AN EXCELLENT HARE STEW
A hare provides one of the best game meats slowly to stew, more so than perhaps any other. If treated correctly, it ends in chunks that hold their shape but can be cut with a spoon into flaky morsels of taste.
This is the best stew I know and is inspired by the ineffable logic of Felicity Cloake who’s series for The Guardian newspaper ‘The Best [in this case Game Stew]…’ sees her take some of the great cooks of the recent past and with no sentimentality, use the best bits of each and cut out the faff to come up with something truly worth it.
Hares are plentiful in my part of Norfolk and yet still not enough is made of them. The the bulk of the hares traditionally shot in February go for export to the continent. They are fascinating and beautiful creatures but many people turn their noses up at them thinking of past failures - the only recipes available in cook books mostly centre on thickening sauces with the saved blood for Jugged Hare. Forget about that - and try this.
If you want a stronger taste, hang your hare for a few days - the longer the stronger, but in all instances it should be gutted as soon as possible after death.
INGREDIENTS
As much of the boned out meat of 1 hare as possible, shot bits avoided
2 tbs of rape seed oil
1 good onion or 2 smaller ones
1 large or 2 smaller carrots
100g of diced pancetta
1 punnet of chestnut mushrooms quartered
1 tbs or dark soy sauce
1/2 a tbs of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 a tbs of Balsamic vinegar
3 Bay leaves (fresh if possible)
A tsp of thyme (fresh and rubbed if possible)
6 juniper berries crushed (try to include if you can)
1/2 a bottle of your favourite, reasonably priced red wine to drink (well, 1/2 to cook with, 1/2 to drink. If you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it.)
A tbs of red wine vinegar
A chicken stock pot, cube (or reduced fresh homemade stock if you are a far better human than me)
A glass of water
A tsp of cornflour slaked with a splash of cold water
A small pinch of sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
METHOD
Get an oven up to 180 deg C.
Quarter your mushrooms and marinade them in the dark soy, the Worcestershire sauce and the balsamic vinegar for 20 minutes.
Dice your hare meat into chunks you like the size of.
Get some oil ripping hot in a good heat transferring pan - this is important, cast iron is best if you have access as you want to sear, not stew the meat.
Brown the meat in batches changing oil and deglazing with some wine in between batches if bits look like burning. Save those wine deglazings in whatever vessel you keep your seared meat. Deglaze completely with the rest of the wine and reduce it by half scraping the bottom of the pan. Reserve and wipe the pan clean.
Brown the pancetta cubes - bigger cubes are better as you want nice chunks you can find in the lucky dip of a good stew. Bacon is fine if you want, but there is less end product - it’s not all about adding fat to a lean meat, it’s also about enjoying the delight of surprise in the next mouthful when the time comes to eat.
By now the oven should be hot enough for you to roast your umami bomb mushrooms so that the glaze sticks to them and ends up in the stew. Do this until they look right (about 10-15 minutes probably depending on your oven). After they are done turn the oven down to 150 deg C if you don’t have a slow cooker.
Keep the fat rendered from the pancetta or bacon in the pan and remove the crispy morsels and set aside after they have gone a nice golden brown.
Dice your onion(s) finely or cut into slivers if you like more texture in a stew and having turned the heat down to medium, get the onions into the fat. Add a little more oil if necessary. Sweat these slowly until they give up their water and start to go translucent - these is the sign that their sweetness has been revealed. Do not let them burn or even brown too much.
While the magic of onions begins, peel and chop your carrot(s) into chunks of a size that pleases you and add them to the pan also.
After about 10 minutes of the carrots going in (probably 20 minutes total) add in the the rest of the ingredients, the bacon, the aromatics (Bay, Juniper & Thyme), the mushrooms the stock pot and a glass of water or just enough to cover, and the flour and water mix as the thickener. Then the red wine vinegar and the sugar - both seem to lift the sauce that is the vehicle in which all of this goodness travels. A grind of pepper at this point too but leave out the salt until the end - only then adjust for salt with any stew. You can also add a small splash more vinegar to lift the sauce at the end too.
This all goes into a slow cooker if you have one, for 3 hours minimum. If you don’t, then an oven, turned down from the heat of the umami bomb mushrooms you roasted, to 140 deg C will do. Your may need a cartouche of baking paper cut to fit if it looks like drying out too much in the oven - this is where the slow cooker wins (they are only about £20 in a supermarket).
Like all stews this is better for being reheated and eaten the next day with crusty bread and without a white shirt.