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Katerina's Kouzina

Agriogourouno - Wild boar


The recipe I am sharing with you might traditionally not be something you would eat for Christmas. I think though, that we can always make new traditions. Especially when eating something when it is the right season for it. Hunting season has been going on for a while, which gave me the inspiration for this recipe. Together with the fact that wild boars have been terrorizing Galatas for the last months.

Wild boars always used to live in the mountains opposite Poros, in the mountains surrounding Galatas. The hunting season for them would begin at the start of the winter and occasionally we would enjoy a wild boar recipe.

This year however, the wild boars that usually are low in numbers and don’t come down from the mountains, decided that they like Galatas town and its beaches. They descended in high numbers and have become somewhat of a plague.

Some of you might think that it 's fun seeing wild boars, however the short answer is no. It is no fun at all. Actually they are rather big and scary. If you see a baby piglet / boar and you think “omg is that cute”, you are right, but realize that you are also in danger as the mother is always nearby, and she is most of the time rather aggressive and ready to attack.

Apart from being aggressive, high in numbers and having caused multiple accidents, their favorite pastime is digging the ground with their noses. One night they dug up a part of our beachfront at our Odyssey Eco glamping, trying to breach our fence. Reason enough for my mother, who is 60 and not much taller than 1.60 in height, to almost buy a hunting rifle.

As you can imagine, the hunting rifle would probably be bigger than her, and shooting it would probably knock her off her feet. I can just not imagine my mother shooting a big gun and killing wild boars.

As a solution I thought, what if we create a great recipe for wild boar that is so great that everyone over christmas or during the winter period will try to make it. The hunters will be happy, the streets will be safer and I will sleep better knowing my mother is not out there with a gun trying to kill wild pigs.

The recipe is simple, a nice wild boar stew that has been slow cooked for hours, making the meat so soft and full of flavour that melts in your mouth. To make it extra special we are going to serve it with a combination of creamy potato puree and a smoked eggplant puree enhancing all these flavours, making it extra wintery and making the dish even more special.

I hope you will enjoy this recipe! If there are no wild boars in your area (lucky you) you can use pork, or maybe import some wild boar meat from the Galatas area!

Ps. Next time we make a pork recipe, I will tell you about the time my grandfather's pigs (Napoleon and Josephine) broke out of their enclosure and tormented Galatas town and my parents had to go catch them!

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Agriogourono - Wild boar

Ingredients

½ kilo of wild boar (pork is also ok)
½ ltr of red wine
2 tbsp of Kyknos tomato paste (you can also use other tomato paste maybe add a little sugar if you don't have Kyknos)
1 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups of diced tomatoes (fresh or canned)
1 cinnamon stick
2 tsp star anise
2 tsp fresh rosemary
2 laurel leaves
4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients for Creamy mash potato

6-8 medium potatoes
4 tbsp butter
500 ml whole milk
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp salt

Ingredients for Smoked eggplant puree

50 gr of butter
50 gr of flour
500 ML milk
1 big scorched eggplant or 2 smaller ones
salt
pepper
nutmeg

Preparation for the stew

1. Lightly flour the meat of your wild boar or pork, so it has a light coat.
2. In a large pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat.
3. When your olive oil has reached the desired heat, sear your wild boar so that you don't lose any flavour
4. Once all the pieces are seared, take them out of the pan and add your spices and garlic. Leave them for a little bit in the hot pot so you will get the maximum flavour out of them.
5. Add the 2 tbsp of tomato paste, saute that and deglaze with the red wine. Once ready you add the wild boar back to your pot.
6. Slowly add the grated or canned tomato to your pot and lower the heat. Let it simmer for 1.5-2 hours. Depending on the piece of wild boar it might need longer, for me it works the best if I put it on from the morning and it slowly cooks all day.
7. Check your stew every half hour, add water or any stock you like if needed. the meat needs to be submerged and at times.

Preparation creamy mash potato

1. Boil the potatoes till soft, drain the water, add them back in the same pot and put them back on the heat, this way all that access water evaporates.
2. Start heating up your milk and mash your potatoes.
3. Once your milk has heated up, slowly add it to your mash potatoes, don't add it all at once, add your butter in lumps, add milk until you have the consistency you prefer.
4. Since we are serving 2 purees this is a very simple recipe, if you are not going to do both purees, you could add a little roasted garlic to this recipe. This will take your puree to the next level.

(Normally I don't use any recipe for mashed potatoes, so please taste in between! )

Smoked eggplant puree

1. Scorch your eggplant on an open flame until burnt on all sides and it has become soft in the middle.
2. Start making a roux by melting your butter, slowly adding the flower to your melted butter and browning that for a couple of minutes.
3. Once the flour is browned you add the milk and keep whisking until it thickens. Now you have a nice roux.
4.Once your eggplant has cooled off, you can peel it and add it your roux, mix it in and add your salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.

When all elements are ready, you are ready for the last part: the assembly of it all. Add your potato mash or puree first to the plate and leave some space to add a light layer of eggplant puree on top. On top you add 2-3 pieces of wild boar, and some amazing sauce. Now the time has come to enjoy it.

Servings : 4 people
Ready in : 2h - 6h
Recipe Type : Christmas

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