Run rabbit, run!

November's "In the Bag" blogging challenge is hosted by Scott over at The Real Epicurean. The rules of the challenge are simple: cook something using the ingredients in the bag and write a blog post about it.

This month Scott has given us game. This gave me the perfect excuse to use my kitsch rabbit cutter for the first time and to dig out a recipe from one of my favourite chefs, Fergus Henderson.  The recipe, from Henderson's Beyond Nose to Tail, is one of several to use his trotter gear. This is a rich stock made from pig's trotters cooked in Madeira and chicken stock. It's easy to make (you can find a recipe here), but you will probably have to give your butcher a few days' notice to get hold of pig's trotters. If you're a regular customer, you might even get them for free. I tend to make a big batch of trotter gear a couple of times a year and keep it in handy-sized tubs in the freezer. I pulled out my last tub for this recipe.

The rabbits that found themselves in Andrew Northrop's butcher's shop on Cambridge's Mill Road - and thence my pie - hadn't run fast enough. The butcher offered to joint them for me, but I prefer to do this myself as I usually end up with fewer small fragments of bone to pick out. That said, rabbits have lots of tiny bones and I've yet to make a bone-free pie, so you need to be a little circumspect when eating.

To make the filling, brown the rabbit portions, a dozen peeled shallots, and a pound of diced smoked streaky bacon in goose fat. Add 1/2 bottle red wine, the trotter gear, and enough chicken stock to cover. I had some stock left over from cooking pork belly last week, so used this gelatinous goodness in place of the chicken stock. The pork belly had been brined before cooking which, along with the bacon, contributed enough salt that I didn't need to add any later.

Bring the liquid up to a simmer, then put a lid on the pan and transfer to a 160℃ oven for 2 hours. The meat should come away easily from the bones when it's done - if not, give it a bit longer in the oven. When it's cool enough to handle, pick the meat from the bones and tear it into bite-sized chunks. I usually find I have too much gravy at this stage, so I lifted out the meat with a slotted spoon and boiled the liquid to reduce it by about one third. Once you're happy with the proportion of meat to gravy, combine the lot, season to taste with salt and pepper, then cool and refrigerate overnight.

Transfer the filling to a large pie dish and cover with suet pastry -  made with fresh suet if you can get it. Brush with beaten egg and decorate liberally with pastry rabbits before baking in a 220℃ oven for 30-40 minutes. Made with two rabbits, this pie serves six.

Devilled kidneys

This little treat came about after some pressure selling at the Fowlmere farmers' market (2nd Saturday of the month in the village hall). I was actually shopping for mutton neck to make some broth, but someone had beaten me to it. As I was turning to leave the stall, the farmer asked "Would you like some lamb kidneys?" I hadn't made devilled kidneys for an age,  so snapped them up for £1.

The "devil" in the kidneys comes from mustard and cayenne pepper, and is mellowed a little by a splash of cream to finish the sauce. I served them with creamy mashed potatoes, cavolo nero, and swede, but they take just 5 minutes to cook so could be served with fried bread or toast for a quick snack. The following recipe is from The River Cottage Meat Book and serves 2:

• 4 lamb's kidneys, white core removed
• fat or oil for frying
• small glass sherry
• 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
• Worcestershire sauce
• large pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp hot English mustard
• 1 tbsp double cream
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the kidneys into quarters and fry in a little hot fat for a minute or so to brown them. Add the sherry, then a splash of wine vinegar, the Worcestershire sauce, cayenne pepper and mustard, salt and black pepper. Give it a good stir, and let it bubble and reduce until syrupy. Add the cream and reduce a minute or two more. The total cooking time should be around 4-5 minutes. Check the seasoning, adding more mustard or cayenne if you think it needs it. Serve right away.

Nigel Slater's beetroot poppy seed cake

...so good I made it twice. The recipe is included in Slater's Tender: v. 1, but it also appeared in the Guardian in 2007 and can be found online here.

