This recipe comes from the 2004 Hamiton winner, Rosso.

This dish uses a whole hare butchered into its parts – legs for the rillettes, saddle to serve and carcass for the stock. Ask your butcher for help with this. Hare is available from Easterbrook Farms.

• For the hare rillettes
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 hare legs, dusted with flour
• 1 carrot, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 sticks of celery, diced
• 1 litre chicken stock
• 400g can whole peeled tomatoes
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• home-made kawakawa shortcrust pastry for baking
• sautéed hare saddle for serving
• sautéed cavolo nero and onion for serving
• roasted yams for serving
• jumping juniper berry and hare sauce for serving

Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan. Add the hare legs to the pan and brown well. Remove the legs to a high-sided roasting dish. Add the vegetables to the pan and sauté until soft. Deglaze the pan with chicken stock and then add the whole peeled tomatoes and herbs. Bring to the boil and then transfer this mixture to the roasting dish. The liquid should almost cover the hare legs.

Cover the dish with foil and braise in a 200ºC oven for about 2 1/2 hours. The hare is ready when the meat starts to fall away from the bone.

Allow to cool and then shred the meat with a fork, discarding the bones. Mix the meat with the cooking liquor and vegetables. Season to taste.

Make a kawakawa short crust pastry by moistening flour and butter with a strained kawakawa ‘tea’ infusion. Line small pie dishes with the pastry, fill with the hare rillettes, cover, glaze and bake until golden.

Serve pies hot with sliced, sautéed hare saddle, sautéed cavolo nero, roasted yams and jumping juniper berry and hare sauce, a rich, juniper-flavoured chicken and hare stock reduction that has been finished with red wine and redcurrant jelly. Serves 4. Serve with Monteith’s Black at cellar temperature.