How I cook hare loins - easy wild hare recipe

Using the HikMicro Alpex 4K day/night scope

Firstly, I assume that if you're looking for a hare recipe you're either a hunter - hello fellow hunters and huntresses - or you have a butchers or farm shop nearby that sells wild hare meat - lucky you!

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Wild Brown Hare Management

In my opinion, brown hares are some of the most beautiful game animals that we see in the UK. Although not a popular animal to hunt, they can cause a menace to crops especially in areas where predator control is not effective, and therefore can be considered a 'pest' to farmers. For some land owners, they also cause a problem in the form of attracting poachers, who damage their fields with their vehicles.

For me, the saddest part about this (apart from the fear and pain the animal suffers from poachers) is that the majority don't eat the meat, they just do it for sport. And those who know me, know that I'm all about the hunter gatherer experience - which means I hunt to eat! My first time eating hare was such a pleasant surprise, considering all the stories I' heard about the taste being an 'acquired' one. It has instantly become one of my favourite game meats ever, and I am so grateful to have found a new source of sustainable food for me and my family that I can harvest myself, the way hominins have for literally millions of years - hunting.

You can read more about the best practice for shooting hares on the BASC website here.

With that said, let's get cooking!

Ingredients

Wild Hare Recipe Ingredients

• 1 or 2 brown hare loins/back straps (1 loin feeds 1-2 people)

• 3-4 garlic cloves and handful of juniper berries, crushed

• tablespoon of cranberry sauce/redcurrant jelly

• 2 table spoons of gravy granules

• 2-3 sprigs of rosemary and salt/pepper/mixed herbs to taste

• large glug of sloe gin or sloe whisky (I used Fox Denton)

• squeezy honey & cumin powder (for carrots below)

• 2 large carrots, cut into fingers

• handful of asparagus tips

• 3 large potatoes, cut into inch sized cubes

  
  

(this is for a meal that I made recently, please change the last 3 vegetable ingredients to your individual preference)

Method - Veg

~ Pre-heat oven to 190 degrees (fan)

~ Put carrots in one baking tray, cover with a drizzle of oil, drizzle of honey, sprinkling of mixed herbs and cumin and bake for 35 minutes turning occasionally.

~ Put potato cubes in another baking tray, cover with a generous drizzle of oil, salt, pepper and mixed herbs, bake for 35 minutes turning occasionally (you can add a couple of crushed garlic cloves to this if you fancy)

~ Add the asparagus tips to the potatoes 15 minutes before the end of cooking time with an extra drizzle of oil.

Method - Hare loins and gravy

~ Heat a little oil and butter in a frying pan on medium/high heat.

~ Add the rosemary sprigs, crushed garlic and crushed juniper berries, and fry for a couple of minutes.

~ Add the hare loins and cook for approx. 3-4 minutes either side (for medium rare).

~ Remove loins from the pan and set aside to rest

~ Add the sloe gin/whisky to the pan and reduce for a couple of minutes

~ Add the cranberry sauce/redcurrant jelly, mixing in for 2-3 minutes

~ Add the gravy granules with a little water, stir until you reach desired thickness

Slice the hare loins and plate up with the roasted veg, strain the gravy into a gravy pot or spoon the gravy straight from the pan over the plates - and enjoy!

You can watch the beginning of my hare cooking journey here - harvesting my own wild brown hare in Yorkshire last month.

Nicole Moore, hunting for hare. Wild hare management using .22 rifle, HikMicro Alpex 4K scope and Condor thermal