Flemish Rabbit Stew

There are many recipes for "stoofvlees", as this stew is called in Flemish, but this one is really "Frenchified" :) — in the classic Flemish version the mushrooms and carrots are absent... Often the garlic too. The onion, however, is 3x more and is caramelized with the dark sugar, and here they use star anise. And the mustard they spread on peperkoek (a very strongly spiced cake with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom and sometimes two more spices) and add it to the stew. This way there's no need for flour. The little cakes dissolve completely. There's also no great need for vinegar since the mustard most often has enough, but the French love vinegar and wine in stews :) if cooked on the stovetop the time halves. ;) And the most famous version of this stew is not with beef but with pork cheeks and a nice strong dark beer, Chimay. In these latitudes there is also another variant, which seemed to me to be mixed into your recipe, but there it is with rabbit. The beer is replaced with apple cider and apple cider vinegar, and there it also has carrot and celery and garlic and mustard (how without it?!..).