Wild Boar Ragout with Morels

Ingredients

• tarragon
• Zest of half an orange (unprocessed)
• 40 ml rapeseed oil (cold-pressed)
• 300 g small shallots
• 400 g baby carrots
• 1 kg wild boar meat (ham or shoulder)
• 3 tbsp Rapeseed oil
• Sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tbsp Raw Sugar
• 1 tbsp Tomato Paste
• 250 ml dry red wine
• 500 ml game stock
• 40 g cornstarch
• 1 Tbsp crushed juniper berries
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 clove of nutmeg
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 100 g fresh morel mushrooms (or 10 g dried)
• 1 tbsp Rapeseed Oil

Instructions

1. 1.

   Prepare the tarragon-orange oil: wash and dry tarragon, remove leaves and finely chop. Cut stems into small pieces. Wash and dry an orange; peel its zest thinly with a paring knife. Warm the zest with rapeseed oil and tarragon stems to about 80 °C, then cool. Strain through a sieve and mix with the tarragon leaves.

2. 2.

   Preheat the oven to 120 °C (fan). Peel shallots. Wash, trim, and optionally peel carrots. Cut the wild boar meat into 4 cm cubes; sear in rapeseed oil, remove from pan, salt and pepper. Add shallots and carrots to the same oil, sauté, then glaze with sugar.

3. 3.

   Add tomato paste and stir until lightly browned. Deglaze with a splash of red wine and reduce. Repeat this process three or four times until all wine is evaporated. Fill the remaining liquid with game stock, bring to a boil, and thicken with a slurry of cornstarch and water. Place spices in a small sachet or tea bag, seal, and add to the sauce along with the meat. Bring everything to a quick boil, then cover and simmer in the oven for 2–3 hours until tender.

4. 4.

   Clean the morels: remove stems, halve them, rinse under running water, then pat dry on kitchen paper. If using dried morels, soak in lukewarm water, halve, rinse again, and dry. Sauté the morels in rapeseed oil for about 2 minutes, seasoning with salt. Plate the ragout, season with vinegar, salt, and pepper, and serve alongside the morels and tarragon-orange oil. Pair with wide ribbon pasta.