Chef Andrew Smith

As Columbus chefs blossom in creativity and craft, so expands the palate of the city. Chef Andrew Smith of the Rossi wants to push that horizon just a touch more, encouraging home chefs to serve up some delicious rabbit this winter.

“It’s very lean, but very rich in flavor,” he said. “Rabbit has a lot going for it . . . it’s not gamey, just . . . different.” Surprisingly easy to find, Chef notes that whole rabbits can be found everywhere from Market District to Whole Foods to Fresh Market. While the recipe itself has a lot of steps, each is simple and the finished entree is worth it.

The cooking method, braising, is perfect for the winter months, said Smith. Braising takes place over an extended period of time, warming up the kitchen and allowing the smells to create anticipation for the great reveal.

The trick to braising is to get a good sear on the meat before putting it in the oven. A proper sear keeps the juices inside the flesh while the heat causes pressure to build up within the meat; instead of escaping the meat, the juices go back down to the bone, Smith explained, then heat back up again.

Eventually the juices break through, causing the meat to fall apart and acquire the meltingly delicious texture and savory depth that is a hallmark of the technique.

“I might not be the smartest person,” he laughed, “but I like to know why things work.” Another important step in the process is to make sure that the liquid in the pan – in this case, chicken broth – is at a boil before it’s covered and put in the oven.

While Smith describes the dos and don’ts of braising, he deftly chops fresh herbs, flooding the Rossi’s small kitchen with herbaceous smells that are enough to make a stomach growl. “I usually try and add a little bit of something people don’t expect,” he said. “Some Tabasco, sherry vinegar, nutmeg – in this case, cinnamon. It’s that flavor that, while people are eating, they’re going, ‘What’s that?’ I use the celery root because it’s more interesting than potatoes.”

For extra intrigue, Smith tricks up the dish with pickled dried cherries. “Pickled things add so much flavor,” he enthused. “Acid, sweet . . . a balance. When I create a recipe, I want flavors that people are going to remember.”

Braised Leg of Rabbit

With winter herbs and cinnamon served with celery root puree, roasted fig and endive stuffing, pickled dry cherries and toasted hazelnuts
Serves 2

Braised rabbit
2 legs of rabbit
4 cups of chicken stock
8 whole garlic cloves
5 or 6 peeled and quartered shallots
2 parsnip peeled and sliced into rounds
2 cinnamon stick
8 sprigs of time
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 sprig of sage
2 tbs. vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Season rabbit all over with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper and let sit for an hour. In an oven-proof sauté pan large enough to fit both legs, heat oil on medium high just until the pan is smoking. Sear rabbit on both sides until golden brown. Remove from pan. Turn down heat and add remaining ingredients. Return rabbit to pan and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover with lid or foil and put in oven for 1 1/2 to 2 hours until tender. Check rabbit after an hour; add a little more chicken stock if needed.

Celery root puree

4 cups large diced celery root
1 cup cream
4 tbs. butter
Water

Place celery root in a pot of water and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes. Strain the root and put in a blender or food processor with other ingredients. Puree until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Roasted fig and endive stuffing
4 cups of your favorite crusty Italian bread (cubed)
4 sprigs of thyme
2 sprigs of sage
8 brown turkey figs quartered (black mission figs can be substituted)
2 heads of endive (leaves separated)
4 minced shallots
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
4 tbs. butter (melted)

Combine all ingredients in large bowl. Toss with salt and pepper. Transfer ingredients to a sheet pan and roast at 400 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until the bread is somewhat toasted on the outside but still moist in the middle.

Pickled dry cherries
2 cup dried cherries
1 cup red wine
1 cup water
2 cups red wine vinegar
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cinnamon sticks

Put all ingredients except for cherries into small saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat and pour the liquid over the cherries. Let the cherries soak up the liquid for at least 2 hours. This can be done the day before.

Roasted hazelnuts
2 cups hazelnuts

Roast at 350 for 10 minutes on a sheet pan. While the nuts are still warm, rub them between two rigid kitchen towels to remove the skin. Chop the hazelnuts to desired size.

To plate
Place one half of the celery root puree in a circle in the middle of the plate. Top with one half of the stuffing mixture and top with the rabbit leg. Spoon the cherries over the rabbit and drizzle some of the juice around the plate for color. Sprinkle the roasted hazelnuts all over.

About the Chef

On the Sunday after one of the busiest Saturday ever at the Rossi in the Short North, one might expect Chef Andrew Smith to be a little tired, but that’s not the case. Darting around the kitchen in his Okham’s Razor band tee, he pops a cube of stuffing bread into his mouth while sharing his enthusiasm for his culinary calling. “Mmmm that’s good … if you add butter at the end, the fat will help the bread crisp up a bit.”

“I like that food brings people together,” he said. “Food should be fun and not complicated. I like to take a piece of food and make it taste like what it’s supposed to taste like.” Growing up in the Columbia Gorge area of Oregon, Smith’s youth was spent at the family table noshing on grits and collard greens, staples of his parents’ North Carolina roots. “But my favorite was Sunday taco nights; my brother and I would see who could eat the most tacos,” he recalled. “My family loved food, it was part of our lives.”

After graduating Trout Lake High School, the young Smith didn’t know what to do with his life. “I worked construction, I built houses,” he explained. “But I always thought about food. Finally, I thought, ‘If I don’t try and do this, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.’” Smith attended the Western Culinary Institute in Portland where he spent “way too much money” learning a lot about French cookery. “About five to 10 percent of the people I graduated with are using their degrees and making a living,” Smith said. “The rest don’t use their degrees and are paying more on school loans than rent.”

Working in the wild west of the Portland food scene, Smith honed his skills and his point of view before moving to Columbus, his wife Melissa’s hometown. “When I first moved here, I pulled up all the menus online and sent resumes to where the menu appealed to me,” he explained. Smith eventually landed at the Rossi, a gig he treasures. “This place consumes me; all the people that I love here in Columbus, I’ve met because of this job,” he said, grinning ear to ear.

To create new dishes for the ever-evolving Rossi menu, Smith looks to current trends for inspiration. “Pickling is huge right now,” he said. “I remember my grandmothers canning and preserving . . . it’s one of those techniques that was lost for a little while, but is popular again because of things like the slow food movement.”

Comparing the 614 scene to that of the Northwest, Smith explained that while Portland takes the edge on weirdness, Columbus is on its way. “I don’t think it’s the cooks and chefs,” he continued. “I think it just needs more adventurous palates – people eat what they know and they need to stop it.”