Rabbit, Chicken or Pork?

One of my pet peeves is when people write into a recipe site and basically admit that they didn't follow a recipe at all, and then go on to say how much they disliked the end results, and therefore the recipe (which they did not follow).

On the other hand, sometimes a recipe that seems too complicated on its face can be saved with a few shortcuts, and sometimes even different ingredients. Case in point: a few years back, I was intrigued by a recipe for rabbit in a grainy mustard sauce. At the time I couldn't get rabbit in my grocery store, so I used chicken thighs instead. I've tried boneless and bone-in chicken thighs (but in each case skinless) and I couldn't tell much difference between the two. White meat chicken does not work so well - it doesn't hold up to the strong flavors in the sauce and despite the braising, can get too dry. Although I can now get rabbit at my local butcher, it comes whole and vacuum-packed, and I have no idea how to cut a rabbit into serving pieces.

The problem I've had with the rabbit recipe is all the steps and multiple pans. To make it a whole lot easier, I brown the meat (sprinkled with salt and pepper) in a heavy braiser with a little olive oil. Once the meat is browned, I remove it from the pan, and add onion, garlic, thyme and butter to the pan and scape up the brown bits. Then the wine, and a little stock, and bring to a boil. I then put the chicken back into the boiling sauce, cover and put the whole thing into a 350-degree oven for about 30 minutes (longer if the meat has bones) or until the meat is cooked through. Then I take out the meat and put the pot on a medium flame to boil down the liquid by about half. Then add the mustards directly to the pan, and boil for another 5 minutes, or until the sauce is the consistency you want. Then add back in the meat to warm through. I have never added the cornstarch mixture, and it always comes out just fine. Depending on how fatty your meat is, you may not need the extra butter at the end either.

Anyway, I was planning on making this over the weekend, along with french green lentils. My husband and I were going grocery shopping on Saturday afternoon after having hit the after-Christmas sales downtown. We were laden down with other packages, so I stopped at Savenor's while my husband went to the wine shop for the white wine. I discovered (to my dismay) that they were completely out of chicken of any sort (other than ground white meat).

Dejected, I went to the wine shop and told my husband to forget the wine - we weren't going to be able to make the recipe. He then suggested we buy a pork tenderloin instead, since pork goes pretty well with mustard too. But, we didn't think braising would work. Instead, we made a paste out of garlic, rosemary, lemon zest, salt, pepper, fennel seeds, dijon mustard and olive oil and spread that all over the tenderloin (thank you Ina Garten). Then we put the roast in a 400-degree oven until a meat thermometer registered 140 degrees in the center of the pork. The pork rose (under a tented piece of tin foil) another 10-15 degrees while it rested. The result was delicious, and went very well with the lentils, which I prepared as written.