Grilled rabbit fillets with marrons glacés recipe

Ingredients

• 2 young rabbits, skinned, each weighing about 1.2 kg
• 50 ml olive oil
• 2 branches thyme
• 1 tsp black peppercorns

• Rabbit bones and trimmings
• Rabbit bones and trimmings
• 1 large onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 100 ml Armagnac
• 1 litre chicken stock (optional) or water
• 180 g marrons glacés
• 60 g butter

• 1 root celeriac
• 50 g clarified butter
• 4 thick slices white bread
• 1 bouquet garni
• Salt
• Black pepper, freshly ground

Rabbit
1. Using a boning knife, cut off the fillets from the saddles. Cut off the hind legs and remove the sinews.
2. Place the rabbit pieces on a gratin dish and sprinkle over the olive oil.
3. Finely chop half the thyme and crush the peppercorns. Sprinkle over the rabbit pieces.
4. Cover with greaseproof paper and leave to marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. Turn the fillets after 2 hours.
Sauce
5. Preheat the oven to 240°C. Remove the liver, heart and lungs from the rabbits. Chop the shoulders and carcasses.
6. Place them in a roasting pan in the very hot oven and stir with a slotted spoon, so that the bones are well browned on all sides.
7. Peel and coarsely chop the carrots and the large onions.
8. Five minutes before removing the roasting pan from the oven, add the carrots and onion, together with the crushed garlic clove. Tip the contents of the roasting pan into a saucepan and pour in the chicken stock and 500 ml water.
9. Set over low heat and simmer for about 1 hour, then strain through a muslinlined sieve.
10. In a shallow pan set over a high heat, reduce the Armagnac by half.
11. Add the strained rabbit stock and reduce until it becomes syrupy.
12. Crumble in the marrons glacés and stir in 60 g butter, a little at a time. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Button Onions
13. Peel and wash them. Glaze in a sauté pan with 20 g butter and a pinch of sugar. When they are golden, add just a little water if necessary, cover the pan and simmer gently until tender. Keep warm.
Celeriac
14. Peel and cut four slices, 1.5 cm thick. Trim into neat oval shapes. Place them in a sauté pan large enough to take all the slices in one layer, cover with water and add 50 g butter and a pinch of salt.
15. Set the pan over high heat and cook until all the water has evaporated. The celeriac should be a lovely golden colour. Turn the slices with a palette knife and keep warm.
Croutons
16. Cut out a rabbit shape from each slice of bread.
17. Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and fry the rabbit croûtons until golden on both sides. Drain on absorbent paper.
18. Just before serving, grill the rabbit pieces in a ridged grilling pan for 3-5 minutes, making sure they are attractively marked with a lattice pattern.
To Serve
19. Place the celeriac ovals on a serving dish or individual plates, then arrange the rabbit fillets in a criss-cross pattern on top.
20. Next, make little piles of button onions and pour the sauce around the celeriac ovals.
21. Lastly, set out the rabbit croûtons, with sprigs of thyme between their paws.
22. As always, the presentation of the dish is extremely important. Thyme is not essential but the green provides a good colour contrast with the rabbit croutons.