DIRECTIONS
- Preheat oven to 190°C. Place the cuts of rabbit and botifarra on an oven tray. Since the botifarra already contains salt and pepper, only lightly season the rabbit. Top with a drizzle of olive oil and roast for 30 minutes.
- Remove the tray, sprinkle the meat with brandy and add 500 ml of hot water. Lower oven heat to 150°C and put the tray back in the oven. Roast for another 45 minutes, turning the cuts of meat over every 15 minutes. Once roasted, remove the tray from the oven and set aside.
- While the rabbit and botifarra are roasting, place the snails in a large bowl filled with cold water to “wake them up” and make sure they are all alive. Put them in a pot with plenty of cold water, cover and heat over the stove. When you reach a boil, strain the snails. Add fresh water until the snails are completely covered and heat again. When the pot starts to boil, remove the foam from the surface, add the bay leaf and thyme and salt to taste. Cover the pot and let it simmer for roughly 40 minutes. Test a snail for saltiness and texture, and continue simmering if necessary. When ready, remove the pot from the heat and let the snails cool without removing them from the broth.
- Drizzle a frying pan or large cooking pot with olive oil and sauté the finely diced vegetables, adding salt to taste. The vegetables should acquire a glazed, golden-brown appearance. Thoroughly strain the snails and set the broth aside . Add the Iberian ham and cooked snails to the vegetables and stir everything together carefully so as not to break the snail shells. Add a large spoonful of the snail broth to the stew and sauté for 3 minutes. Set aside.
- Carefully pour the snail and vegetable stew from point 4 onto the tray of roasted meat. Delicately stir the glaze on the bottom of the tray into the snail and vegetable stew, and add salt and pepper to taste. Roast again for 10 minutes at 150°C. You are now ready to present the dish at the table and serve.
SERVES 4
1 rabbit, weighing 1.1 kg, cut into 8 pieces
1 raw Duroc pork botifarra , roughly 150 g, cut into 4 pieces
50 ml brandy
500 ml mineral water
6 dozen snails, deslimed
1 small bay leaf
1 sprig of thyme
Finely diced vegetables:
150 g carrot
150 g onion
2 chilli peppers
150 g leek
50 g celery stalk
2 cloves of garlic
3 sprigs of parsley
50 g Iberian ham, finely diced
extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper
