GLORIOUS GAME

Recipes from 101 chefs and food writers

Glorious Game is a cookbook filled with delicious recipes from 101 of UK and Ireland’s best-loved chefs and food writers.

In an age of climate change, sustainability, dwindling food sources and obesity, game could be a solution for helping tackle these problems, head on. Game is an incredibly healthy source of food and much leaner than farmed meats, due to the natural diets of the animals and their active lifestyle compared with farmed animals. There’s no intensive farming and game is often locally sourced.

The book includes dishes that use the whole range of game with a unique collection of recipes that are achievable for the home cook, with everything from

a simple but brilliant game sandwich to a classic venison Wellington; also with some recipes requiring a fair bit of know-how, specialist kitchen equipment, a lot of time and advance planning.

All proceeds from this book will directly benefit The Moorland Communities Trust and The Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust. Both of these organisations exist to protect and promote the rural way of life that enables game to thrive.

We hope you enjoy the recipes!

Pappardelle with hare, red wine & cacao regu

GIORGIO LOCATELLI

Serves 4

1 hare, cut into 12 pieces Marinade
1 bottle Chianti or other full-bodied red wine
1 carrot, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 celery stalk, roughly chopped
1 tsp black peppercorns, lightly crushed
1 tsp juniper berries, lightly crushed
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf 1 garlic clove

For the ragu

50g plain flour
sea salt and freshly black pepper
2 tbsps olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
4 juniper berries, crushed to a paste
1 bottle Chianti or other full-bodied red wine
1 litre good chicken stock
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh rosemary
10g 90–100% cacao, grated
600–800g fresh pappardelle
a little butter

The trigger for this recipe is the typically northern Italian way of braising hare (lepre) in salmi.

They put a hare into a wine marinade with onions, celery, juniper berries and rosemary, to soften the flavour of the strong-tasting meat as well as tenderising it. Then the important thing is to let the hare cook very slowly.

Then, they add some of the cacao into the sauce, and some over the hare at the last minute. As the cacao falls onto the hot serving plates, there’s an explosion of chocolate aroma that you breathe in before you even taste the pasta, to which the cacao adds richness rather than flavour.

Ask your butcher to cut the hare for you, following the joints and taking care not to smash the bones, in case they splinter.

Put the hare into a bowl. Mix together all the ingredients for the marinade and pour over the meat. Leave in the fridge for 24 hours. When you are ready to cook, remove the hare from the marinade and keep the meat to one side.

Bring the marinade to the boil in a pan, then take off the heat and pass through a fine sieve into a bowl.

Have the flour ready in a shallow bowl. Pat the pieces of hare dry and season them, then dust in the flour. Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the hare and colour on all sides, taking care not to burn the flour, then lift out and keep to one side.

Put the chopped vegetables and juniper berry paste into the pan and cook gently until soft. Pour in the Chianti and allow to bubble up to evaporate the alcohol, reduce the liquid by half.

Put the hare back in the pan and add the reserved marinade and enough chicken stock to cover. Add the bay leaf and rosemary. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat, stir in half the cacao and simmer for two hours.

Take out the hare and strip the meat from the bones. Keep to one side. Reduce the cooking liquid to a sauce consistency, then return the hare meat to the pan.

Cook the pappardelle in plenty of boiling salted water for three to four minutes (if using dried pasta check the timing on the packet).

Drain, reserving the cooking water, and toss through the hare rag , adding a touch of butter if you like, plus a little of the water to loosen. Finish with the rest of the grated cacao.

Partridge, red wine, poached pears & chestnut crumble

MONICA GALETTI

Serves 4

Partridge

1 whole partridge, plucked and innards removed
2 rashers of thin streaky bacon olive oil, for cooking and dressing
1 tbsp salted butter
3 Brussels sprouts, leaves separated
4 cooked chestnuts, thinly sliced sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chestnut puree

125g cooked chestnuts
1tsp butter
250ml chicken stock

Pears and sauce

2 small Conference pears
400ml red wine zest and juice of 1 orange
80g granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
2 cardamom pods
1 star anise
200ml brown chicken stock
knob of butter

1 tbsp crushed pistachios
1 tbsp chopped cooked chestnuts
1 tbsp crushed feuilletine biscuits

I love partridge. It’s a bit more delicate and less gamey than some other wild meats, and so quick and easy to cook. You’ll find it from September until about February in the UK. Be really careful not to overcook it.

For this recipe I’ve paired it with pear and chestnut: it works really well and adds a lovely winter spice, especially combined with the crunch of the bacon and crumble.

For the partridge, remove the legs and wings, keeping the breast on the bone.

Wrap the bacon around a stainless steel baking rod or mould and cook, turning, under a hot grill until crispy; set aside.

For the chestnut pur e, put the chestnuts and butter in a pan and cook until coloured, then add the stock and simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. Blitz until smooth, adding extra stock if needed. Keep warm.

For the pears and sauce, peel the pears and place in a small pan with the wine, orange zest and juice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and star anise. Bring to the boil, then simmer until cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Leave to cool in the liquid, then remove and reserve the pears. Strain 200ml of the cooking liquid into a pan and reduce to a thick consistency. Add the stock and reduce to a good sauce consistency, then remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Set aside and keep warm.

Preheat the oven to 190 C/375 F/gas mark 5. Heat a nonstick ovenproof frying pan and drizzle in a little olive oil. Place the whole partridge skin side down in the pan to colour. Turn over and sear on the other side. Add a knob of butter and transfer to the oven for 5 to 6 minutes, then remove and leave to rest for 5 minutes before removing the breasts.

Pour out the cooking butter from the pan, add a fresh knob of butter and heat until just bubbling. Add the crumble ingredients to the pan and stir into the butter. Spoon over the partridge breasts. Quickly toss the sprout leaves in a little oil or butter seasoned with salt and pepper.

To serve, cut the pears into pieces your preferred size. Place some chestnut pur e on a plate. Place the partridge, bacon and the pears on the pur e and sprinkle the sprout leaves over and around. Finish with a drizzle of the sauce, serving the rest on the side.

Details:

Hardback. Dimensions: 230x320x35mm
Publisher: Face Publications
ISBN: 978-0-9558930-7-0 RRP: £40

Contact:

For further information please contact:
gloriousgame@saucecommunications.com

Face Publications:

Project Manager: Anthony Hodgson anthony@facepublications.com
Tel: +44 (0)113 203 7378