Gordon Ramsay rabbit fricassée cooks one rabbit four ways. The legs are poached, the loins fried, the liver and kidneys crisped separately, all finished in a mustard cream sauce over tagliatelle.
He makes it on The F Word and never wrote it down. The amounts below are what I could see in the video rather than numbers he gave. Rabbit tastes like gamey chicken, and he says the flavour is so mild you have to think in mild delicate herbs.
The sauce is built on the water the legs poached in. No shop-bought stock anywhere. It is the step every other version of this recipe gets wrong.
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Gordon Ramsay Rabbit Fricassée with Tagliatelle
Course: MainCuisine: FrenchDifficulty: Medium2
servings20
minutes55
minutes1280
kcal1 hr 15 min
Ramsay’s fricassée from The F Word. One rabbit broken into four parts, a sauce built on the leg poaching liquor, finished with grain mustard and reduced to a cafe latte colour.
Ingredients
- For poaching the rabbit:
1 whole rabbit, jointed into 2 legs and 2 loins, liver and kidneys reserved
A few parsley sprigs
Water, to cover
Sea salt and black pepper
- For the sauce:
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, chopped
A few thick rashers of bacon, cut into cubes
A handful of mushrooms, quartered
Leaves stripped from a few thyme sprigs
About 1 cup white wine
The poaching liquor from the legs
About ½ cup double cream
1 to 2 tbsp grain mustard
A small handful of parsley, chopped
- To serve:
Tagliatelle, enough for two
Directions
- Butcher the rabbit: Take out the liver, then the kidneys sitting underneath it, and set both aside. Remove the two legs. Remove the two loins and set aside.
- Poach the legs: Put the legs in a pan with water to cover and the parsley. Bring to the boil, then leave to poach for 45 minutes, until the meat pulls away from the bone easily.
- Start the sauce: Heat the olive oil in a pan. Add the shallot, then the bacon, then the mushrooms, then the thyme leaves, each going in as you cut it. Cook for about 5 minutes, until the shallot softens and the bacon takes colour.
- Wine: Deglaze with the white wine and reduce for 2 to 3 minutes, until the pan is almost dry.
- Stock: Pour in the poaching liquor from the legs and reduce for about 5 minutes, until it thickens slightly.
- Cream: Add the cream and reduce to a cafe latte colour, around 3 to 4 minutes. Stir by moving the pan rather than using a spoon.
- Finish the sauce: Stir in the grain mustard, then the chopped parsley. Set aside.
- Fry the loin: Cut the loins into rounds. Fry for 2 to 3 minutes, turning, until golden outside and just cooked through.
- Add the leg meat: Pull the meat off the poached legs in good chunks rather than shreds. Add to the same pan and fry for about a minute, to colour it and warm it through. It is already cooked, so any longer dries it out.
- Combine: Stir both meats through the sauce.
- Cook the pasta: Cook the tagliatelle to packet instructions and drain.
- Liver and kidneys: Halve the kidneys. Fry them and the liver last in a separate non-stick pan, about a minute each side, seasoning as they go. Keep them pink in the middle.
- Serve: Plate the tagliatelle, spoon the fricassee over, and finish with the liver and kidneys on top.
Notes
- Most of the time here is the 45-minute poach, and that poach is the only timing Ramsay actually gives, so trust the cues over the clock on everything else. The cafe latte colour is his own description of when the sauce is ready. The calorie figure assumes a 1.2kg rabbit, 90g bacon, 100g mushrooms and 200g dried tagliatelle, because the video never gives weights.
FAQs
How do you joint a rabbit for this?
Liver first, then the kidneys sitting underneath it, and both get set aside for the end. Then the two hind legs come off, then the two loins are lifted off the backbone.
You can watch Ramsay do it in the first thirty seconds of the video, which is quicker than reading it. Or ask the butcher to joint it and keep the liver and kidneys for you.
Why do the loin and the leg meat go in at different times?
The legs have already cooked for 45 minutes in the poaching water. That meat is done before it reaches the frying pan, so it only needs colour and warming, about a minute.
The loin goes in raw and needs two to three minutes. Put them in together and the leg meat dries out while the loin catches up. This is the detail most versions of this recipe miss.
What stock does Ramsay use for the sauce?
None. He uses the water the legs poached in, which after 45 minutes has turned into a light rabbit stock of its own. That goes into the pan once the wine has reduced.
It matters because rabbit is mild and a strong shop-bought stock would bury it. The same logic sits behind the red wine jus, which takes its depth from the roasting pan rather than a carton.
What does a cafe latte colour mean?
It is Ramsay’s own phrase for when the sauce is ready. As the cream reduces into the wine and rabbit liquor, the pan shifts from pale cream to a soft milky brown.
He never gives a time for it. Reckon on three to four minutes and watch the colour. Stir by swirling the pan rather than with a spoon, so the sauce keeps its gloss.
Why grain mustard and not smooth?
He calls the mustard the secret of this sauce, and he specifically reaches for grain. The seeds stay whole through the reduction and burst as you eat them.
That gives little sharp hits against the cream instead of one flat note of heat. Smooth mustard dissolves completely and just makes the sauce hotter. The Madeira sauce follows the same thinking, where texture in the finish matters as much as flavour.
Why only thyme, and why strip the leaves?
Because rabbit is delicate. Ramsay says on camera that it is a very mild flavour, so you think in terms of mild delicate herbs. Rosemary or sage would flatten it.
He strips the leaves off the stems with his fingers and puts only the leaves in. Whole sprigs need fishing out later, and the woody stems add a resinous edge you do not want here.
How is this different from his chicken fricassée?
Almost everything except the name. The chicken fricassée browns a whole jointed bird with smoked bacon lardons, flambés it in brandy, then braises it in chicken stock for 25 minutes.
The rabbit version never braises. Each cut is cooked separately and only meets the sauce at the end, because rabbit is lean enough to dry out in a long braise. That is why one is a one-pot dish and this one is not.
Where do you buy rabbit, and what does it taste like?
A butcher or game dealer rather than a supermarket. Ask for it whole and jointed, and ask them to keep the liver and kidneys, because those are a third of this dish.
The flavour is close to gamey chicken, leaner and slightly sweeter. Anyone who has cooked the loin of venison will recognise the principle: lean meat, cooked briefly, kept pink.
Can you make the sauce ahead?
Yes, up to the point where the mustard and parsley go in. It holds in the fridge for two days and reheats gently without splitting.
The meat is another matter. Fry the loin and the leg chunks fresh, because rabbit reheated in a cream sauce turns dry and grainy fast.
