Chef Patron Andrew McLeish’s Roast Hare Loin
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Jugged Hare with a warm Potato espuma
Serves 4
1 Fresh Hare with blood 2 carrots Diced
100g Pancetta diced
18 baby silver skin onions Peeled
1 ltr brown chicken stock
2 tbsp tomato puree
A splash of olive oil
Marinade
1 bottle red wine
1 carrot roughly cut
1 onion roughly cut
1 stick celery roughly cut
½ a leek roughly cut
5 sprigs fresh thyme
1 bulb of garlic (cut in half)
4 juniper berries
2 strips orange zest
2 strips lemon zest
10 peppercorns
Add all the ingredients above into a large bowl
Preparation
The day before cooking, place the hare onto a chopping board, carefully saving all the blood in a bowl. Remove the legs and shoulders with a sharp knife. Next, remove the hare loins and set them aside to be wrapped in pancetta later. Place the legs, shoulders, and carcase into the marinade, ensuring the meat is fully submerged. Cover with cling film and leave to rest in the fridge for 24 hours.
Cooking
Drain off the hare in a colander, keeping the marinade to one side and season the hare with salt and pepper. Now, take a large heavy bottomed pan and pre-heat on a stove. Add a little olive oil and then carefully add the hare, lightly colour then add the rest of the vegetables from the marinade and colour further. Reducing the heat slightly to not burn. Then add the tomato puree and stir through the mix and finally add the juices from the marinade and the chicken stock. Bring to the boil and cover with baking parchment.
Next, place in a pre-heated oven at 120 degrees for approximately 3-4hrs (the time will alter depending on how young or old the hare was). When ready, the meat will fall away from the bones easily.
When the hare is ready remove from the oven and carefully strain the liquor through a conical sieve (it will be very hot, so be extremely careful) keeping all the meat and bones etc in a bowl and the cooking juices in a pan, which you will need to place back on the stove and reduce.
Whilst your cooking juice is reducing, you need to pick through the hare meat removing all the bones and vegetables, keeping just the braised hare meat (this will take a little time but is worth doing thoroughly, and I recommend using a pair of latex gloves). Once this is done, throw away the bones, keeping just the meat and cooking juice, which is reducing on your stove. When the liquor is reduced remove from the heat and whisk in the hare blood and then pass through the conical sieve. The blood will give the sauce an amazingly rich velvety finish.
To Finish
Take a heavy-bottomed pan, pre-heat on the stove, and add a splash of olive oil. Add the diced pancetta and colour lightly, then reduce the heat and add the diced carrots and silver skin onions, cooking until soft. Pour in the rich hare sauce you finished earlier, followed by the braised hare meat. Carefully heat the mixture, stirring occasionally. Check the seasoning and finish with a little freshly chopped parsley.
Roast Hare Loin Wrapped in Pancetta with Carrot Purée, Coriander, and Roast Gnocchi
Serves 2
2 Hare Loins Saved from the previous recipe
10 thin slices of Pancetta
3 carrots
100g butter
Coriander cress
Dandelion leaf
Remove the sinew from the hare loins. On a board place five slices of pancetta next to each other slightly overlapping them. Place the loin of hare on top of the pancetta and wrap the pancetta around the loin and repeat for the second loin. Peel and grate two of the carrots. In a small pan add a knob of butter and place on a low heat. When the butter is melted add the grated carrot and slowly cook the carrot until soft. Then blend the cooked carrot until smooth. Take the third carrot and peel it. Then finely slice the carrot into julienne (thin strips) and place in a little iced water.
Gnocchi
275g Baked potatoes
65g 00 Pasta Flour
10g egg yolk
Nutmeg
Salt and pepper
Bake two large potatoes in an oven until soft in the middle. Pass through a drum sieve add the egg then the flour and seasoning. Mould into required shapes and place in boiling salted water until they begin to float. Then remove from the boiling water and place in iced water. Remove from the water when cold, this should take no longer than five mins. Add a little olive oil so they don’t stick together and place on a tray.
To finish, take a non-stick pan and colour the pancetta-wrapped hare loins in a little butter over a medium heat; they will only take 2-3 minutes before you should remove them from the pan. Separately, pan-fry the gnocchi until perfectly golden brown and gently warm the carrot purée. Finally, slice the rested loins and elegantly arrange the dish on the plate with the gnocchi and purée. Remove the julienne of carrot from the iced water and, in a small bowl, toss the carrot, fresh coriander, and dandelion leaves with a drizzle of premium olive oil before serving.
Pappardelle of braised hare with winter truffles
Serves 4
200g of Jugged hare from the previous recipe
20g Winter truffles
50g Parmesan
Olive Oil
Pappardelle
250g fine Semolina
125g whole egg
Mix the semolina and egg together and work into a smooth dough. Clingfilm and leave to rest in the fridge overnight. To make the pappardelle roll the pasta through the pasta machine until it is nice and thin. Then cut the pasta by hand into strips 4cm wide and 30cm long. Once all the pasta is cut put into boiling salted water with a little olive oil for 2 minutes. Remove from the boiling water and place into iced water until cool. Then drain and add a drop of olive oil to stop it sticking together. Refrigerate until needed (this can be done the day before you need it).
Heat the jugged hare in a medium sauté pan. Separately boil a pan of water to re-heat the pasta. Plunge the pasta into the boiling water for 30 seconds and then drain off the water. Place the hot pasta into the hare mix and toss together adding the grated parmesan and a little olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and place into bowls. Finally finely but generously slice the winter truffles over the top of the pasta dish and serve.
