Thai yellow curry with rabbit

When people think Thai curries, they tend to think of the standard meats like chicken or beef. But the delicate aromas of Thai spices really lends itself to game meats like rabbit, duck and even venison.  

We pre-cooked our rabbit in a sous-vide as we were using rabbit loin with the bone, and wanted to ensure that the meat was cooked properly but not tough. Substitute the loin for rabbit fillets and you could whip this up in less than half an hour. We were also experimenting with flavour combinations more than being creative, so our recipe was a bit on the plain side. Dress it up using some of the variations at the bottom of the recipe. 

If using store bought curry paste, this recipe is literally just three ingredients: rabbit, Thai yellow curry paste, and coconut cream. 

If you’re feeling creative and have the time, you could make your own curry paste from scratch using this recipe. The effort is definitely worth it and the flavours are much fresher but we were just experimenting and were happy to use store bought paste. 

We’ll include instructions for cooking this both with and without a sous-vide.

Sous-Vide cooking method:

Generously coat rabbit loin with yellow curry paste (2 – 3 tablespoons should be enough) and place into Game Saver bag. Add 3 tablespoons of coconut cream and seal bag. 

Place into water bath, setting the sous vide cooker at 66 degrees Celsius (150F). Cook for 4 hours. 

Meanwhile, place remaining curry paste into a heavy bottomed pan or pot. Dry fry for 2 – 3 minutes until curry paste is fragrant and slightly browned. Add remaining coconut cream and mix through. Simmer gently for 15 – 20 minutes and set aside. 

Once rabbit loin is cooked, remove from the bag and add the rabbit, along with the liquid from the bag, into the sauce, removing as much of the meat as you can with a fork and mixing through the sauce. Heat through for a few minutes and serve over a bed of steamed rice or noodles with a generous amount of curry sauce and some steamed Asian greens. 

Stove-top method: 

Dice 1 onion and 1 yellow capsicum and fry in a heavy bottomed pan. Remove and set aside. Add entire jar of curry paste to pan and fry for 2 – 3 minutes until fragrant and slightly browned. Return onion and capsicum to the pan. Add 2 cans of coconut cream and mix through. Set aside. 

Slice rabbit fillets into strips about 1cm thick by 5cm long. Add meat to the sauce and simmer for 20 – 25 minutes. A few minutes before serving, add some prepared Thai rice noodles to the sauce and heat through. Or if you don’t like noodles, serve on a bed of steamed rice. 

Variations:

You can really dress this up as much as you want, adding a variety of Asian style vegetables to the sauce, serving with your choice of toppings such as fresh coriander, Thai basil, shredded Kaffir lime leaves, fried shallots, crushed nuts and/or sliced Thai chillies for extra heat. You can also substitute the rabbit for duck or venison.