Easter Bunny Recipe
(This entry will probably elicit hate mail…)
I know it’s a week early, but you don’t get a hare at the farmers’ market every day and the freezer is already packed with pigs’ heads and trotters that I have hoarded to make brawn for the long Easter weekend. And anyway, this dish is to celebrate the end of winter (the season for hare is supposed to finish in February, but they do occassionally run in front of cars) and the coming of spring: the hum of lawnmowers, daffodils flowering in ditches, trees blossoming, and the scent of tar simmering off freshly varnished fence posts under California-blue skies—that sort of thing. Anyway, that was how it was yesterday when I put the hare into the marinade. Today the skies are grey and the heating is back on. The winter aspects of the ritual, I presume, just in reverse.
Jugged Hare
1 hare, with its blood if possible; 1 small glass from ½ bottle good claret; 2 tbsp fruity olive oil; 4-5 shallots, finely sliced; 3 cloves garlic, crushed; a few sprigs thyme; 2 bay leaves, crushed; small handful curly parsley; 10 peppercorns slightly crushed
Reserve the blood and joint the hare: remove the legs, trim off the ribcage and cut the back (saddle) across into two. (The liver, kidneys and heart make a nice little fry-up with some mushrooms, a dash of brandy or white wine and cream. Serve on warm toast)
Combine the marinade ingredients, rub into the joints (watch for sharp bone splinters) and chill overnight.
100g pork belly or streaky bacon; a few tbsp oil; 1 onion; 1 carrot; 1 stick celery; ca. 250ml stock or water; 30g kneaded butter (equal amounts of butter and flour, mixed to yield about 2 tbsp); 2 squares bitter (cooking) chocolate; 1 yolk
Roughly slice the vegetables and pat dry the meat; fry the bacon/belly until the fat runs then add the onion and sweat until transparent. In a separate pan, fry the joints until brown and sealed, set aside. Deglaze the pan with some of the wine.
Place the raw vegetable in the bottom of a wide casserole dish, add the hare, onions, rest of the wine,drained marinade with its herbs and enough liquid to just cover. Bring to a gentle simmer, stir in the kneaded butter then cook in a slow oven 9ca. 120°C) 2-3h.
Lightly beat the yolk and add to the blood if any was left (if all the blood was available the yolk isn’t needed). Lift out the hare and keep warm (it can be boned out at this stage), strain the liquid into a saucepan and reduce, if necessary, to about 1 cup (250 ml). Stir some of the hot liquid into the bowl with the blood or yolk, then tip it back into the sauce, but don’t let it come back to the boil. Melt in the grated or finely chopped chocolate at the same time.
This dish benefits greatly if you can afford to deglaze the pan with a good slug of port or brandy (be careful not to let it catch fire under a domestic hood, the things don’t stand up to direct heat and will rain bits of plastic into your pots for months to come—I speak from experience).
Serve with mashed or roast potatoes and the season’s last (slightly wilted) curly kale, simply steamed.
Tags: 'Round the World Recipes, Tag Index
Denni