Roast wild boar with molasses, white beans, brown sugar & mustard

Roast wild boar with molasses, white beans, brown sugar & mustard

Winter

This immensely satisfying combination of boar and beans is cooked gently for hours, until the beans are soft and the meat is fork-tender. I once cooked a version of this dish in a great cast-iron pot in the glowing embers of a fire that we regularly stoked and raked as the hours of the evening passed. It turned out beautifully and we ate it around the smoky warmth drinking golden cider, with blankets around our shoulders. This version is cooked in the oven, but the principle is the same: a gentle, unrushed heat brings the best results. Mustard and molasses give the boar a dark, sweet flavour I really like. If you can’t lay your hands on boar, use pork instead. You’ll get something equally delicious.

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 25g (1oz) soft brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon molasses
  • 2 teaspoons crushed coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • 1 tablespoon English mustard
  • 1.5kg (3lb 5oz) wild boar (or pork) belly
  • 200g (7oz) dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight in water
  • 6 thyme sprigs
  • 4 rosemary sprigs
  • 8 bay leaves
  • 1 garlic bulb, halved around its circumference
  • 1 litre (1¾ pints) pork stock or chicken stock
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

There’s not much of a method here, which is great. By simply combining a few things and whacking them in the oven, you’ll have a feast far greater than the sum of its parts.

Heat the oven to 150°C/300°F/gas mark 2. Mix the sugar, molasses, crushed coriander seeds, chilli and mustard together into a thick paste. Rub this all over the boar and set aside.

Drain the soaked beans and place them in a large, deep roasting tray that is big enough to hold the boar, too. Add the herbs, garlic and stock and give it a shake. Nestle the boar, belly down, into the beans and cover loosely with a sheet of greaseproof paper, or foil.

Place the roasting tray in the oven and cook the boar for 2½–3 hours, or until all the stock has been taken up by the beans and the boar is lovely and tender. (You may want to give everything a stir once or twice during cooking.) Remove the tray from the oven, then scoop out the boar and set aside on a plate. Season the beans in the tray with plenty of salt and pepper, giving them a good stir as you do so. Squeeze the soft garlic from its skin and work this through the beans, too.

Serve spoonfuls of the beans alongside hunks and shards of the tender boar meat. Enjoy with good bread – and good wine.

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