Greek Rabbit Stew (Κουνέλι Στιφάδο)

About ten years ago, I spent one night in the mountains just south-east of Thessaloniki. Greece had been unbearably hot for those seven weeks in June and July, and this was the one cool oasis in an otherwise scorching desert of archaeological tedium. That evening I wanted something warming. I ordered a rabbit stew and have been thinking about it from time to time ever since. This past week, I consulted a few Greek cookbooks and spoke to some Greek friends to recreate this game stew; apparently everyone who knows Greek food knows this recipe.

Finding a rabbit from a local butcher was no problem. It was already cleaned, skinned and the head removed. I had the butcher chop it into about six pieces. The rest is fairly straightforward:

Ingredients

• 1 rabbit, skinned, cleaned, head removed and cut into quarters
• 1 kg onions and shallots, whole with peeling removed
• 200 mL olive oil
• 250 mL red wine
• 3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 400g chopped tomatos
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cloves
• 4 cloves of garlic, whole
• 1 tsp sugar
• 500 mL chicken stock, hot
• 1 stick of cinnamon
• pinch of allspice
• salt and pepper

 Preparation

1. Rinse the rabbit and soak in some slightly vinegary, salty water. Preheat the oven to 180ºC.
2. To remove the skins from the onions easily, put them in boiling water for a few minutes. 
3. Pat the rabbit dry, and in a medium hot skillet, fry the rabbit until crispy and golden on each side. Remove from the oil and set aside.
4. De-glaze the bottom of the skillet with the red wine vinegar. Then add the red wine and reduce until almost syrupy. 
5. Add the chopped tomatoes, tomato paste, sugar and allspice into the skillet and stir until warm.
6. Put the sauce from the skillet and the rabbit into a Dutch oven. Add all the other ingredients including the hot chicken stock. 
7. Cook covered for 1 hour. After an hour, give the pot a shake to make sure that nothing is sticking and to turn the onions. Return it to the oven for an additional 50 minutes with the temperature reduced to 160ºC. 
8. Remove the lid and cook for 10 more minutes at 200ºC until the top is golden brown. Serve warm. 

When I originally made the recipe, I only used 250mL of chicken stock, but that didn't give me as much sweet, rich stock as I wanted. Just a drop of honey might be a nice offset to the additional saltiness of the stock. It's great with fresh bread or with rice.