be great.

After shooting a rabbit i paunched it within 60 mins. then skinned and quatered it and left it in the fridge over night. cooked it the next day. fried some of it for a pasta dish and made a sort of stuffed roll from the belly flap and loin.

The legs tasted fine but the loin and tender loin smelled a bit like the guts and tased the same. (not that i have tasted guts but you know what i mean)

Did this happen because it was in the fridge and not the freezer or did i do something else wrong. Was it not paunched quickly enough.

Also as an aside. do you bother hanging a woody? and if you do hang any bird in the feathers. do you draw it out before hand?

hi all i was out in the back garden having a bbq so thught id do some rabbit for me and the lads so i came up with smoked rabbits legs with herbs from the vegi garden turns out to be really yummy

This is a recipe that I made for a BBQ and have continued to make ever since. It went down a storm with those that tried them I hope you do to, enjoy!

Bunny Burgers

Ingredients
1.25-1.5 lb of Rabbit Meat
1.5 lb of Pork Belly
1 Large Onion
170 g Pack of Paxo Sage & Onion Stuffing
1 tsp Ground Cinamon
Olive Oil

Method
Finely chop the onion and gently fry in the oil until pale gold, put to one side and allow to cool. Cut the rabbit and pork into 1 inch chunks and run through a course mincer. Using a pestle & morter grind to a powder, the course grains of sage & onion stuffing and add to the mince with the remainder of the packet. Add the cooled onion and a large teaspoon of ground cinamon. Mix well and divide into portions and round into a burger shape around 1/2 inch thick. You should get around 14-16 burgers.

serves 4

4 fl oz olive oil
2 Leeks, finely chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 Celery sticks, chopped
2 fresh bay leaves
4 dried red chillies
3lb RABBIT, jointed or 8 hind legs well trimmed
6oz pancetta or streaky bacon lardons
6 garlic cloves, peeled
1tsp ground allspice
1oz plain flour
450ml red wine
300ml chicken stock (carton ok)
2tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper

mashed potatoes and buttered peas to serve

place oil, leeks, carrots , celery, bay leaves in non-metallic bowl, add rabit season generously , then mix to combine.

Cover and marinate for upto 24hours, stirring a couple of times

heat casserole dish remove rabbit and add to casserole in batches, fry for about 10 mins untill brown turning regularly, transfer to plate

remove bay leaves and chillies from marinade,

add pancetta or streaky bacon to casserole dish, when it renders a little fat add the vegetable mixture &garlic, cook for 10 mins untill golden and tender, stirring

stirr in allspice and flour to casserole and cook for 2 mins

gradually pour in the red wine stirring constantly

turn up heat and boil for a few moments

pour in stock, stirring to combine

turn down heat and add rabbit pieces reserved bay leaves and rosemary

cover and simmer for about 45 mins untill rabbit is tender

season to taste and serve in bowls with mashed potatoes and buttered peas


I hope thats understandable and tastes good, it took me long enough to write using an on screen keyboard and a ps3 controller

ENJOY

Ok guys this is a pretty simple recipe I have come up with. You will need:

Pigeon breasts (2 per person)
Home made bread crumbs (4 slices did 14 breasts)
1 large pack of boursin cheese
1 or 2 eggs
Some fresh sage leaves (optional)
Some parmesan cheese
Some olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Plain flour

Stage 1: Making the bread crumbs

First get some slices of stale bread (or leave some slices out of the pack the day before you plan to eat this meal). Pop these in a blender or food processor, and blitz them till they are of a bread crumb consistency. To the bread crumbs add a few gratings of parmesan cheese and 3-4 finely chopped sage leaves.

Stage 2: Preparing the breasts

Take your breasts (make sure you try to keep the little fillets), and using a sharp knife slice carefully into the breast making a cavity (be careful not to cut all the way through). The cavity created is now filled with the boursin cheese and the little fillet is placed over the cut to seal the cheese in.





Stage 3: Coating the breasts

Now that your breasts are stuffed you will need to coat them with the bread crumbs. Add some salt and pepper to the plain flour and then coat each breast (a dusting on both sides). Then dip each breast into a bowl of whisked egg and the finally on to the plate of bread crumbs. You are now ready to start cooking.

By this time they should look something like this:



Stage 4: Cooking

Heat about half an inch of olive oil in a frying pan or wok to a medium heat. You can then carefully place each breast into the oil. Then cook for around 4 minutes on each side (for medium rare) and the bread crumbs should be a nice golden brown colour.



Serve with potato wedges and veg (or anything really) and enjoy with a nice bottle of red or some beers.



But be careful the night may degenerate into this:



It did when i cooked it! :lol:

Hope you enjoy it lads!

