Rabbit with Bohemia Obscura and chocolate

Serves 4

(Jason Lowe)

This dish is based on the common Mexican dish of Mole, which normally contains a host of ingredients including herbs, raisins, plantain, cloves, sesame and pumpkin seeds and, of course, chocolate. Now, we are not talking normal chocolate here, but an intense, almost unrefined cocoa or the cocoa sticks that you can sometimes buy before it's made into chocolate. If you are struggling to find this then buy the highest percentage bitter dark chocolate you can find. I've used a dark beer here called Bohemia Obscura, which adds a slightly caramel-like flavour and a great colour to the sauce.

The front and back legs from 4 wild rabbits
4tbsp flour
2-3tbsp vegetable or corn oil
60g butter
2 large onions, peeled, halved and finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
tbsp tomato purée
2tsp chopped fresh thyme leaves
1 330ml bottle of Bohemia Obscura beer or dark ale
1.5 litres hot beef stock
4 dried dark red chillies
60-80g maximum strength dark chocolate
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Season the rabbit legs and dust with flour. Heat a couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil in a heavy frying pan and cook the rabbit legs for 3-4 minutes on each side, giving them a nice golden colour. Meanwhile melt the butter in a pan large enough to take the rabbit legs. Cook the onions and the garlic for 2-3 minutes on a medium heat until they begin to colour.

Add the flour and stir over a medium heat for a minute or so then add the tomato purée and thyme and gradually stir or whisk in the beer and hot beef stock to avoid lumps forming. Add the chillies and rabbit legs, season, cover with a lid and simmer very gently for about an hour or so, or until the rabbit is tender. The sauce should be quite thick: if not, remove the rabbit legs and simmer until it's thickened. Stir in the chocolate until dissolved and re-season if necessary.