21 Dec Hare In Designer Beer recipe
St. Peter’s Red Bury ale casserole – Hare in designer beer is one of my favourite ways of preparing hare. It gives a lovely rich flavour to the casserole, which is perfect for a cold winters day. You can use many different types of beer, but a cherry flavoured or red one gives it a sweeter taste. For this recipe I have used a Suffolk beer from St. Peter’s Brewery based at St. Peter South Elmham, near Bungay in Suffolk. The brewery itself was built in 1996 and is housed in an attractive range of traditional former agricultural buildings adjacent to St. Peter’s Hall.
The beer comes in a flask-shaped bottle and is a faithful copy of one produced c. 1770 for Thomas Gerrard of Gibbstown, just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia. The original is now kept at St. Peter’s Hall and is a rare example of an oval Eighteenth Century beer bottle.
When you go to the website of St. Peter’s Brewery you will notice they have quite a few recipes and suggestions how to use the beer in cooking, but no recipe with the Ruby Red Ale. So here you go. Many recipe books suggest marinating hare before you prepare to soften the meat. Often the marinade is used as a basis for the sauce. However it is actually not necessary for the fillets and the casserole of the other parts of the hare, but for the legs, I think it is necessary.
Ingredients for 2
2 legs of hare
1 dessertspoon of red wine vinegar
1/2 bottle beer
2 hands full of chopped carrots
4 crushed junipers
4 crushed peppers
1/2 fresh bay leave
2 chopped onions
1 sprig of thyme
1 clove
1 clove of garlic
100 gr. of smoked bacon bits
1 hand full of prunes without pits
100 ml game fond
15 gr. butter
How do you make it?
Start off by marinating the legs. Rinse the legs with cold water, dry them and season them with pepper and salt.
Put the legs in a bowl and add the ingredients about from the fond and the butter. Put it away in a fridge overnight.
Take out the hare and dust them with flour. Fry the legs on both sides until brown and add them to a casserole. Then fry the bacon until light brown, add the bacon, the game fond and the marinate, the prunes to the hare and cook it slowly in the oven on 180 Degrees. It should take about 1,5 hours until ready. If you notice, that the sauce is becoming dry you can add a bit of beer and fond.
Serving suggestions: mashed potatoes, pommel dauphinoise, spiced red cabbage, sprouts or if you like to be a bit more adventurous; oriental spiced cabbage.
Enjoy!
Gerla
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