Dumpling - Method:
Take bones out of rabbit haunch and set aside for stock for later. Mince the rabbit meat if you have a mincer or alternatively chop finely with a knife by hand if you don’t have one, this also works well.
To bind everything together inside the dumpling, we’re going to take the chilli, ginger, garlic and lemongrass, all finely chopped and put in a pan with the peanut butter, brown sugar, coconut milk and fish sauce and bring up to boil. Let this reduce by half, bearing in mind that it will stick to the pan easily and so will need a lot of stirring. Once reduced, take off the heat and blitz and this is your peanut sauce for binding.
Fry your rabbit mince with a dash of oil in a really hot pan for 3 or 4 minutes until this is nice and golden.
Bind together the rabbit mince and the peanut butter sauce and let it go cold. Next get the rice paper, soak it in water individually for 5 seconds and cut to size. Add a small spoonful of the mix in the middle of the rice paper and fold over as you were making a spring roll and set this aside. This is now ready for frying later, although you can eat them cold as they are now, but I prefer them with a bit of colour and served warm with the accompaniments. So if doing the latter, just add a bit of butter into a hot pan, letting the dumpling brown on each side. This literally takes two minutes as you don’t need to cook the dumpling, you’re simply warming it up and getting it crispy on the outside.
English Peas & Spring Greens – Method
Blanch your English peas for a minute in salted water and pour straight into ice cold water so that they are soft, but still have a bit of crunch to them. Add salt and pepper, some mint and really good olive oil. Then chiffonade the cabbage and also blanch in salted water, re-fresh once cooked and dress by warming up with butter in the pan.
Stock – Method
With the rabbit bones I make a stock, miso-style, with chilli, ginger, garlic, splash of sherry vinegar, splash of light soya sauce, water and rice wine. I add everything into the container, making sure the bones are covered, setting oven at 150 degrees. I let this cook for two hours and it just slowly simmers. Then I pass the stock through a Muslin cloth, so that it is nice and clear and then re-season with a splash of tabasco, some more sherry vinegar and a splash of toasted sesame oil, which is really nice and nutty.
Present by layering cabbage at the bottom of the bowl, and peas and dumpling on top and pour stock in last. Serve with chop sticks or eat with your fingers and drink the rest out the bowl!