It is a pretty good cake, but the other reason I made it a second time was to try out a simplification of the recipe. Slater calls for the eggs to be separated and the whites whipped until almost stiff, then folded into the other ingredients at the end. This seemed quite a faff (not to mention I now had three bowls to wash up). So second time around, I tried whisking up the (whole) eggs with the sugar until they reached ribbon stage, then gradually adding the oil with the mixer going. Once the oil is incorporated, the beetroot can be grated in directly, and the dry ingredients weighed straight into the wet and folded through: only one bowl to wash.

The texture and lightness of the cake didn't suffer noticeably for this economy, but the mixture was a bit wetter, perhaps causing the beetroot to migrate towards the bottom. There's nothing for it but to try the original method one more time to see if stiff whites prevent this.

Venison steak, beetroot and potato cake, cavolo nero

All this needed to finish it off was a nice red wine sauce, but I wasn't really in the mood for cooking this evening so made do without. The venison steak was cooked sous vide (30 minutes at 52℃) then finished on a ridged cast iron griddle. The 52℃ water bath ensures the meat is cooked nicely, just on the rare side of medium. The griddle is just for visual appeal and to get some nice Maillard flavours: get the griddle smoking hot then give the steaks about 10 seconds each side, rotate through 90° and repeat to get the cross-hatch pattern. Rest for 10 minutes before serving.

The beetroot potato cakes are based on an idea from the Riverford Farm Recipe Book. The recipe calls for equal quantities of potatoes and beetroot, a small onion, wine vinegar, soured cream, horseradish cream, salt and pepper. Luckily it's quite forgiving so I got away with using half a leek instead of the onion and double cream with a splash of lemon juice instead of soured cream.

To make: boil the potatoes, drain, and allow to steam dry. Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and peel and grate the beetroot. Melt some butter in a shallow pan, add the onion, and fry gently for a couple of minutes. Add the grated beetroot, a splash of wine vinegar, salt and pepper. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring occasionally, for about 10 minutes. You want to keep a bit of a bite to the beetroot.

Mash the potatoes or push them through a ricer, add the beetroot and horseradish (1-2 tsp to start with), and fold it all together with enough cream to bind. Check the seasoning - add a little lemon juice if you think it needs it, and more horseradish if you like it hot. I added a dollop of hot English mustard for good measure. Form into little cakes and dust with flour. Finally fry in hot butter until browned and crisp on both sides. These were delicious and would make a great light supper on their own.

Baked eggs with spinach

One of the pleasures of receiving a weekly organic box delivery is that you never know what you're going to get. You know it will be seasonal, you know it will have been farmed sustainably, and you know you can depend on the quality, but you're never sure just what will be in the box. This week a there was a little card telling me "We've had to replace the chard with spinach."

"Well," I thought, "that will make a nice little lunch." And it did, as you can see above.

Heat the oven to 170℃, then prepare the spinach. Wash well, remove the thick stems, then drop the leaves into a saucepan with just the water that clings to them. Place over a medium heat and give it a good stir so that all the leaves come into contact with the heat and begin to wilt. Put on a lid and leave to steam gently for 2-3 minutes. Drain in a colander, pressing out as much water as you can, then chop roughly. Melt a good knob of butter in the pan, add a splash of double cream and the spinach; season with salt, pepper and a little grated nutmeg, and give it a good stir to coat in the cream. A 500g pack of spinach looks a lot, but you'll find it's about right for two portions once it's cooked.

Lightly butter two ramekins. Spoon half the spinach into each ramekin and make an indentation with the back of the spoon. Crack in an egg, then drizzle about a tablespoon of double cream over each egg white (try to leave the yolks exposed). Place in a shallow oven tray and pour around enough boiling water to come about halfway up the ramekins. Transfer to the preheated oven and cook for 10-12 minutes: you're looking for a runny yolk and just-set white.

Add a final seasoning of salt and pepper, some crusty bread, and lunch is ready.