Wild Hare meets UTee

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 1 rabbit(s), skinned, gutted and cut up ready for cooking
• 30 juniper berries
• 6 allspice seeds
• 10 carnations
• 10 peppercorns, black
• 5 tbsp olive oil
• 2 glasses of red wine
• 1 jar port wine
• 0.2 liters of crème fraîche
• 2 tbsp jelly (currant or raspberry)
• salt and pepper
• ½ liter chicken broth
• 250 g mushrooms (wild mushrooms)
• 1 liter of water

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 1 hour

A whole animal, individually prepared

Separate the hare legs (if you haven’t already done so) into thighs and drumsticks. Remove the salmon and fillets from the back. Layer all the pieces in a porcelain or glass dish (including the carcass). Roughly grind half of the juniper berries, the allspice berries, cloves, and peppercorns and rub them well over the meat. Drizzle with olive oil, massage in well, and refrigerate overnight. Sear the meat, without the boned back pieces and carcass, in a roasting pan until crisp on all sides. Deglaze with the red wine and port, add the fruit jelly, and the remaining crushed juniper berries. Roast in the oven preheated to 180°C for two hours. After one hour, reduce the temperature to 130°C. Baste with the cooking liquid frequently, topping up the liquid occasionally with chicken stock. Meanwhile, brown the finely chopped back carcass in a little olive oil, deglaze with 1 liter of water, and simmer for about 1 hour. Strain through a sieve and remove any excess fat, then reduce to about 0.5 liters. This simple stock will be needed later for the sauce. Once the cooking time is up, remove the meat from the roasting pan. Cool the oven to 75°C and return the meat to the oven on a platter to rest. In an iron skillet, sear the back salmon all over, then briefly add the small fillets. Remove the skillet from the heat and place it in the oven at 75°C for 10 minutes (where the rest of the meat is already resting). In a saucepan, sauté the mushrooms in a little oil. Use the stock prepared from the carcass to boil off the pan juices from the roasting pan, strain it, remove any excess fat, and add it to the mushrooms. Blend the crème fraîche with a little hot liquid and add it to the sauce. Season to taste. The legs and knuckles are braised and tender, the salmon is tender pink and juicy. Serve with bread dumplings (see my recipe) and cucumber salad.