hare recipies

[case]

hi guys,just shot a couple of hares and i was wondering what recipies you use for them.we dont usually eat them.ive chopped off the back wheels,and backsteaks and theyre hanging in the fridge.
cheers,casey

[Vonny]

French style mate : Roasted, but with a big pile of Kumar not potatoes
Roasting should take between 15 to 20 minutes per lb
It is usually only the back of a hare which is roasted the entire back from neck to tail.
Skin and paunch the hare and removed the gall-bladder from the liver.
Put the blood in a bowl with the liver, prevent coagulation add 3 tablespoonfuls of brandy or 4:)
Whip off the transparent underskin from the flesh of the hare: this is easier to do if you singe it.
Roll sheets of fat bacon round the hare, and tie it up.
Now roast the hare on a turning spit, or conventionally in the oven if your a slacker.
Put 4 or 5 tablespoonfuls of lightly salted butter in the flat dish.

Chop and pound the liver, and brown it gently for 3 minutes in a frying-pan in 2 tablespoonfuls of butter together with a small bunch of mixed herbs; stir in 1/2 a tablespoonful of flour, moisten with 1/3 of a glass of very dry white wine (use Lake Chalice as Chris is a mate of mine) and then neck the rest of the wine in the kitchen before the Mrs knows what's going on, add a little salt and a lot of pepper.
Then take out the bunch of mixed herbs and press the sauce through a strainer.
Now add the blood which was mixed with brandy, together with the gravy from the tray under the spit, or from the roasting tin.
Heat but do not bring to the boil, as the sauce would curdle.
Serve this sauce with the hare.
Eat dinner, drink more wine and then pay your £5 to become a subscriber yah slacker .

[Redeye]

Jug it!

There's a perfect recipe here (http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/recipes/jugged-hare-420780.html), but disregard the part where he says just to use the legs and use the saddle as well.

[JungleBert]

Cook it long and slow in a stew, carrots, onions etc etc

[Saint-Just]

a couple of things about Vonny's recipe:
1) do not do that with an old hare (stew only)
2) cooking time is excessive. If overcooked hare will go tough and dry (even tougher and drier; that's what the bacon is supposed to prevent). the only way I know is to test regularly (clear juice from the meat)
3) careful with salt: bacon already brings a significant amount of salt to the dish; it is therefore better to use unsalted butter instead of salted one.

Otherwise it should be excellent

[Vonny]

a couple of thinks about Saint-Just recommendations
1) Soft arteries are for girls
2) ANCHOR butter is better than President butter





:)

[case]

ha ha,love your work vonny ! ,yes i suppose i better chip in for martyns range rover mags soon.ive been on here for long enough.
sounds like some top recipies there,ill age it for a few more days and give it a go.

[Vonny]

Well, we can't argue with a Frenchman when it come to knowledge about food and women, we just have to surrender to them ;)

[nickd]

I use old hare or rabbit to make terrine.

Soak a dozen stoned prunes overnight in brandy.
Roast the hare slowly, well wrapped in tin foil. Remove all the meat from the bones, dividing it into nice big chunks from the sadle etc and little bits.
Take 1kg of pork (a cut that needs slow cooking).
Put the pork, the small bits of hare/rabbit, the roasting juices, a small onion and a large handful of parsley and coriander leaves through the mincer twice (large holes).
It needs a reasonable amount of fat, so if you feel there's not enough put some fatty bacon through as well.
Season well.
Line a suitable container with streakey bacon so that the ends hang over the edge.
Put half the meat mixture in the bottom.
Put the large chunks of meat in the middle and lay the prunes all over.
Put the rest of the meat mixture on top. Push down.
Pull the bacon over, adding more if necessary.
Low slow cooking in the oven in a bain marie.
Cool with a plate and a weight on top.

I use 500g of demi-sel poitrine (lightly salted belly pork) and 500g of pork - don't know if it's available in Britain. You need to soak the salt out of the pork and be careulf about adding extra salt. Depending on my mood I add hazelnuts or whatever, and decorate with orange rind.

I sometimes leave a hole through to the meat/prunes in the middle and don't pack it so tightly, then drain the cooking juices, strain them, mix with gelatine and add it back to fill all the air gaps etc. Different, but not sure it's worth the effort.

I plan on doing this as a raised pie one day, but it'll need some serious eating :)

I've been told several times by gallic friends that it's not a real terrine, but it doens't stop them going for it like starving hyenas.

nick

[zorro]

Swap it for a rabbit...........

[andrew thoma]

In our house Hare is the greatest of all game meat all my kids and grandkids adore it. Interestingly commercially it is the only game meat in todays market that still has a decent value. It is no way similar to rabbit being a black meat rather than a white meat.

There are only two ways to cook it:
Very very fast and hot and this I would reserve for the fillets removed from the saddle. The meat wants to be seared on the outside and blue on the inside, serve with a good gravy and mash.
or
Very very slowly and here I generally go for a 12 to 24 hour cook in an oven around 100C to 110C. Stick it the night before for lunch or dinner the next day:
Over the years my lazy (30 minutes prep at the most) long cook method has evolved into someting like this.

1. Soften a kilo of onions in a decent amount of olive oil in a (La Creuset etc) heavy casserole pan

2,. Add the jointed hare, forlegs and hind legs plus carcass but with rib cage removed

3. lAdd a pound of dry cured smoked short back bacon

4. 3 Carrots

5. 3 Sticks celery

6. Head of garlic and a handful of tyme.

Bottle of cheap white wine and enough game stock to cover the lot in the pan.

Bring the lot to the boil, let it boil for ten minutes uncovered, stick the lid on which must be heavy, stick in the oven for 12 to 24 hours at 100C 110C, if you have a fan oven switch the fan off.

When its done remove all the meat from the sauce, strain the sauce as there is no flavour left in any of the bits, reduce the sauce down a bit if needed add seasoning and stick the meat back in and serve with your choice of veg, dumplings etc etc etc.

A single Hare will easily serve 5 to 8 plus enough left over to serve with pasta for a day or two.

Enjoy

[case]

mmm theres some nice ones coming thru. andrew,do you need to add water sometime in the 12 hours or can you just leave it cooking overnight?

[andrew thoma]

Case

No need to add water as long as the lid is a good heavy cast iron one. My kids will often come down in the morning and on smelling this in the oven demand it for breakfast. To bulk out the stew I quite often add cannellini or borllotti beans (500g) at the stage of reducing down the sauce a bit. You can spend time browning the meat veg etc before it all goes in the pot, but I don't think it makes a difference.

Two other things with Hare, avoid alcohol marinades they just shorten and tighten the fibers in the meat and make it tougher when cooked. Be very careful when jointing the animal, bone chip are hard to spot and can be like razors in the mouth.

For my quick recipe it also responds well to a star anise being added before it goes in the oven or/and half an orange zest.

Cheers

[Nightfly]

I tried the terrine recipe. And I'll be trying it AGAIN! Thanks

[parbajtor]

Not personally overfond of the aftertaste of rabbit/hare and hare is the stronger flavour.
I do however find that the combination with Pheasant makes a fantastic game stew/pie.
The strong flavours of both meats compliment each other really well and combine to form something greater than the parts.
They also work very well with the addition of "tarty" fruits such as boysenberry, plums etc.