Bunny - Porikari

Every country has their own set of game meats, India with its enormous cultural diversity the presence of game meats are in plenty, Kings were hunters at leisure times and the after came British were no different, They found harmony in the wilderness what Indian forests had to offer. 

Meats ranging from squirrels of the Nilgiri forests to the camels of the Thar Desert were relished by kings and tribal all over the subcontinent; The two great Indian epics namely Ramayana and the Mahabharata has parts portrays about generations living in the forests and hunting for meats. 

In south India, the earliest writings available are those in Tamil, from about AD 300. Fried meat has three names, one of which was Porikari; Hare meat was among those fried, Common practices of spit roasting can be read, We also read about hot meat roasted in points of spits. 

Porunanuru” a tamil epic... it poetically describes the basting of meats ‘ Like drops of rain that fall in the full lake’ references of various meats abound and the fat meat of roasted rabbit served over a meal of Ragi ( finger millet) sprinkled with pomogranate and radishes. 

The inspiration is well worthy enough to give it a try, and knowing Rabbit is quite extensively used as Satya’s in the Malay community it is actually easy to lay hands upon some good quality produce- farm raised with just feeding them with carrots in abundance and other vegetables, On our recipe testing we found it was sweet and had a poultry kinda feel towards it and it was quite rich and flavorful but this was just over a pan seared. 

Having had the experience of confit-ing game meats before and specifically rabbits, the outcome  was pretty evident and also I quite knew it worked wonders with a raspberry coulis over a phyllo cup some 15 years ago during my early cruise line experiences, I felt it would be given a worthy try. Read about that experience here : https://eurekachef.blogspot.my/2013/02/confit-my-rabbit.html?m=1

Now then, to impart all the flavors into this game meat an aromatic oil was prepared it consisted of - Mace, Thelicherry peppercorns, curry leaves, Indian gooseberries, Dry red chilies, Cumin and mustard oil; The rabbit was  allowed to be submerged in the oil and cooked at a very low temperature for 14 hours, and then after draining it was labored to picked off to tiny hair like resemble and dehydrated for another couple of hours, the millet cups and the sautéed radish and pomegranates finished off what supposes to be a part of the surprising duo in the menu at Nadodi.