Slow Cooker Rabbit

Continuing my underappreciated meats theme here, let me tell you about the most delicious, tender rabbit dish we had last night. My stepson helped my uncle to process some rabbits over the weekend, and his payment was a whole rabbit. These rabbits are raised on a farm, so they don't have a gamey taste, which I'm told wild rabbit does. I will admit I've never had wild rabbit, so I don't exactly have a frame of reference here, but the rabbits we get from him are very tasty!

Ingredients:

1 whole rabbit 

A few slices of bacon (I use bacon ends)

1 Onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 T rosemary

2 t tarragon

salt 

Dutch Oven Lamb Neck

I've always rooted for the underdog. Maybe that's why I look for under appreciated cuts of meat. So when I saw lamb neck slices available, I had to try them out. We're big fans of lamb around here, and I had a new cast iron dutch oven that I was itching to try out, so this would be perfect.

Ingredients

Lamb Neck Slices, generously salted
Olive Oil
1 pint chicken stock
4 carrots, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 T rosemary
2 t cumin
1/2 c red wine
1 pint diced tomatoes
1 c royal blend rice
salt and pepper to taste

Tacos de Lengua

Last week was a little rough. I was really tired all week. I even took naps a few days. It just seemed like no matter what I did, I couldn't get enough sleep. Then Thursday hit and I got the most intense craving for beef tongue. Yeah, I know. Very random thing to crave! But to be fair, my first experience with beef tongue came from Joseph Decuis and it was Wagyu beef. It was amazing. Before I lose you completely, here's the final product-it looks a little more appetizing than the raw meat  :)

Between the exhaustion and the craving for offal, I figured I had to be a little anemic. So I started my search for beef tongue. It turned out to be a lot harder to find than I thought. I called several butchers, but no one had it. My favorite place to buy meat from wouldn't have it until this week, but I couldn't wait that long. I finally found a German butcher that had it! At that point, I didn't care they wanted $12/lb. So Saturday afternoon, I put the tongue in a brine and prepared it for Sunday.

After rinsing the brine, here's what I had:

Cooking the tongue is really easy. It only needs onions, beef stock and a crock pot. Start by laying sliced onions in the bottom.

Then the tongue and beef stock. The liquid should cover the tongue, so add a little water if you're short. Then cook on low for 8 hours.

Eight hours later, remove the tongue and let it rest. When it's just cool enough to handle, remove the skin. No one wants to eat that part and that would be a textural nightmare for me!!

Then use 2 forks to shred the meat

Now you have a big bowl of shredded beef tongue.

You can eat it just like this and it's quite tasty. It kind of has the flavor of a prime steak cut, with the texture of shredded pork. We wanted tacos, so I sauteed some red onions and garlic then added some of the shredded meat, along with my seasonings. I used oregano, chili powder, salt, paprika and cumin. Then all that's left is to top with fresh cilantro and enjoy!

I will admit, my husband had absolutely no interest in the tongue when he saw it raw. He really couldn't even look at it. I practically had to force him to try the taco. But when he did, he loved it! In fact, he took leftovers for lunch today-and this is the guy that snubs all leftovers!