Recipe: James Golding’s Kentish Fried Rabbit

The PIG’s James Golding pulls it out of the hat…

Kentish Fried Rabbit

This unusual but brilliant dish started life as a way of encouraging more people to eat rabbit. Our grandparents would have been used to it, but the appeal seems to have been lost now.

We’ve got lots of good game around – top-quality lean meat such as rabbit, pigeon, partridge and pheasant – that we’re not using, which is crazy. So Kamil, Head Chef at The PIG at Bridge Place in deepest Kent, came up with this recipe, and it’s proved really popular at all the festivals (and with kids, too!).

Recipe

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 rabbits (ask your butcher
  to joint them into shoulders, loins, legs and thighs,removing the bones from the thighs)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• Rapeseed oil

For the brine

• 4 litres water
• 600g salt
• 520g sugar
• 4 sprigs of rosemary
• 2 garlic bulbs, cut in half
• 20g black peppercorns
• Cornish sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the spicy flour mix 

• 500g flour
• 70g celery salt
• 70g paprika
• A pinch of cayenne pepper

Method

First make the brine. Put all the ingredients in a pan, bring to a simmer, then allow to cool. Place the rabbit in the brine for 20 minutes and, while it’s soaking, sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Remove the rabbit from the brine, rinse and pat dry with a clean tea towel or kitchen paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C fan. Fill a deep-fat fryer with oil, or half-fill a large saucepan, and heat to 190°C, or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Coat the rabbit by dipping the pieces in the beaten egg, then the flour, and then repeat the process so that they’re evenly coated. Fry in the hot oil for three minutes until golden. Transfer to the oven and cook for ten minutes, then allow to rest for five minutes.

The PIG: Tales and Recipes from the Kitchen Garden and Beyond by Robin Hutson (Octopus Publishing, £30)

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