This rabbit back in cherry beer might become the new Christmas classic. On top of potato waffles they are super tasty. However I must warn you: for the best taste you need to use real Belgian cherry beer! Don't use a beer with cherry lemonade or so. It will only be sweet, but not fruity. Moreover gives the cherry beer marinade the rabbit fillets a nice pink-red color. And I stayed in the same concept with the cranberries. I also gave them to the marinade which gives them a great cherry taste!
rabbit back in cherry beer
Equipment
- waffle iron
Ingredients
potato waffles
- 500 gram potatoes
- 75 gram self-raising flour
- 50 gram grated cheese
- 50 gram butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 shallot
- nutmeg
- salt
- milk a splash if the dough is too dry
other ingredients
- 8 filets rabbit back
- 4 heads Belgian endives
- 50 gram arugula salad
- 125 gram dried cranberries
- 500 ml cherry beer
Instructions
Marinade
- Place the rabbit's back filets and the cranberries in a bowl and cover with cherry beer until completely submerged.
- Put this in the fridge overnight to infuse.
Dough for the potato waffles
- Peel the potatoes and cook them until tender. Drain the boiled potatoes and then crush them into puree.
- Finely chop the shallot.
- Mix the onion with some nutmeg and salt under the potatoes.
- Add the eggs, flour, butter and grated cheese to it. Mix everything well. If it is too dry you can add a splash of milk.
- You can make this dough perfectly in advance.
The final steps
- Heat an oven to 180 ° C and let the waffle iron heat up as well.
- Remove the rabbit's back from the marinade and let it drain.
- Let the remaining cranberry-cherry beer mixture simmer and reduce slowly.
- Finely chop two heads of chicory and the arugula salad. Mix this into a nice salad with some mayonnaise.
- Peel the leaves from the other two chicory heads and fry them in a pan with some butter.
- Bake the potato waffles in the waffle iron for six minutes. In principle, you get four large waffles from the amount of dough (Belgian waffle size).
- Place the rabbit strips on a piece of parchment paper and bake them in the oven for 8 minutes. They don't need more.
- Then you can arrange everything on the plates. I put a few leaves of fried chicory on the waffles. This prevents them from immediately weakening from the sauce. Then I put two rabbit back fillets with some of the cranberries in between. Garnish left and right with the chicory-arugula salad.
Nutrition
rabbit back marinated in cherry beer
Actually, my original plan was to make these potato waffles with rabbit fillets marinated in cherry beer for Christmas (2020). But, as you can imagine, some 2020 special circumstances forced us into an alternative Christmas experience... So I publish it now, because everything will start getting better. And so we have something already for next Christmas to look forward too.
For this recipe I used filleted rabbit back strips. They are of course a bit more festive and more expensive, but Christmas is only once a year! One fillet is about 50 to 70 grams, depending on the size. I use two back fillets per waffle. This really is enough because probably you have been eating lots of other snacks and appetizers already.
I also used dried cranberries that are marinated in the cherry beer together with the rabbit fillets. Dried cranberries are similar to raisins. The principle is the same. By adding them to the cherries, they swallow the cherry beer and get a great sweet and sour taste. After removing the rabbit, you can reduce the cranberries with the cherry beer to make a perfect sauce.
And the best is yet to come! This recipe is easy to make and can be prepared almost completely on the day before. You can perfectly prepare the mashed potatoes and then the dough for the waffles one day in advance. And for the marinade, you should also schedule no more than five minutes on the previous day. So, with Christmas, you only have to do some vegetables, bake the waffles and bake the rabbit a few minutes in the oven.
One more thing: with the leftovers of the cranberry-cherry sauce you can make a delicious jam. Reheat it for a few minutes and add some jam-sugar and you will have a delicious breakfast in the next days!
About cherry beer (Kriek lambic)
Cherry beer, or Kriek Lambic, is only one of the famous Belgian beer types. You really have to taste these Belgian fruit beers to understand their specific taste. In many other countries fruit lemonade is added to the beer. But this makes the beer only sweet, not fruity. The typical Belgian cherry beers contain 20-25% fresh cherry juice.
Its origins come from the region of Brussels. At the end of the 19th century, local brewers there began adding surpluses of sour cherries from their own orchard to their local lambic beer. The wealthy Brussels bourgeoisie liked it a lot, and began to ask for it more and more. The farmers understood there was a market for this new beer and started the commercial development of "Kriek", the cherry beer.
In Belgium, there are two registered methods to make this beer. The so-called "Oude Kriek", the older method is even registered as a regional trademark. This is a more complex method, practiced by for example the breweries Lindemans and Boon. After the second world war, easier and more modern commercial methods came to the market under the name "Kriek". For this recipe I used St. Louis Kriek of the brewery Vanhonsebrouck.
More surprising.potato
Meanwhile I love potato waffles. For me it is a good variation on the classic mashed potatoes. Last summer, I used the same potato waffle recipes for savory potato waffles with figs and plum compote. I expect more will follow.
Are you looking for more recipes with surprising potatoes? Then check out the following ones:
- crispy crunchy cubed potatoes
- Hasselback potatoes
- Köttbullar with parsley potatoes
- caramelized potatoes
- apple-potato salad
- parsley root puree
- potato egg salad
If you speak Dutch, you can find the Dutch version of this recipe on gerechtenweb.blog.
Alex
This is a nice sounding recipe. I like rabbit and love the addition of fruit to meat or savory flavors. So to me, this is a good combination. Plus, I have made potato based waffles a few times and have always been pleased with the result. I love the crunch and how much potato flavor they convey. Mostly I made them in addition to meat, but on one occasion I went for a variation of a childhood classic and served the potato waffles with apple sauce and cranberry compote - delicious!
toondebacker
Thanks a lot! It really worked out well.