2023 - 16-18 Age Category
Ingredients
Chestnut mushrooms x 500g
lLmon x1
Hare x1
Maderia wine 150 ml
Shallots x 3
Pasteurised egg whites x 150 ml
Cream x 200 ml
Salt x 100g
Butter x 500g
Thyme x 1 bunch
Garlic x 5 cloves
Spinach x 200 g
Ponthier cooked chestnuts x 1 packet
Cabernet sauvignon vinegar 250ml
Bay leaves x 3
Juniper berries x 5
Carrots x 2
Celery x 1
Maderia wine 150 ml
Red wine x 300ml
Chicken stock x 500ml
Oil x 100ml
Pied bleu mushrooms x 6
Sea aster x 20 g
Butcher’s twine 100 cm
Blackberries x 6
Rice wine vinegar x 50 ml
Water x 100 ml
Sugar x 50 ml
Cep powder 1 tbsp
Method
•Prepare the hare.
•First, take off the legs and store on a tray.
•Start by separating the best end from the hare and keep it aside. Prepare your saddle.
•Once that's done use the trim for the sauce. Take off the shoulders and save for the sauce too. French trim the rack of hare and remove and sinew and set aside.
•Offal farce - finely chop the mushrooms and shallots. Gently sweat the vegetables in butter and add brandy and reduce. Season with salt and cabernet sauvignon vinegar. Then leave to cool in the fridge.
•Bone out the hare thigh and add the hare meat to a blender - but not the offal. Add the egg whites, salt and cream. Whilst that's happening chop the offal meat into brunoise (maybe a few millimetres larger). Then pass the hare meat through a drum sieve and mix in the duxelles and offal.
•Saddle - blanch the spinach until it has been wilted, then form a layer around the inside of the saddle. Then pipe the farce mix, then another layer of spinach and roll tightly. Tie it in butchers' twine and put it in the water bath for 20 minutes at 55 degrees Celsius. Once finished add it into a hot pan with foaming butter and baste it. Serve it as a noisette glazed in butter and seasoned with salt,
•Sauce - Roast the hare trim at 220 degrees Celsius for 20 minutes. For the sauce chop up mirepoix (carrots, celery, shallots, and mushrooms) and put into a large pan. Sweat them all down and add the aromatics and the hare trim. Then add the vinegar and reduce until there's almost nothing, then add the Maderia and the red wine and reduce by half. Then add the chicken stock and reduce until you reach the correct consistency and check for seasoning. To finish add butter and finely chopped chestnuts.
•Rack of hare - Lightly season the hare. Then sear the hare on a very high heat for a few seconds to get a nice colour. Glaze it in the sauce and roll it in the finely chopped chestnuts.
•Chestnut mushroom and cep puree - First add the chestnut mushrooms, then add butter to a pan. Once the butter has reached beurre noisette stage add the mushrooms and colour. Once it's a nice brown colour add the cep powder and salt. Blend and season to taste with lemon juice and salt.
•Garnish - Lightly score the pied bleu mushrooms and poach it in an emulsion of water and butter. Then finish it on the barbecue and season with salt. Poach the sea aster in the same emulsion and season. Pickle blackberries. Add the vinegar, sugar, and water to a pan. Bring it to the boil and allow it to cool down. Once cool, add the pickle to the blackberries and put it in the vacuumed pack machine.