CookEat Recipe
Cold Hare Pie with Truffle and Cured Tongue
A pastry-enclosed hare pie with a fine hare-and-veal filling layered with meat strips, cured tongue, prosciutto and black truffle.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: Half a legally supplied food-grade hare, about 1 kg with bones but without head or feet, professionally skinned and eviscerated; 230 g lean veal, trimmed and very finely minced; 95 g butter for the filling and mould: 30 g for braising, 30 g for the thick white sauce, 30 g for finishing and 5 g for greasing; 80 g ready-to-eat cooked cured beef tongue; 80 g prosciutto fat, finely chopped; 50 g prosciutto in a thick slice for strips; 30 g thin prosciutto slices for the top layer; 60 g black truffle, brushed clean; 30 g plain flour for the thick white sauce; 300 ml Marsala: about 200 ml for the marinade and 100 ml added later; 2 eggs for the filling; About 125 ml milk; About 700 ml ready-to-use broth, added as needed; ¼ large onion, roughly chopped; ½ carrot, roughly chopped; 1 celery stalk about 20 cm long, roughly chopped; A few parsley stalks; 2 bay leaves; Salt and black pepper; 250 g plain flour, plus a little for rolling; 80 g cold butter for the pastry; 2 teaspoons potable food-grade alcohol, about 10 ml; 2 teaspoons sugar, about 8 g; 2 egg yolks for the pastry; Juice of 1 lemon wedge, about 1 teaspoon; 5 g salt for the pastry; Cold water, only if needed to bring the dough together; 1 additional egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water for glazing.
Step 2
Use professionally prepared, legally supplied hare without internal organs; do not wash raw meat. Remove an intact 80 g piece of lean loin or similar meat and set it aside. Carefully bone the rest, reserving the bones for extracting flavour into the cooking juices. Cut the remaining meat into pieces. Put all the hare meat, including the intact 80 g piece, in a covered container with about 200 ml Marsala, the onion, carrot, celery, parsley stalks and bay leaves. Season and refrigerate at 4°C or colder for about 3–4 hours, turning occasionally. Keep the very finely minced raw veal separately refrigerated.
Step 3
Drain the hare, reserving the marinade. Put the hare meat, reserved bones and drained aromatics in a heavy pan with the 80 g chopped prosciutto fat and 30 g butter. Brown over moderate heat, turning often. Add the reserved marinade gradually, bringing it to a full simmer, and then some broth as needed. Cover and braise gently for about 1½–2 hours, until the hare is tender and at least 74°C. Remove the intact 80 g piece as soon as tender and keep warm for the strips.
Step 4
Remove the rest of the hare meat from every bone. Strain the cooking juices through a fine cloth-lined sieve, discarding all bones, bone fragments and coarse aromatics. Do not pound bones into the edible filling. The bones supply flavour through the strained juices. Cut the reserved cooked 80 g hare piece, the 50 g thick prosciutto slice and the cooked cured tongue into strips slightly more than half a finger thick.
Step 5
Pound or process all the remaining cooked hare meat to a very fine paste, moistening as needed with strained juices, the remaining 100 ml Marsala and a little broth, without making it runny. Press the paste through a fine sieve. Make a thick white sauce by melting another 30 g butter, stirring in the separate 30 g flour and gradually adding the milk; cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Let cool briefly, then mix in the hare paste, the refrigerated raw minced veal, two beaten eggs and the last 30 g filling butter. Adjust seasoning by cooking a small test portion completely to 74°C before tasting; never taste the raw mixture.
Step 6
Make the pastry while the filling cooks. Rub the 80 g cold butter into the 250 g flour, then add the sugar, 5 g salt, two yolks, the potable food-grade alcohol and lemon juice. Add cold water a little at a time only as needed for a firm but rollable dough. Use alcohol sold for food or drink, never denatured alcohol. Work briefly until combined, cover and refrigerate for about 30–60 minutes. This is an estimated mixing and resting method for the source ingredient formula; do not taste raw dough.
Step 7
Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease a hinged pie mould of about 2 litres with the separate 5 g butter. Roll the pastry to about 3 mm thick, reserve a lid and small bow, and line the base and sides, sealing the joins. Cut the black truffle into hazelnut-sized pieces.
Step 8
Make three layers of the fine filling alternated with the hare, prosciutto and tongue strips and the uncooked truffle pieces, spreading them evenly and pressing gently so the pie is compact. Cover the top of the filling with the 30 g thin prosciutto slices. Put on the pastry lid, seal its edges and cut a central steam vent. Brush with the extra yolk-and-water glaze. Shape the small bow from reserved pastry and put it separately on the tray.
Step 9
Bake for about 60–90 minutes, until the pastry is cooked through and golden and the centre of the raw-veal-and-egg filling reaches at least 74°C. Bake the small bow alongside for about 15–20 minutes, removing it sooner. Put the cooked bow over the vent after the pie comes out. Allow steam to subside briefly, remove the hinged mould and divide into portions if needed for rapid cooling. Refrigerate promptly in shallow containers within 2 hours, at 4°C or colder, until cold throughout, about 4–5 hours. Serve as twenty small cold-course portions and eat within 2–3 days.
Step 10
For the half-butter puff-pastry alternative, replace the entire short-pastry batch with dough made from 250 g flour, 125 g butter for laminating, another 20 g butter mixed into the initial dough, about 1¼ tablespoons brandy, a little salt and about 110 ml water as needed. Mix the flour, extra 20 g butter, brandy, salt and enough water for a medium-firm dough. Knead for about 30 minutes, shape into a rectangle and rest for 15 minutes. Flatten the separate 125 g cool pliable butter into a rectangle, enclose it completely in the rolled dough and seal. Roll into a rectangle three times as long as wide and fold into thirds. Make six such turns, resting about 10 minutes between turns and chilling whenever the butter softens. Make the seventh and final fold in half, then roll to the thickness needed to line and cover the pie, about 3 mm. Keep cold until assembling, brush yolk glaze only over the top rather than cut edges, and bake fully with the same filling temperature check. Allow about 3 hours extra preparation, which can partly overlap the marinade.
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