Hare Soup (Soupe au Lièvre)

Ingredients

• a forequarter and a leg of hare
• butter
• a fine Mirepoix of carrot
• 30 grammes arrowroot
• 2 litres ordinary Consommé
• 3 spoonfuls an infusion of basil
• a point of Cayenne
• 60 grammes butter
• 3 or 4 spoonfuls Port wine

Instructions

1. Cut a forequarter and a leg of hare into small pieces and fry them in butter with a fine Mirepoix of carrot, onion, celery, white of leek, lean ham, parsley stalks and fragments of thyme and bay.
2. Sprinkle with 30 grammes of arrowroot, moisten with 2 litres of ordinary Consommé, and cook gently for 2 and a half hours.
3. After 2 hours, take out the pieces of leg, cut the flesh into small dice and keep them warm under a few spoonfuls of strained stock.
4. Ten minutes before the end of cooking, add the liver cut into escalopes.
5. When cooked, drain the pieces of hare; strain the stock and set it to clear for 20 minutes.
6. Meanwhile bone the pieces, pound the flesh and the liver, pass them through a fine sieve, and put the purée into the soup tureen.
7. Just at the moment of serving, finish the stock with the equivalent of 3 spoonfuls of an infusion of basil, marjoram and rosemary, a point of Cayenne, and 60 grammes of butter added off the fire.
8. Pass the stock through the chinois onto the hare purée, stirring with the whisk to dilute it well.
9. Add the reserved pieces of flesh and 3 or 4 spoonfuls of Port wine.