Terrine of Rabbit en Croûte

Pâté in Crosta di Coniglio
To make this delicious recipe, you need a pâté mold. It is a classic dish that makes for an excellent antipasto – the presentation is wonderful and will get you praises. You can prepare this in stages – a lot of the work can be done ahead of time. It is reminiscent of the pâté I made in Toscana during our 2004 trip. For that pâté I used rabbit liver, chicken liver, chicken comb, and rabbit and chicken meat. In Italy we were fortunate to get the entire chicken and rabbit, unlike here where everything is packaged for a squeamish public. Sometimes I wonder if the country is getting more squeamish as each year passes – I have noticed that sometimes the liver, heart, and gizzard are not included in the chicken you purchase – such a shame!
For those of you who undertake this wonderful ambrosia, buon appetito!

Ingredients for 8:(For a 14x3x3 inch terrine)
For the pastry:

1¼ lb flour

5½ oz lard

5½ oz butter

Cold water as needed

1 egg

2 pinches sea salt

For the stuffing:

1¾ lb lean ground pork

1¾ lb boned rabbit, some cut into very small tidbits, and others cut into small strips

2/3 lb ground rabbit

Sea salt (about ¼ oz for every pound of meat)

Pepper (optional)

About 1 T of a mixture of these ground spices: coriander, turmeric, Hungarian sweet paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger powder, cumin, and cloves

2 sprigs of rosemary for rabbit marinade + 1 sprig, leaves chopped very fine, for ground meats

Dry white wine

2 eggs

Butter

10 Pitted black olives

Above stuffing:

2 c of plain gelatin
Preparation:

The day before preparing the pâté, marinate the rabbit pieces after deboning and cutting them up using the rosemary and white wine to cover. Prepare the ground pork and rabbit with salt, a tablespoon of the spice mixture, minced Rosemary, the egg, and the salt. Mix everything well with your hand to get it all homogenous. Place in frig until the next day.

The day of cooking:

Make the dough as if you were making a pâte brisée:
1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour and salt; pulse to combine. Add butter and lard, and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some larger pieces remaining, about 10 seconds. (To mix by hand, combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then cut in butter with a pastry blender.)
2. With machine running, add ice water and egg through feed tube in a slow, steady stream, just until dough holds together without being wet or sticky. Do not process more than 30 seconds. Test by squeezing a small amount of dough together; if it is still too crumbly, add a bit more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Turn out dough onto a clean work surface. Shape into a flattened disk. Wrap in plastic, and refrigerate at least 1 hour or overnight. The dough can be frozen for up to 1 month; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
Butter your pâté terrine, and preheat oven to 350ºF. Stretch out one of your dough to the desired dimension; first beat the dough with the rolling pin, then roll it out to 5 mm or 1/5 of an inch.Fold the dough in three to facilitate the lining of the pâté mold, and barely laying down the dough on the terrine’s base, raise the sides of the dough to see if you have the right distribution – the mold should be completely covered with about ½ inch overlap on the two longest sides of the terrine.

Take the rabbit out of the wine marinade.Using your hands, mix the ground meat with the very small pieces of rabbit. Reserve the small strips on the side.

Now begin to fill the mold. First, press down on the dough to get rid of any air pockets – you will need the space! Then take ½ the ground meat and lay it down on the base of the terrine. On top of that place your olives and small strips of rabbit. Then, lay down the rest of your ground meat on top of that.

Fold the excess dough along the borders towards the interior of the terrine; then, brush the tops of the border dough with egg to promote a golden color in the baking process. Cover the terrine with foil. Then place it in the oven and bake for about 1¼ hours. The last ½ hour of baking remove the foil to allow the terrine to become a golden color. To verify doneness, you can use a cooking thermometer – the temperature in the interior of terrine should be 150.8ºF. When just out of the oven, pour out any liquid that may have accumulated in the terrine.

In the duration of baking, prepare the gelatin, enough for two cups.

Pour the gelatin on the top of terrine, up to the edges of the overlap of the crust. Then, place the terrine in the frig for 24 hours.

For maximum flavor leave out of frig for ½ hour. Remove terrine from mold. Cut it with a well-sharpened knife as if you were slicing bread but with light pressure, holding the pâté plate with the other hand. Classically, you can serve this with small pickles, baby onions, or insalatine.
Now, with a good bottle of wine, mangia bene!