According to K-Paul “if you don’t hover between pleasure and pain when you eat it, chances are you haven’t made your sauce piquant hot enough!”

Once we had the beautiful easter eggs for brunch, we had to have the Easter Bunny for dinner. Good thing all of the children are grown. I never would have fixed this Easter Meal when they were little. 😮

As I noted in the post on Seafood File Gumbo, I lived in Louisiana as a young man and worked in the oil patch in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yep, that’s me at 22 with muscles and a stache. My how time has passed. As a result of my experience in Louisiana, I love, love, love cajun cooking not to mention the fun and beauty of Louisiana and its culture. This post is about the first time I ever ate rabbit.

One week in 1976 when I finished my 7 day tour offshore, a friend of mine invited me to go hunting. I inquired what we were hunting inasmuch as it was late fall. He informed me we were going to go rabbit hunting down in Cypremort Point. My friend lived in Jeanerette, about a 20 minute drive from marsh land in Cypremort Point and we were hunting marsh rabbits. You see, my friend loved beagles and beagles hunt rabbits. In fact, he had prize winning beagles that were incredible rabbit hunters. People would come from all over Louisiana and breed his studs because they were such good rabbit hunters. I never knew this and was surprised as he was spinning his tale. It was also interesting because, being from Texas, all I had ever seen were little cotton tails and a few behemoth jack rabbits, none of which you would eat. Because this would be new and fun I went.

We got off the rig, did the obligatory 1 hour chopper ride to Morgan City, got in our cars, drove to his house in Jeanerette, La., went to sleep and got up early the next morning to drive to Cypremort Point. In the process, we stopped by and grabbed another buddy who quite casually warned me not to shoot one of my friend’s dogs. I thought he was kidding but he explained that one of their other buddies actually shot one of my friend’s dogs because this other unknown friend didn’t wait for the rabbit to come out from the underbrush before he shot. Not surprisingly, this man accidentally shot one of the dogs. So, in retaliation, my friend shot him. 😮 Now understanding the gravity of the matter in which I had placed myself, I promised not to shoot one of his dogs. I also prayed I would make it through the day without getting shot myself.

After a coffee stop, about 40 minutes later we finally arrived at the marsh location. I got out of the car, loaded the shotgun, packed a box of shells, sprayed myself liberally with Outdoors Off and headed out with my buddies. Once we got out into the marsh I finally understood all the Louisiana T-Shirts stating the mosquito was the State Bird of Louisiana. Now I had seen lots of mosquitos in Louisiana and had spent a lot of time in the swamps but I wasn’t prepared for this experience. They weren’t exceptionally large but there were soooooooooo many of them. It didn’t matter how much Off I sprayed on myself these mosquitos were undeterred. They were sooo thick you couldn’t swat them. You wiped them off your body! I have never seen anything like it before or since. Nonetheless, after a day of tormented hunting and my eyes ultimately swelling shut from the numerous mosquito bites we managed to bag a couple of 12+ pound marsh rabbits and went back to Jeanerette to fix them for dinner. This was the meal we had for dinner. It’s a wonderful, spicy meal. If you want a true cajun treat, give this a try.

Ingredients

Seasoning mix

• 1-1/2 Tbsp fine grain sea salt
• 1-1/2 tsp dry mustard
• 1-1/2 tsp sweet paprika
• 1 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
• 3/4 tsp fresh ground white pepper
• 3/4 tsp onion powder
• 3/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp dried thyme leaves

For the Rest

• 2-1/2 lb rabbit
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• Vegetable oil for frying
• 2 cups tomatoes, peeled and chopped
• 2 cups bell peppers, seeded and hopped
• 2 cups onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery, chopped
• 1/4 cup jalapeños, diced
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Tbsp Tabaso Sauce
• 2 cups Chicken Broth
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 tsp garlic, minced

Instructions

In a small bowl, mix the seasoning ingredients together and set aside.

Cut the rabbit into pieces. Remove the front legs and back legs. Cut the breast away from the back. Then cut the back and breast in half.

Sprinkle 2-1/2 Tbsp of the seasoning mix on the rabbit pieces. and rub into the meat

Put flour and1 Tbsp of seasoning mix into gallon zip log bag and mix. Add the rabbit pieces and shake to coat the rabbit with flour/seasoning mix. Shake off any excess four.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a heavy bottom skillet, preferably cast iron, to fill 1/4 inch of the skillet with oil and heat over high heat. When a piece of flour fries, add the rabbit pieces being sure not to overcrowd the skillet.

Fry the rabbit on one side for approximately 2 minutes until it turns a golden brown, at which point turn and fry on the other side for another 2 minutes.

When done, put on a rack to drain and fry the remaining pieces. When the rabbit is all fried, remove the skillet from the heat. Pour all all but 1/4 cup of oil from the pan keeping the sediment. Add the onions, bell pepper, jalapeños and celery to the oil and stir to incorporate.

Turn on heat to high. Cook for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. Next add the tomatoes, garlic, bay leaves, remaining spice mix, and Tabasco Sauce and incorporate.

Continue to cook another 5 minutes stirring occasionally and scraping the bottom so it does not stick. Now add the broth

Then the tomato sauce

Cook another 2 – 3 minutes. Add the rabbit to the skillet placing the meatiest pieces on the bottom.

Cover and turn the heat to very low. Simmer on very low heat for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes, remove from heat. Put rabbit and sauce into a serving vessel.

Serve with a little white rice and enjoy.