Rabbit Terrine With Pickled Walnuts Recipes

RABBIT TERRINE

Steps:

• Mix all the ingredients except the bacon, butter and bay leaves in a bowl and season well. Leave to marinate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
• Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Bash each piece of bacon to make it thin, using either a rolling pin or the flat of a knife. Line a 1kg terrine with baking parchment and butter it well. Put the bay leaves in the base and then lay the bacon across, leaving the ends hanging over the edges. Spoon the mince mix into the terrine and fold the overhanging bacon over it. Cover the top of the tin with foil, then wrap the whole terrine tightly in more foil.
• Put the terrine in a roasting tin and add boiling water until it comes halfway up the side. Slide the tin carefully into the oven and cook for 1¼ hours. Check the terrine is cooked by inserting a skewer into the centre; it should come out feeling too hot to touch comfortably. Lift the terrine out and cool completely before chilling until you need it.
• To serve, unwrap the foil and gently turn out the terrine. Peel off the paper and tidy up the outside. Slice and leave for 10 minutes so it loses its chill before serving. You need to eat the terrine within 2 days if you want it to look its best. (Without the addition of preservatives, meat will look greyer.)

PHEASANT AND PICKLED WALNUT TERRINE

Steps:

• Remove the meat from the pheasant. Chop into small pieces and marinate in the red vermouth overnight. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a terrine mold with bacon. Drain the pheasant meat and arrange half in the mold. Season with salt and pepper. Put a layer of walnuts on top and fill the rest of the mold with the pheasant. Season. Cover with bacon. Set the mold in a bain marie and cook in the preheated oven 45 minutes. When cooked, ease the terrine away from sides of the mold and leave to cool in the mold. Turn out for serving.

RABBIT & PORK TERRINE WITH PEPPERCORNS

Steps:

• Ask your butcher to remove the meat from the rabbit, or do it yourself. The leg meat can be as roughly prepped as you like, but keep the loins as neat as you can.
• Put the leg meat, trimmings and pork belly in a processor, finely chop, then tip into a large bowl. Melt the butter and cook the garlic, shallots and thyme together gently for 8 mins or until the shallots are soft but not coloured. Tip onto the minced meat, add the allspice, peppercorns and 3 tbsp brandy, then mix well. Leave to mingle for 1 hr, or longer if you like, in the fridge.
• Add the oil to the pan and quickly brown the loins; you don't need to cook them through. If you fancy, add 1 tbsp brandy to the pan and flambé them to finish. Set aside on a plate and tip any pan juices into the minced mixture.
• Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Remove the garlic from the mince and season generously. It's a good idea to fry a small ball of the mixture, let it cool, then taste to check the seasoning. Line a 900g loaf tin with a strip of foil. Stretch each piece of bacon a little with your knife. Arrange the rashers so that the base of the tin is covered with overlapping bacon and the rashers come neatly up the sides in a single layer and overhang generously. Boil a kettleful of water.
• Press a third of the mince into the tin. Make a lengthways channel along one side, then poke in a line of loin pieces, so that they meet end-to-end. Scatter half the cornichons over the other side. Add the next third of mince and repeat, this time with the loins and cornichons on the opposite sides. Cover with the remaining mince, then bring the bacon over to seal. Wrap tightly in foil and put in a deep roasting tin. Pour in enough hot water to come halfway up the terrine and bake for 2 hrs or until a skewer comes out hot from the middle of the terrine, and the juices run clear. Top up the water if needed.
• To press the terrine, sit the loaf tin on a rack in a roasting tin. Tear some cardboard to fit the top of the loaf tin as neatly as you can (we used egg box lids). Add a few layers and sit something extremely heavy on top to press the cardboard and terrine down (we used a cast-iron dish). Cool to room temperature, then chill completely, ideally overnight. Remove the weight and re-wrap the terrine in clean foil or cling film. Ideally, let it mature for 2 days in the fridge before eating. Serve with the pickle salad, below, and remaining cornichons.