Hugh

hi everyone made this with just squirrel a couple of weeks ago so i thought i would try it with rabbit too.
Firstly quarter your rabbit and squirrel then marinade in levi roots reggae reggae sauce and leave to soak in for a couple of hours then get a load of veg i used carrots, peppers, tomatoes, parsnips and mushrooms too, slice them up and put most of them in a big flattish pyrex dish then drizzle a bit of of oil over the lot (veg) and add half a cup of water then place your meat (rabbit and squirrel) on top of the veg then place the rest of the veg on top of the meat, then either add some more reggae reggae sauce or this time i added some reggae reggae love apple tomato ketchup over the whole lot meat, veg everything also add some salt, pepper or anything else that takes your fancy (i put a sprinkling of garlic salt) then put in the oven on about 180 degree celsius for roughly an hour (one hour fifteen minutes for me) check after 45 mins to see how much longer (depends on your cooker) then voi la one of the best dishes i've had! here is a before photo will add the after once it has finished cookng

ok i am a chef guys and have cooked this many many times and in my opp it is the nicest way to eat rabbit ok first
1 rabbit
1 red wine
5or6 juniper berrys
1 bay leaf
1 500 mil cream
sum quick gravy

ok joint the rabbit put it in to a bowl then put the wine in and the berrys and bay leaf .
leave to marnate over night
this is the kee to this dish bake in oven 150dg for 4 hours
then put juices in a saucepan add cream and quick gravey thear u go thats it u now have
braised rabbit in red wine and juniper berrys
enjoy i hope u ppl like it as mich as i did

Steak au Poivre

Ingredients

* 4 tenderloin steaks, 6 to 8 ounces each and no more than 1 1/2 inches thick
* Kosher salt
* 2 tablespoons whole peppercorns
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 1 teaspoon olive oil
* 1/3 cup Cognac, plus 1 teaspoon
* 1 cup heavy cream

Directions

Remove the steaks from the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour prior to cooking. Sprinkle all sides with salt.

Coarsely crush the peppercorns with a mortar and pestle, the bottom of a cast iron skillet, or using a mallet and pie pan. Spread the peppercorns evenly onto a plate. Press the fillets, on both sides, into the pepper until it coats the surface. Set aside.

In a medium skillet over medium heat, melt the butter and olive oil. As soon as the butter and oil begin to turn golden and smoke, gently place the steaks in the pan. For medium-rare, cook for 4 minutes on each side. Once done, remove the steaks to a plate, tent with foil and set aside. Pour off the excess fat but do not wipe or scrape the pan clean.

Off of the heat, add 1/3 cup Cognac to the pan and carefully ignite the alcohol with a long match or firestick. Gently shake pan until the flames die. Return the pan to medium heat and add the cream. Bring the mixture to a boil and whisk until the sauce coats the back of a spoon, approximately 5 to 6 minutes. Add the teaspoon of Cognac and season, to taste, with salt. Add the steaks back to the pan, spoon the sauce over, and serve.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


VENISON TIPS & NOODLES

Good sized sirloin or tip steak, cut in cubes

3/4 c. water
2 tbsp. beef base
1/2 c. red wine
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. thyme
1 tbsp. cornstarch

Brown meat in pan. Bring other ingredients (except cornstarch) to a boil in separate pot. Lower and thicken with cornstarch. Pour sauce over meat in casserole dish. Place in oven at 300 degrees for 3 hours or until meat tender. Serve with noodles or rice if preferred.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Venison and Peppers

Ingredients:

1 pound venison steak -- diagonally sliced

Marinade:

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons dry sherry
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons cornstarch (corn flour)
1/4 cup water
2 tablespoons oil
4 cloves garlic -- chopped
2 teaspoons ginger root -- peeled, grated
2 scallions -- chopped
2 tablespoons oil
1 large onion
2 green peppers or 1 red, 1 green -- sliced

Directions:

1. Marinate steak for 15 minutes or more. Add oil to hot pan or wok.

2. Swirl and stir fry garlic, ginger and scallions for 30 seconds.

3. With slotted spoon, reserving the marinade, add half the steak and stir fry for 3 minutes. Remove and set aside. Repeat with remaining steak.

4. Add oil and stir fry onion and green peppers for 2 minutes.

5. Push vegetables to sides of wok. Add marinade to center of wok and stir until thickened and bubbly.

6. Blend in vegetables, add steak and heat thoroughly.

After a bit of experimentation I have managed to create a rabbit dish that both my wife and daughter will eat (providing I call it chicken pie).

