For escalopes de
lièvre aux cerises: Remove the fillet on both sides of
the backbone of a nice hare, and wrap it in buttered
paper till wanted; meantime wrap all the flesh
from the rest of the hare, and break up the bones;
put these in a pan with a carrot and turnip, two
onions (one stuck with two or three cloves), and a
good bunch of herbs, together with a strip or two of
celery if handy, and cover this all with common
stock or water and bring it to the boil, skimming it,
and then allowing it to simmer gently but steadily
till you have about one and a half pints of stock;
have ready some thick velouté sauce made with half
a pint of the hare stock, and 1oz. each of flour and
butter, cooked together to a smooth paste and then
diluted with the stock, letting this reduce till fully
as thick as thick melted butter; season to taste with
pepper and salt, adding, if liked, a few sliced truffles
to the mixture as you stir in the minced flesh of the
hare (using two parts hare to one of the sauce), fill
a buttered mould with the mixture and poach or
steam it. Meanwhile cook the fillets of the hare, pre
viously sliced down and batted out neatly, in butter,
wine, and stock, in the usual way under a buttered
paper in the oven. Get ready the sauce by pour
ing what you have left of the stock on to a couple of
ounces or so of brown roux, letting this cook
together for about ten minutes till slightly reduced
and thickened, then wring it through a tammy or a
fine hair sieve, and re-heat in the bain-marie, adding
to it half a gill of port wine, a tablespoonful of red
currant jelly, and some dried cherries (allowing
three or four for each fillet), with a seasoning of salt
and coralline pepper; let this all simmer together
till the jelly is perfectly dissolved and the cherries
are hot, then turn out the border mould, dish the
hare fillets neatly on this, and fill up the centre with
nicely cooked French beans, or mushrooms, or any
nice garnish to taste, and pour the sauce, cherries
and all, round, and serve very hot.