Cooked in a creamy white sauce and then baked under a buttery puff pastry lid, this a true comfort food treat. For a bit of variation, try mixing some cheddar cheese in alongside the ham and cabbage when you mix through the white sauce.
Serves 6 
60 mins 1/4 stick of butter
1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons
1 head of green cabbage, cut roughly,
2 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 1/2 cup hot chicken stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 heaped tsp English mustard
2/3 cup single cream
1 2/3 cups cut ham, cut into chunks
12.3 oz frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 large free-range egg, beaten
30g butter
1 large onion, peeled and thinly sliced into half moons
1 head of green cabbage, cut roughly,
2 tbsp plain flour, plus extra for dusting
350ml hot chicken stock
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 heaped tsp English mustard
150ml single cream
400g cut ham, cut into chunks
350g frozen puff pastry, thawed
1 large free-range egg, beaten
Frying pan
Metal steamer
Saucepan
Ovenproof baking dish
Rabbit was a great food for country people for many years. Tomás O’Crohan in The Islandman tells us of the many rabbits they caught on the Blasket islands when he was young: ‘When we had all come to the boat and put the game together, we had eight dozen rabbits – a dozen a-piece.’ Maurice o’Sullivan in Twenty years A-Growing writes of the same island and rabbit stew: ‘We sat down to dinner, a savoury dinner it was – a fine stew of rabbits and plenty of soup.’ Young rabbits can be roasted – as with the body of the hare – and wrapped in bacon. Recipe from The Pleasures of the Table: Rediscovering Theodora Fitzgibbon.
