Name: Rabbit and Chestnut Ragout (Conejo con Castañas)
Yield: Serves 4
Cuisine: Spanish
Ingredients: 2 garlic cloves, crushed; 2 rabbits, jointed; 1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 2 bay leaves; 1 tbsp sweet unsmoked paprika; 3 tbsp olive oil; Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 2 tbsp olive oil; 100 ml/3½ fl oz/generous ⅓ cup white wine; 300 g/10 oz cooked and shelled chestnuts; 250 ml/8 fl oz/1 cup chicken or vegetable stock; 150 g/5 oz jamón serrano, cured ham, diced (unsmoked bacon could just about be substituted); 100 ml/3½ fl oz/generous ⅓ cup brandy; Large pinch of saffron strands; 1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour; 2 carrots, finely diced; 1 onion, finely diced

Preparation info

Serves
4

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The Food of Northern Spain

By Jenny Chandler

Published 2005

About

Rabbit is very popular in Spain - it’s eaten just as regularly as chicken. Most of the meat on sale in the markets is the domestic variety but the wild, mountain rabbit is certainly the tastiest with its diet of herbs and grasses so it’s worth looking out for.

I couldn’t resist this dish when I spotted it on the menu of a traditional restaurant in the Galician city of Orense. The previous day, while winding along a mountain road, I’d screeched to a halt to admire a beautiful scene.