Glazed wild boar with double-sided Hasselback potatoes

"One of my earliest food memories is of reading comic books about the Viking adventures of Asterix and Obelix and thinking how delicious the glazed wild boars looked that they would eat. Finally, I’ve fulfilled a dream in cooking a boar like that. The double-sided Hasselback potatoes use a Japanese technique to re-invent a Swedish classic – they might just change the way you make potatoes forever." Adam Liaw, Destination Flavour Scandinavia

• serves

  6

• prep

  40 minutes

• cook

  3 hours

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp caraway seeds, coarsely ground
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp sea salt flakes
• 2.5 kg wild boar leg
• 8 thin slices (about 250 g) boar or pork back fat or bacon
• flat-leaf parsley, to serve
• elderberry or redcurrant jam or jelly, to serve

 

 Hasselback potatoes

• 1 kg small potatoes, such as Dutch cream or kipfler, peeled
• 100 g butter, melted
• 50 ml grapeseed or vegetable oil
• sea salt flakes, to season

Glaze

• 110 g (½ cup) white sugar
• 50 g unsalted butter

Sweet and sour cabbage (rodkal)

• 50 g butter
• 1 red cabbage, halved, core remove and cut into 1 cm slices
• 55 g (¼ cup) sugar
• 125 ml (½ cup) apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp sea salt flakes
• 80 g (¼ cup) elderberry or redcurrant jam
• freshly ground black pepper

Resting time 30 minutes

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150°C. Combine the caraway seeds, mustard, garlic and salt in a bowl. Place the boar leg into a large roasting pan, then spread with the rub to coat. Lay the strips of back fat all over the top of the leg to cover and secure well with toothpicks. Roast the boar for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to 120°C and roast for a further hour or until the internal temperature reaches 49°C.

For the hasselback potatoes, place a thin chopping board on top of a larger chopping board (this ensures your knife doesn’t cut all the way through the potatoes). Place a potato on the bottom chopping board and with you knife resting on the top board, then slice the potato diagonally two-thirds of the way through in slices 2 mm apart. Roll the potato over so that the cuts are facing the board and repeat on the other side. If you cut on the same angle, the cuts on each side will be perpendicular to one another and the potatoes will not be divided. Repeat with the remaining potatoes, then place into a large roasting pan. Combine the butter and oil in a bowl, then generously drizzle over the potatoes and toss to coat. Season well with salt and set aside until ready to cook them.

For the glaze, place the sugar and 60 ml (¼ cup) water in a saucepan over medium-low heat, swirling the pan until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat to medium, continue to swirl the pan for about 10 minutes until a golden caramel. Whisk in the butter until combined. Carefully whisk in the whisky, a pinch of salt and another 60 ml (¼ cup) water, taking care as the mixture may spit and bubble, then set aside.

For the sweet and sour red cabbage, melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Cook the cabbage for 5 minutes or until slightly wilted. Add the sugar, vinegar and salt and simmer, covered for 45 minutes. Uncover the pot, stir through the elderberry or redcurrant jelly, grind over the black pepper and cook for a further 5 minutes.

Once the boar has reached 49°C in internal temperature, increase the oven to 200°C. Carefully remove the boar from the oven and brush well with the glaze. Return to the oven together with the potatoes. Cook the boar for a further 20-30 minutes, glazing every 10 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 53°C at the thickest part. Remove from the oven and set aside to rest for 30 minutes. Transfer the potatoes to a higher shelf in the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes or until golden and cooked through, tossing the pan halfway through.

Serve the boar with the potatoes, cabbage, parsley and elderberry or redcurrant jelly. 

Photography, styling and food preparation by Adam Liaw.

Visit the Destination Flavour Scandinavia program page for recipes, videos and more.

View recipes from past seasons: Destination Flavour Down Under, Destination Flavour Japan, Destination Flavour S1.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.