To make a good civet, choose a good hare or "book" of about 5 to 6 pounds and make a very fragrant marinade.
Skin your fresh hare, collect the blood in a bowl with half a liter of red wine to prevent it from curdling.
Cut the hare into pieces, remove the nerves well with the tip of a knife, set aside the liver, basting it with a spoonful of oil so that it does not dry out.
In a large deep dish, arrange your pieces of hare, on which you coarsely chop 4 peeled onions and 1 carrot, sliced as finely as possible. Add 2 sprigs of thyme, 1 crushed bay leaf, 2 cloves, 10 juniper seeds. Season with pepper, cover with the rest of the wine and leave to marinate for 48 hours.
Brown the fine fat and the pieces of ham or ventrêche in a large cast-iron casserole dish or in an earthen toupin; add the pieces of hare, brown them on all sides and flambé with a good glass of Armagnac. Sprinkle with flour, brown a little more, stir and pour over the marinade and 3 large ladles of broth.
Salt, pepper, nutmeg.
Let simmer over low heat and covered for 2 to 3 hours, depending on the age of the hare. All you have to do is stick a fork in the thigh of your hare to judge the tenderness of the game.
Chop and pound the liver, add it to the stew and pour the blood over the pieces of hare; complete with 2 tablespoons of redcurrant jelly.
Leave to cook for another 20 minutes without boiling.
Warning:the hare has a fragile flesh and it is not very presentable to serve a dish where the pieces are undone. You can always cook the sauce longer, never the meat.
For this purpose, remove the pieces of hare when they look as good as cooked, and set aside. Dip them back when serving in the sauce passed through a sieve, very hot and creamy as desired.