You'll need:

1 Rabbit
1 Onion (sliced)
2 Cloves Garlic (crushed)
500 ml of vegetable stock
2 Leeks
1 Can of condensed mushroom soup
50ml Cream
200g Ham (cubed) - optional
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 Sprig of rosemary (rubbed in the palm of your hand)
2 tsp Taragon
1 tsp ground black pepper
300g Shortcrust pastry
Little bit of flour

1. Joint the rabbit (just for ease of handling) roll in some flour seasoned with some salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil in a saucepan, add the rabbit pieces until lightly browned subsequently add the onion and garlic and fry until the onion until translucent.
3. Add the stock then add enough water to cover the rabbit and the sprig of Rosemary, bring to the boil and simmer for 2 1/2 hours with the lid on. Leave to cool.
4. Pick out the bones and pour off about 1/3 of the liquid, add the leeks, pepper and taragon and bring to the boil and simmer until the liquid has reduced by about half.
5. Add the mushroom soup, the cream and the cubed ham and reduce until left with a thick creamy filling. Pour into a pie dish and allow to cool.
6. Once cooled, wet the top edge of the dish and stick an inch of pastry to it, then apply a layer or pastry approximately 1/4 inch thick to the top of the pie. Make a hole in the middle of the pastry crust to allow the steam to escape.
7. Preheat an oven to 200 °C (fan) and cook for 40 minutes.

Yum, yum.....

If you have people in your family who don't like the idea of eating rabbit, just tell them its chicken and they'll enjoy the pie hugely!

Just seen Hugh Fearnley-Watsit doing a squirrel ragouh? with nettle pasta as part of an autumn foraging demo looked very tasty.

Hi all,

new to this hunting game and have been experimenting a bit with rabbit over the last month or so since I took up this great hobby.

SO here are some of the best things I have done so far.


The first two recipes use rabbit that has been boiled for 2-3 hrs in stock and then the meat removed.

the first recipe is - Oriental aromatic rabbit pancakes

Once you have flaked the meat off the rabbit add some soy and 5 spice and mix well.

place aromatic rabbit on one of those Chinese pancakes (could us corn wraps) and add a dollop of plum sauce, add cucumber strips and spring onion. wrap it all up in the pancake and scoff !

The next recipe was - Rabbit enchiladas (using an enchilada kit)

I took meat flaked off the bone mixed and fried with enchilada spice mix (was in kit) and an onion, this mix was then placed in wraps and rolled up. These rolls were placed in a lasagne dish and covered with salsa and grated cheese and cooked in the oven @ gas mark 7 for about 15-20 min.

Add guacamole and chillies and enjoy. ( I did !)

Cheers

Douglas

Fragrant Thai rabbit curry (Serves 4):

A little more in depth than my other recipes, but it is a great dish! If you can’t manage it get the misses to do it. But come on fellas all you have to do is follow some instructions!

Ingredients:

1 large rabbit, meat cut from the bone.
45 ml (3 tbsp) of oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tbsp of Thai red curry paste
1 ltr (1 3/4 pints or 2 tins) of coconut milk
2 Lemon grass stalks, coarsely chopped
6 Kaffir lime leaves, chopped
150 ml (1/4 pint) of Greek yogurt
2 tbsp ginger preserve (tescos sell it, or you can either leave it out or use apricot jam)
2 tbsp of chopped fresh coriander
Salt and pepper (the seasoning, not the band :p)
Boiled rice



Step one:

Heat the oil in a pan (or wok). Add the onion and garlic and cook on a low heat for 5 – 10 mins till they are softened (if you cook on a too high heat the garlic will burn and go bitter). Stir in the curry paste. Cook stirring constantly, for 2 or 3 mins and then add the coconut milk, yogurt, lemon grass, lime leaves and the ginger preserve (or apricot jam). Stir together well and cover and simmer for 30 mins.

Step two:

While the sauce is simmering stir fry the rabbit chunks in a little oil until it is cooked through. When done remove from the heat and set aside. Alternatively you could do it the slow way and simmer the rabbit for 2 hours till the meat falls off the bone.

Step three:

Remove the sauce pan from the heat and set aside to cool a little. When it has cooled pour the sauce into a food processor and blitz it till it is a smooth purée. The sieve the sauce back into the rinsed out pan, pushing as much of the purée through the sieve as possible.

Step four:

Add the rabbit to the sauce and bring back to the simmering point. Stir in the fresh coriander and season with the salt and pepper. Garnish with extra lime leaves and coriander and serve with the appropriate amount of boiled rice.

Enjoy with a few beers, preferably Thai beers, with Tiger and Singha being good choices!

Hi guy's I've been looking on the net and found this site I've only poked around a little bit but its loaded enjoy.

http://www.cookitsimply.com/category-0020-03j52.html