Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce

When I bought the pigeon breasts recently, I also bought a whole rabbit from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have cooked a whole rabbit once before but I bought it pre-jointed, so I must confess to being a little disturbed by the look of a whole rabbit when I took it out of the bag. Now, I do know that it is good for meat-eaters to understand that meat is really an animal and I agree with that. I'm not even adverse to it - I've been to an abattoir and a feedlot and I've jointed a chicken before, so you know . . . I'm not too bad. But this was a whole new level and probably one of the most unpleasant 'cooking' activities I have ever undertaken. I won't go into details, though.

It does, however, make the resulting meal even more disappointing. I chose this recipe for Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce from Valentine Warner, author of What To Eat Now, thinking it sounded very French, very slow-cooked but reasonably summery for a casserole style dish. In reality, the rabbit was dry and tough and the sauce was fairly bland. I served it with ever-reliable Jersey Royals - they were good. Otherwise, this was far from successful. Very sad.