BBC Good Food Recipe Review: Baked Rabbit and Chorizo Rice

One of my many brilliant Christmas presents was a subscription to BBC Good Food magazine (from my Dad).  I use the website an awful lot, and getting the magazine is even better.  For a start, it's like getting a Christmas present every month, and it gives you an excuse to try out lovely new, seasonal recipes every month.  I've already tried out three recipes from the January issue but this is the only one I took photos of: Baked Rabbit and Chorizo Rice.

Now, the first thing I have to say is that I tweaked this recipe.  These days I always tweak recipes...I think it's part of getting more confident in the kitchen, and it's also fun.  My first tweak, however, was one I'd rather not have made, and it was that I substituted chicken drumsticks and thighs for rabbit.  This wasn't out of preference, as I love cooking with game, and would always choose it over farmed meat.  I find it tastier, it's very lean and the animal has led a natural life in the wild.  However, Tesco's didn't oblige, and as it was New Year's Eve I couldn't face trekking into town to visit Teesdale Game and Poultry in the Indoor Market (actually well worth a visit on any other occasion).  My second tweak was a matter of preference: I added three peppers to the recipe.  It just didn't have enough vegetables for me.  I think that the peppers really improved the dish - they upped the Spanish flavour and also set off the richness of the chorizo nicely. 

The first stage of this very easy recipe was to marinate the meat in olive oil, white wine and thyme.  I was very happy to use thyme from my garden, which I'd grown myself from seed.

The second stage was to fry everything up in a big pot and the final stage was to add stock and simmer for a couple of hours -  my kind of cooking!  The addition of saffron with the stock was an important part of the finished dish, as it gave a really exotic taste and a lovely depth.  There was just one final tweak - the recipe said to add the frozen peas and stir just before serving, but I cooked them for five minutes or so - didn't fancy raw peas in the final dish!

In conclusion I would really recommend this recipe - it was very easy, but tasted as if it was difficult.  The peas, tomatoes and saffron gave it a lovely colour, and the oil in the chorizo gave it that lovely red sheen.  It was a real party dish - we had it on New Year's Eve and it felt really celebratory and exotic.