The following recipe is from Emilia Saenz de Vicuna


In the 1980s, a noted Guipuzcoan chef, Jose Castillo, decided to document the recipes of elderly Basque women. Seventy-eight-year-old Emilia Saenz de Vicuna from Alava gave him the following recipe.

HARE WITH WALNUT AND CHOCOLATE

 Recipe Requirements, Notes and Hints

 

 Cut the hare in pieces and fry them. In the same oil, fry an onion cut in slices and a few garlic cloves. When the onion is tender, add a sliced apple, a little flour, a little chocolate, a glass of red wine, a glass of white wine, another of water.

 Shell a dozen walnuts and crush them in a mortar, then throw the paste into the casserole with the hare. Simmer together very slowly, and when the hare is tender., remove it to an earthenware dish. Run the rest through a food mill and pour it around the hare. Let the whole thing simmer a little, then toss in a little chopped parsley and serve.

 Interest Note

 The soup was a sauce known in Mexico as mole, and it had enough appeal so that the Basques still have a tradition of cooking game birds in chocolate, just as the Aztecs had made wild turkey in mole. Basques in Alava sometimes make hare instead of game birds with chocolate, which may explain why the Caltagirone region of central Sicily, once occupied by the Spanish, has a tradition of rabbit in chocolate.

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