rabbit {or chicken} paprikash

I get a lot of questions about social media. How do I use it? Isn’t it a pain? Don’t I find it a total waste of time?

I actually love social media. After all these years writing away in the safety of my little office, the advent of social media was liberating. I’m pretty sure I am too much of a loner to ever work in a formal office environment, but having facebook, twitter and instagram has been my own personal water cooler. I love taking breaks to find out what is going on in the world, or – more importantly – what happened last night on Nashville.

Although there is a lot to weed through and discard these days, for the most part I find that the foodie group I tend to hang out with is pretty inspiring. Yes, I love looking at photos of food too. And I especially love following chefs who post not only what they are serving in their restaurants (which can be a bit intimidating for a home cook like me) but also what they are eating and cooking for themselves when they get home.

I find Instagram to be a particularly rich resource in the recipe department. It’s not that I see a dish, and then go try to cook it. But more often I see something and think, hey, what if I switched out one ingredient for another, what would happen then? And, through the magic of comments, I can actually ask the chefs themselves. And. Miracle of miracles. They answer!

Pretty cool, right?

This is exactly what happened a few weeks ago. I was scrolling through instagram and saw that Jenn Louis has posted a big, steaming pot full of chicken paprikash. While she tends towards the more complicated at her restaurants in Portland, she was making this simple, hearty dish to eat at home. It made me want to cook it right away. The only problem was that I was missing the main ingredient.

I hit ‘like’ then:

@eminchilli: “Hmmm…do you think I can do this with a rabbit I bought yesterday?”
@jennlouis: Yes!

And so the old favorite chicken paprikash (which, I have to admit, I had kind of forgotten about) became incredibly delicious rabbit paprikash.

Since I didn’t have a entire rabbit, I decided to help it out with an overload of mushrooms. And of course, no access to sour cream meant I just went to my stand by substitute, Greek yoghurt.

All that rich sauce also gave me the perfect excuse to make polenta. These days, since I’ve discovered the joys of making polenta in the oven, it actually doesn’t take much of an excuse.

So, to return to the original question: no, I don’t find social media to be a pain. Just the opposite in fact. I find it to be a total pleasure and feel lucky to be catapulted out of my little world, into a bigger one. Especially when it results in something like Rabbit Paprikash. Thanks instagram. And thanks Jenn.

rabbit {or chicken} paprikash

1 kilo/ 2 pounds rabbit or chicken
3 onions, sliced
2 cups chopped mushrooms
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup tomato puree
salt, pepper
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoons sweet paprika
1 tablespoon hot paprika
1 tablespoon flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup greek yogurt

Cut rabbit into serving sized pieces, trying not to make a complete mess of the small bones. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Choose a pan large enough to hold all the rabbit and that has a lid.

Pour olive oil into the pan, and heat over a high flame. Add the rabbit pieces and let brown on both sides. Once they are well browned, remove the rabbit and set aside.

Add the butter, and then add the sliced onions, and one teaspoon of salt. Let cook until wilted and just starting to turn golden. Add the garlic and the mushroom, and cook for another 8 minutes until the mushrooms have softened.

Add the flour and paprika and stir well, letting the flavors mix and the flour cook a bit. Add the tomato puree and the chicken stock, and bring to a simmer. Add rabbit, and continue cooking, with the lid on the pan, for about a half hour, until the rabbit is done.

Take the lid off and by now the sauce should be quite thick. Right before serving, take off of heat and gently fold in the Greek yogurt. Serve with something mushy, like mashed potatoes or polenta, to soak up all the gravy.