Civet de senglar

Ingredients

Marinade

• 1.2 kgwild boar shoulder, cut into 5 cm cubes
• 750 mldry red wine
• 1onion, quartered
• 1carrot, thickly sliced
• 2bay leaves
• 4thyme sprigs
• 10black peppercorns, cracked
• 6juniper berries, crushed
• 3 tbspolive oil

Stew

• 60 gpork lard or 60 ml olive oil
• 2onions, finely chopped
• 1leek, white part only, sliced
• 4garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 tbspplain flour
• 400 gtinned tomatoes, crushed
• 1cinnamon stick
• 20 gdried ceps, soaked in 200 ml hot water
• 500 mlwater
• 1.5 tspsalt

Picada

• 30 gtoasted hazelnuts
• 20 gblanched almonds
• 1 sliceof country bread, fried in olive oil
• 1garlic clove
• 30 gdark chocolate, 70% cocoa
• 15 gflat-leaf parsley

To serve

• 600 gsmall potatoes, peeled and sauteed in lard until golden

Directions

1. Combine the boar with every marinade ingredient in a non-reactive bowl, cover and refrigerate 24 hours, turning twice.
2. Lift the meat out and dry each cube hard on a cloth; wet meat will not brown. Strain and keep the wine, discard the marinade vegetables.
3. Melt the lard in a heavy casserole over high heat and brown the boar in three batches, 8–10 minutes each, until deeply coloured on all faces. Set aside.
4. Drop the heat to low, add the onions and leek and cook 20–25 minutes, stirring often, until this sofregit is jammy and brick red, not blond.
5. Stir in the garlic and flour, cook 2 minutes, then add the tomatoes and cook 10 minutes more, until the mixture pulls away from the base of the pan and the oil separates.
6. Pour in the reserved wine and boil hard for 5 minutes to drive off its raw, metallic edge.
7. Return the meat with its resting juices, add the strained cep liquor, the mushrooms, cinnamon and water; it should just cover. Bring to a bare tremble.
8. Cover and cook in a 150°C (300°F) oven, or on the lowest flame, for 2 hours 30 minutes to 3 hours, until a skewer meets no resistance in the connective tissue.
9. Pound the hazelnuts, almonds, fried bread, garlic, chocolate and parsley in a mortar to a coarse paste, loosen with a ladle of the cooking liquid and stir it into the pot.
10. Uncover and simmer 15 minutes until the sauce coats a spoon and gleams darkly. Season, rest overnight if you can, and serve with the sauteed potatoes.

Technique

• A true civet is finished with the animal’s blood. If your butcher can supply 100 ml of boar or pig blood, whisk it in off the heat and never let it boil again or it curdles. The chocolate in the picada is the accepted modern stand-in used by most Andorran restaurants.
• Wild boar is lean and sinewy. Anything under two and a half hours will be tough; judge doneness by the collagen giving way, not by the clock.
• The picada is the Catalan thickener and must go in at the very end. Boiled for long it loses its nutty perfume and the sauce turns pasty.

Substitutions

• No wild boar: pork shoulder with 200 g of ribs for body, plus four extra juniper berries to mimic the gamy edge.
• Dried porcini stand in for ceps one for one; 200 g of fresh trompetes de la mort, added in the last 20 minutes, are closer to the Andorran autumn version.

Variations

• Civet de cabirol, the same treatment with roe deer, braised 30 minutes less.
• Served over trinxat, the Pyrenean cabbage and potato mash, instead of potatoes.

History

Wild boar stewed in the French civet style; boar hunting remains a regulated autumn tradition in the Andorran valleys.

Frequently asked questions

What is Civet de senglar?

Civet de senglar is a soup & stew from Andorra: wild boar stewed slowly in red wine. Wild boar stewed in the French civet style; boar hunting remains a regulated autumn tradition in the Andorran valleys.

How long does Civet de senglar take to make?

Civet de senglar takes 40 min of preparation and 24 hr marinating plus 3 hr 30 min of cooking. The recipe makes 6 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Civet de senglar?

Yes, within limits. No wild boar: pork shoulder with 200 g of ribs for body, plus four extra juniper berries to mimic the gamy edge. Dried porcini stand in for ceps one for one; 200 g of fresh trompetes de la mort, added in the last 20 minutes, are closer to the Andorran autumn version.

What is the most important thing to get right in Civet de senglar?

A true civet is finished with the animal’s blood. If your butcher can supply 100 ml of boar or pig blood, whisk it in off the heat and never let it boil again or it curdles. The chocolate in the picada is the accepted modern stand-in used by most Andorran restaurants.