The misadventures of rabbit stew

Steps to preparing a hearty rabbit stew while camping in the dead of winter.

· Go for a walk through the woods on a cool winter day to locate a rabbit trail, this can be done while you are.....say looking for a suitable place to use the loo
· Set snares in natural bottle necks along the trail, ie where the trail passes under a log or between two close trees
· Go to sleep and dream of fuzzy little woodland creatures
· Check snares first thing in the morning, the excitement of checking the “trap line” is even better than Christmas
· After skinning and field dressing the rabbit; debone the meat, we skipped this step and had legs and bits sticking out the pot
· Grill meat over an open fire, being careful not to drop any in the fire
· Place the grilled meat in a pot with whatever fixins you can rustle up in camp, we used potatoes, carrots, fresh and dried onions, green chillies, bay leaves, Montreal steak spice, salt & pepper, beef & vegetable broth bouillon cubes, and about a litre of water
· You can use snow but you’re going to need a dogsled full of the white stuff to make a litre
· If your fixins are frozen solid, use whatever’s on hand to cut them. A camp saw works great for this
· When the liquid reduces add some frozen wine slush (Start thawing the wine first thing that morning, it takes longer than you would expect to thaw 1 litre next to a fire)
· Only add half as much wine as you may think is required, the water portion of the wine may be frozen so all you are really using to cook with is concentrated alcohol
· When the liquid has reduced by half stir in some flour or corn starch to thicken
· Serve and enjoy

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  Rabbit stew over an open fire and a stir stick cut from a branch