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Citizens, I am a tremendous fan of Hungarian cuisine, wine and song – few people have hit the trifecta as well as the Magyar! 🙂
One recipe, rich and delicious, that is near and dear to my heart is Gombás Vaddisznótokány – wild boar stew, a dish using game that has now become very common in the country. Add in the wild mushrooms found in abundance throughout Hungary’s forests, as well as paprika, demiglace and sour cream? Heaven!
As noted on naturhun.co.uk:
Wild boar hunting is the most popular hunting experience for hunters in Hungary. Hunting them from lookouts or by stalking is the most beautiful by moonlight.
The only European representative of he boar family is the wild boar, also resident in our country, which is traditionally from Europe, Asia and the northern part of Africa, but it has been settled in North- and South-America too.
The most populous knuckled beast of our woods can be found primarily in Transdanubia, in the Northern Mountain Range and in the Pilis (the famous hunting area of the former Hungarian kings), but now they can be regularly spotted at the Great Plain as well.
The habitat of the wild boar is the broad-leaved forest with widespread underwood, wet ground, swamp and marshland. You can find this game in coniferous wood, bushy terrain and sometimes at reedy lake-shore and in fields. In the daytime, the animals rest on large corn- or sunflower-fields, and they only go out to the woods at night to dig for food. After a rain it likes to stay in the fields and meadows as well, looking for worms.
Thanks to being widespread and its reproduction abilities, today the wild boar is a species, which is available in Hungary for all the hunters, both on individual or collective hunts.
Wild boar hunting is the most popular hunting experience for hunters in Hungary. Hunting them from lookouts or by stalking is the most beautiful by moonlight. The careful behaviour, good hearing and smelling ability of the wild boar and its intelligence makes hunting them a real challenge.
For smaller groups, the driven hunt is a popular hunting experience. In some areas you can also hunt fallow or red deer, mouflons and Roe deer cull, besides the wild boar. Sometimes you might hit a fox or very rarely a golden jackal, of course. This type of hunting method is done within a small area, with a few hunters participating, without using dogs.
The top of the wild boar hunting in Hungary is the well organized driven hunt in wintertime. The big drive is hold in a big terrain with a large number of professional drivers, beaters, dogmen and boarhounds.
When driven hunting for boar, you cannot shoot at other animals, your prey might only be varied by some fox and golden jackals. Wintertime driven hunts organised in the snow are an unforgettable experience, when you are listening to the barking dogs chasing the approaching wild boars, waiting still for the wild boar pack to appear, or to spot the carefully escaping hermit boar.
There are some fenced areas, where the daily bag can be between 50-200 pieces. The wild boars inside the fences are not one bit tamer than those outside the fences, because the animals are captured from the wild, and the professional hunters take special care that the wild boars do not get used to the proximity of man.
Should you be fortunate enough to have access to wild boar – you will find few dishes that match Gombás Vaddisznótokány in savor! You can of course make this with regular pork, but try and use an heirloom breed as opposed to factory-raised pork. My version is resolutely traditional.
Battle on – the Generalissimo
The Hirshon Hungarian Wild Boar Stew – Gombás Vaddisznótokány
Ingredients
- 4 ounces smoked bacon, diced
- 1 pound wild boar shoulder (preferred, or just use heirloom pork), trimmed and cut into small pieces, as you would do for stir-fry
- 2 tablespoons smoked sweet Hungarian paprika
- 1 large carrot, peeled, diced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 8 ounces top-quality fresh wild mushrooms (chanterelles or morels, for example), diced
- 2 ounces dried porcini mushrooms
- 2 cups homemade chicken stock
- 2 cups demiglace (4 cups of unsalted veal stock reduced by ½)
- 1 cup full fat sour cream, Daisy brand strongly preferred
- 1 tsp minced fresh mint
- 2 tsp. minced fresh thyme
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Soak dried mushrooms in the chicken stock (heated to boiling first) - soak mushrooms until supple and re-hydrated. Save stock and mushrooms, if any sand is in bottom of bowl, discard it.
- Cook meat: Brown bacon in a heavy bottom pot on medium heat. Add wild boar or pork, stirring often until cooked through. Add paprika, carrots, onion and garlic. Continue to stir ingredients until paprika dissolves.
- Simmer: Pour in white wine and reduce heat to a simmer. Allow white wine to reduce by half.
- Cook mushrooms: Add fresh and re-hydrated mushrooms and cook until soft. Incorporate the chicken stock and demiglace. Reduce the liquid by half until slightly thickened. Gently fold in sour cream, thyme, mint and season to taste.
- Pairs well with potatoes, rice and pasta.
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