Rabbits, Rabbits

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A bowl dedicated to the iconic animals of coming spring (Rcp# 62)

Ingredients for ‘Rabbits, Rabbits’

Meadow Balls (herbal millet balls)

  • Hoppidge made from: 3 ½ tablespoons pearl millet, 1 ½ tablespoons oat flakes, 2 teaspoons amaranth, 200 ml water, ¼ teaspoon mild salt, 1 knife tip of ground caraway and ½ teaspoon honey (see cooking instructions below and also [‘Hoppidge on Tour’])
  • 3 Tablespoons buckwheat flakes (like oatmeal but made from buckwheat)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley (fresh or frozen, I usually use regular ‘Italian’ parsley)
  • 2 tablespoons chopped basil (fresh or frozen)
  • ½ tablespoon bear’s garlic in oil (or 1 fresh leaf of bear’s garlic, chopped very finely and mixed with 2 teaspoons of a mild olive oil, let stand for 20 minutes before using in recipe)

Vegetables

  • 3 medium to large carrots (any color, washed and cleaned/peeled, then sliced)
  • 1 – 2 medium parsnips (washed and cleaned/peeled, then sliced)
  • Florets of a small broccoli (5-7 medium florets, about 150g, wash and break down into bite sized pieces)
  • ½ a large apple (baking apple, old varieties, washed and cored, halved, quartered, and sliced)
  • 1 large or 2 medium ginger toes (washed and halved)
  • 1 teaspoon of a mild salt
  • 500 ml hot water
  • 3 tablespoons canola oil

Salad

  • 12 – 16 medium to large endive leaves
  • 3 large or 6 medium radicchio leaves
  • 6 large or 10 small lamb’s lettuce bushels
  • 1 large or 2 small fennel bulb cores without stems, thinly sliced (about 100 g, half the core before slicing, if large)

Sauce

  • One double portion of ‘Sweet and Sour Salad Sauce’ (with Ingredient Special on Lamb’s Lettuce [Fields of Green])

Preparations for ‘Rabbits, Rabbits’

Meadow Balls (herbal millet balls)

  1. Wash the millet in a sieve then put it in a small saucepan (1 – 1 ½ liters) and scald it with 200 ml of hot water.
  2. Bring the millet to a brief boil in the water, then add the oats, amaranth, ground caraway and salt and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 8 – 10 minutes, stirring frequently (the millet should have turned white and noticeably softer), then turn off and leave to cool/absorb all liquid on a soup plate or in a small bowl. When cool, add honey.
  3. Chop the basil and parsley very finely (no sticks or hard pieces), then add 3 tablespoons of buckwheat flakes (like fine oatmeal, but made from buckwheat) and mix well (evenly, no big lumps left).
  4. Set aside 2/3 of the mixture on a large plate.
  5. Add the bear’s garlic in oil to the remaining 1/3 of the flake and herb mix and knead together with the Hoppidge. Add ½ to 1 tablespoon of water if needed. The amount of water needed will depend on the consistency of the cooled Hoppidge. This again depends on the brand and type of millet used. If the consistency of the whole mix is easily kneadable without water, you can leave it out or add the smaller amount. If the mixture is really coarse, add 1 tablespoon of water.
  6. Knead the Hoppidge mix well and form 8-10 walnut-sized balls.
  7. Roll the balls in the remaining 2/3 of the herb-buckwheat flake mixture and place the covered balls in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest of the salad (15 – 20 minutes).

Salad and Vegetables

  1. Scald the broken broccoli florets in a pot of hot water. Add the salt and heat the pot. Bring to a boil, then lower the heat. Turn off the heat and remove from the heat source when the broccoli is bright green and almost done, but still has a little bite. Remove the broccoli and set aside on a plate. Reserve the cooking liquid.
  2. In a frying pan, sauté the carrot slices with the canola oil and the ginger pieces. When the carrots are almost tender but still have some bite, reduce the heat and add the apple pieces. Heat and gently saute the apple pieces, then add 200 ml of the broth and the broccoli florets.
  3. Bring to the boil again briefly, then turn off the heat. Place in a bowl to cool.
  4. Prepare salad dressing
  5. Wash and tear/cut the lettuce.
  6. Divide the salad into three large bowls (deep pasta plates are perfect for this).
  7. Add 3 tablespoons of the cooled vegetable cooking stock to the bottom of each bowl, then add the vegetables (without the ginger pieces) and apple pieces. Pour the salad dressing on top. Add the Meadow Balls to the rim of the bowl.

Makes 3 servings (3 bowls).

Side Notes:

  • About the legendary ‘Crazy March Rabbits’: Of course, the hares (those are the March Looneys, not rabbits) do not really go ‘crazy’ in March. I recently learned this from a beautiful documentary about life in a meadow. But hares are usually single. Once in a while (or spring) they go out and find a mate. Without recent experience of getting to know and love one another, this is a bit … complicated. So they chase and bicker to wear off the edges. Doesn’t that sound familiar? 😉 Rabbits don’t have this problem at all, because flirting all year round is no big deal for them. In fact, they are masters of the art of flirtation. And they are very successful at it (another saying describes this effect…).
  • Pretty much every ingredient in this recipe is typical rabbit food (even the ginger and a little apple). Except for the honey and the oils, of course. And for sure they would not cook or fry their food, but rather eat it raw. I am not sure if they would eat the honey if they could get their paws on it, but it would definitely not be good for them. Too much sugar. Still, they might be tempted because they love anything sweet (which seems almost human somehow). I knew a rabbit once that had a mad crush on gummy bears. I have no idea how she got the idea (we didn’t feed her gummy bears, of course – very bad for rabbits), but she would snatch up the whole bag and make a run for it. Imagine a small black rabbit running at full speed and tripping over a bag about the size of the entire animal… . Still, it was quite a task to get the gummy bears back from her. She was crazy about them.
  • There is a superstition that saying “Rabbits, Rabbits” first thing in the morning or first thing in the month in spring will bring you good luck. Here is an idea: Just prepare the above recipe first thing in April, say the name of the recipe out loud on the day you want to prepare it, and see if it works.
    Well, actually, I am pretty sure it will work, because this salad is kind of pure health food. Smart rabbits.

Please note: For all my recipes (text) on this blog (By MagS, Parsley-Lane Blog) I grant a CC license under the terms of BY-NC-SA 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike). For further explanations, please see the Legal Notice or visit creativecommons.org.