Rice with rabbit and snails recipe

A countryside rice from the Vinalopó

Rice with rabbit and snails is a dish from inland Alicante, from the villages and the wood fire, and it has almost never been written down with measurements.

The Monóvar town council website lists it among the town’s typical dishes: “rice with rabbit and snails made over a fire of vine prunings”, with no recipe. The restaurant Casa Elías, in Xinorlet (Monóvar), cooks it over vine prunings, according to the 5 Barricas blog of Valencia Plaza (2021). Aspe, on the other hand, talks on its website about “rice and rabbit”, served all year round and above all on the Último Jueves (Last Thursday), and without snails: it is a different rice.

The quantities come from Murcia

No town council website publishes the recipe with measurements. The quantities on this page are those of Turespaña, which publishes a recipe from the Region of Murcia: a rabbit of one and a half kilos, 400 g of rice and two dozen purged snails for four people. That recipe uses Calasparra rice, red pepper and a squeeze of lemon at the end; these are details from the Murcian recipe, which is why we mark them that way in the list. Take it as a technical reference for timings and proportions, not as the recipe of Monóvar or of any other town.

The fire is in charge

In Monóvar the dish is described as made “over a fire of vine prunings”, and the same website says that the town’s cooks prepare their dishes “over the fire of vine prunings”. At Casa Elías, 5 Barricas describes the glowing fires of vine branches, “pure gunpowder when it comes to drying the rice”, which demand a lot of technique from the cook. That is what sets this rice apart from a gas-cooked version: the fire is part of the recipe, and with a fire that burns like gunpowder you don’t walk away from the pan. For the grain there is bomba rice, and for the pan, the paella pan.

The method, step by step

The Turespaña recipe begins by frying the jointed rabbit and setting it aside; in the same oil the pepper strips are fried and set aside too. Then comes the peeled, chopped tomato, with a pinch of sugar to soften the acidity, and the garlic, parsley, snails and the reserved pepper are fried. With the sofrito done, the rabbit goes back into the pan, is turned over and covered with water, at two and a half cups for every cup of rice. It cooks for about 30 minutes; then the rice and a few threads of saffron go in, and another 25 minutes. The recipe states an hour and a half of cooking, counting the frying.

There is no stock made beforehand: the stock is made in the pan itself with the rabbit and the snails. Monóvar also lists, among its dishes, the gazpachos (a hot flatbread stew, not the cold soup) with rabbit and snails: the two meats go together in the town’s cooking. A gazpachos recipe with quantities, the one from Castalla, is in Alicante gaspatxos.

The snails: purged and clean

The Turespaña recipe asks for the snails “previously purged”. If you have never purged them, buy them already purged: purging is a trade of its own and these sources don’t explain it.

Typical mistakes

• Too much water. Turespaña gives two and a half cups for every cup of rice.
• Adding the rice while the rabbit is still tough. In the recipe, the rabbit cooks for 30 minutes before the rice goes in.
• Serving it without a rest. The recipe ends with lemon and 5 minutes off the heat.

Who to cook it for, and when

If you are cooking for many, see how much rice per person. If you like rabbit, there is another rice from the area: the arroz con costra (crusted rice); and if you want it as spoon food, the brothy rice with chicken and rabbit. And the broader reference for wood-fired rice, with its variations, is the Valencian paella.

If your village fiesta calls for rice cooked over a fire, we cook for local fiestas.