Lapin à l'orange (rabbit with orange and ginger sauce): skiing in Chamonix

As I just realized, the past winter (despite my injuries) I managed to have squeezed in double digits of skiing days. This is a massive achievement for an ultra non-sporty person with minimal skiing experience! A lot of it was due to some impromptu skiing weekends in places close to Zurich (the benefits of being in Central Europe!)

Over Australia Day back in January, we went for a weekend with some of our Europe-based Oz friends to Chamonix. My proudest achievement from that trip was definitely doing multiple red runs without too much screaming and scaring of other people on the piste. (PS: Two weeks later in St. Anton I even did a black run WOOO!!!). Mark and his friend was adventurous enough to do the Vallee Blanche in -20 degrees! Madness.

Chamonix from my iphone

To me, Chamonix (or "Cham") felt a bit like Disneyland for skiers. You can literally book holiday packages that are so organised (down to your transport, even meals and snacks) from any major city in Europe. It's particularly popular with the Brits - there were so many groups arriving by the busloads every few hours, even some of the pubs we went to were English owned too. Anyway, it was definitely a lazy weekend language-wise, as we didn't even have to try speaking French or German... 

  Our highlights from the weekend:

• Getting cheap day passes from buyclub (30CHF for one-day), it was a one-off offer but we definitely milked it! Anyway if you buy a normal one-day Le Pass (about 38€) it already includes the massive region of Grand Montet, Brevent and Balme. But there is an option for an unlimited one which gets you to all the pistes all even to Verbier (Switzerland) and Courmayer (Italy).
• Nice red pistes, which only freaked me out at a couple of occasions. Balme/Le Tour and Brevent were pretty nice to me and the areas are pretty well connected by cable cars. 
• Vallée Blanche (for the non-beginners) - I wouldn't dare but apparently it's very beautiful. Pretty easy to organise a guide (you need one!) through hotels or the tourist center. Expect to pay around €70 per person for a tour. 
• Our cute studio apartment which we found on Airbnb and was super centrally located. The bathroom comes with the most awesome high tech shower which probably took about a third of the area of the apartment. One must get their priorities right when building a ski retreat...

How to make your own gaufres(best and cheapest après-ski / pre-dinner snack)

• The food... of course. Some highlights include Le Caveau (weird underground cave-like restaurant but  good homely food, 13 Rue de Doct Paccard), Midnight Express (a take-away shop open late just next to Le Caveau, offering humongous sandwiches). 
• Après ski, après ski, après ski! Try anywhere along Rue des Moulins, a small back street near the river packed full of bars. 

Top: A giant man driving a Clydesdale-drawn carriage (this man is seriously at least 2.5 metres tall)
Bottom (L): I was determined to eat this steak for lunch, since we can't normally afford steak in Switzerland. We had to eat outdoors because of the lunch rush hour. Bottom (R): après ski goodness

This recipe is actually inspired by this succulent duck dish with orangey sweet and sour sauce we had at Le Caveau. It was just simple, homely and just the right (huge) portion after a day of skiing. I chose rabbit because I just discovered it the other day at my local supermarket and it was dirt cheap. Plus, it's pretty guilt-free since (like kangaroos) it is a very sustainable meat with a tiny carbon footprint. You need to braise it for a while as the meat can be bit gamey. 

Lapin à l'Orange (et gingembre!)

Serves 4 people or 2 hungry skiers

Ingredients: 

4 pieces of rabbit legs 

3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 large red onion, diced 

2 cm ginger, grated

Juice of 3 oranges

grated peel from 1 orange

3-4 tbs soy sauce
125 ml (half cup) chicken stock 
125 ml (half cup) white wine

a sprig of rosemary 

a sprig of thyme

1-2 tbs sugar

1 stick of cinnamon

salt and pepper to taste

Olive oil, for frying

Method

Rub salt and pepper generously on the rabbit. In a large frying pan, heat a good glug of olive oil. Fry the rabbit over medium-high heat. Add the soy sauce. Continue browning the rabbit, turning occasionally, for about 10 minutes. The skin may look a bit burnt, because of the soy sauce but don't worry. Keep basting the meat with oil and soy sauce during frying. 

While the rabbit is browning, prepare the orange sauce. Fry garlic, onion and ginger in a little bit of olive oil until fragrant. Add rosemary, thyme, cinnamon and continue frying. Pour in the orange juice, chicken stock and wine into the pan. Add in the orange zest and sugar, if desired. Bring to boil and then turn down to simmer to start reducing the sauce. 


Place the browned rabbit legs into the pan with the sauce. Cover and simmer over low heat, stirring occasionally to make sure the meats cook evenly, for about an hour or until the sauce is reduced and the meat is tender. Season with salt and pepper as required. 


Serve immediately on a bed of polenta (I cook mine in chicken stock and add a bit of cheese at the end).