No Looney Tunes’ characters were harmed in the making of this dish! I wasn’t sure how to go about this project. I really wanted to spit-roast over a fire. The weather was not so nice.  I’ll save that one for a summer holiday.   Instead I went to my trusty medieval recipe book, A Feast of Ice and Fire; The Game of Thrones Official Cookbook. 
It had two similar recipes for a rabbit stew. One was a more 16th century style being simple in preparation and ingredients but lengthy in time to make ( about 3 hours!) so I went with their modern recipe which basically replaces the stock that would have been made entirely from the rabbit bones with a pre-made chicken stock.  It also replaced ale as an ingredient with a dry red wine.  I was a little more curious to make the modern one considering there were more steps, ingredients, and more of a chance to impress the pallet.   So let the cooking of cuteness commence!

Ingredients:
1 rabbit
6 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper
1 cup of dry red wine
1 onion diced
1-2 carrots (I actually used baby carrots and they worked very well)
2 celery stalks
2-3 tablespoons of tomato paste
Rosemary sprig
Bay leaves
3-4 cups of chicken stock
10 nicoise olives
1-2 cups of red potatos

You can season before the pan sear with your choice of flavor. I went with Joe’s Stuff Original Blend. Its more or less an all-round Cajun mix. Salt and white pepper, and let it ride.

Quick pan sear to get the juices working. Brown the skin slightly. Take the protein out, and then I recommend taking as many of the bones out as possible. Some left over will help the stock but I found that whole rabbit halves to a be a pain in the pan and the plate.

Save everything leftover after the pan sear. Put it in a side cup. You will be adding the red wine to it. 

Take all of the veggies besides the potatoes and olives. Throw them all in a big pot. Let them do their thing for about 5-8 minutes. No need to worry about how well their cooked just yet because they have the rest of the time in the stew to marinate. 

I put in almost a full can of tomato paste. I then threw in the rosemary sprig and kept stirring for no more than 5 minutes. Until the tomato paste started to brown.

Then in goes a little more than 2 cups of chicken stock, red wine and rabbit jus, and my favorite part of any good stew… potatoes. I had to put them in. Recipe says bring to a boil, then add olives cook for 30 minutes. Then add remaining 1 cup of chicken stock and cook for 20.  

The actual broth was what made this dish to me. Rabbit was over-done and was a nuisance to eat with all the bones. The flavors of red wine, traditional stew vegetables, chicken stock and rabbit jus were fantastic. I don’t know why the recipe doesn’t call for potatoes to begin with. I feel like a quarter of the dish would have been missing without them. Not much to look at but I think rabbit has a great future with the same flavors but different method of cooking.