Slow cooked rabbit

Inspired by trendy Fred and Ginger, I've now also cooked rabbit. In my gyuvetch dish. I decided to use Delia's Rabbit in Cider as a base, but with a number of differences:

Ingredients

8 large mushrooms
1 jointed rabbit
25 g salted butter
1 tbsp grape seed oil
15 small shallots
2 cloves of garlic
250 g unsmoked streaky bacon
2 tbsp plain flour
0.5 l dry cider
0.5 l mushroom stock
500 g potatoes
100 g mange tout
100 g baby sweetcorn
sprigs of fresh thyme
12 juniper berries
salt and pepper

Method

1. Peel the mushrooms, but don't remove the stems. Grill on medium until well done.
2. Wash and cut the potatoes in chunks and steam for 10 minutes.
3. Wash the jointed rabbit and make sure there are no hairs left on it.
4. Peel the shallots and garlic and chop finely. Dice the bacon.
5. Heat up the butter and oil and brown off the rabbit joints. Then set aside.
6. In the same pan, fry the onions, garlic and bacon until the onion is soft and the bacon has browned.
7. Sprinkle the flour and stir vigorously for a minute or two, then pour in the cider slowly, it'll go foamy and fizzy at first. Then add the stock and stir in well.
8. Put the rabbit joints back in and bring to the boil for a few minutes.
9. In the mean time, transfer the mange tout, baby sweetcorn and potatoes to the guyvetch.
10. Slice the mushrooms and add as well. Transfer carefully the rabbit and the stew liquid.
11. Add the thyme. Crush the juniper berries and add as well. Season well with salt and pepper.
12. Set the oven on slow cook setting or similar low temperature and leave overnight.

I had some doubts about this, but it turned out to be a similar experience to when we first had guinea fowl. The rabbit was so tender, the meat just came off the bone. Lundulph actually thought it was too bony, and said we should try and get a filleted rabbit next time. I'm not sure this is possible, but this stew was fab.