Rabbit Pie

Lard pastry

• 375gm plain flour


• 125gm butter cubed cold


• 125gm lard cubed


• 175ml water 

Rabbit

• 2 x 1.2kg farmed rabbits 


• 3 Italian pork sausages


• 3 litres chicken stock or water


• 4 bay leaves


• 1 tsp black peppercorns

Filling

• 200ml olive oil


• 4 garlic cloves chopped


• 1 onion finely diced


• 3 celery stalks finely diced


• 1 leek washed finely chopped


• 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves


• 2 tbsp parsley chopped


• 100gm plain flour


• 1 litre reserved stock


• 200ml cream


• Rabbit meat


• Sausages

Lard pastry
Place all the ingredients into a mixer with dough hook and knead until dough has just formed, cling wrap and leave to rest in fridge for 2 hours before use.

Rabbit
Simmer the rabbits and sausages in the stock with the bay leaves and peppercorns remove the sausages after 10 minutes and cook the rabbit until tender about 45 to 60 minutes, remove the rabbits from the stock strain stock and set aside. Pick the meat from the carcass and discard the bones. Cut the meat into small pieces and the sausages into slices.

Filling

Heat a heavy based pot with the olive oil and sautee the garlic and onion. Add the celery and leek and cook for 10 minutes. Mix in the herbs then add the flour and mix in to form a paste. Gradually add the reserved stock, then the cream and bring to a simmer for 10 minutes season. Mix in the rabbit and sausages and allow the mixture to cool.

Assembly

Preheat oven to 180C

On a floured surface roll out ¾ of the dough to 4mm thickness, grease a 25cm diameter baking dish and line with the pastry. Spoon in the rabbit and sausage mix, roll out the rest of the pastry and cover the pie pinch the edges to seal and bake in the oven for 35 minutes serve hot.