Wild boar with plums

The wild boar is the favorite and most difficult hunt of hunters in northern Greece (Macedonia, Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, Central Greece).

The wild boar is an omnivorous animal, which lives an average of ten years in the dense deciduous bush forests - oak, chestnut and beech - and in full growth reaches 170-200 kg. It feeds mainly on acorns, chestnuts, various fruits and nuts, roots and bulbs which it digs out of the ground.

He becomes dangerous when he is going to defend his little ones or when he is injured. This is why hunting is dangerous, as there have even been fatal injuries to hunters by wild boars.

If for men it wild boar hunting It is a pleasant adventure -especially when it takes place in a snowy environment-, for housewives cooking is a first class opportunity to show their art.

Wild boar is much more like meat healthy (less fat and cholesterol) than pork and is cooked with potatoes, onions, but, in my opinion, its apotheosis is with plums and potatoes as I tried it cooked in the hull at tsipouro cauldron by George Karavasilikos, in Megali Panagia, in in front of Mount Athos in Halkidiki.

Recipe for wild boar with plums

Ingredients:

• 1 kg wild boar (cut into pieces)
• 250 gr. plums (dried, seedless)
• Onions (sliced)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper
• Potatoes

For the marinade:

• 1/2 cup vinegar
• Red wine
• 2 sprigs of celery
• orange slices with peel
• thyme
• oregano
• clove
• onions
• carrot
• Bay leaves
• olive oil
• black pepper
• allspice
• cinnamon
• carnations
• nutmeg

Instructions:

In a large bowl put the pieces of wild boar together with the carrots, onions, celery and all the spices. Add the wine and cover the bowl well with a transparent film. Put it in the fridge for 24 hours to absorb the aromas of the marinade. About every 6 hours we turn the pieces to get everything wet evenly.

In a separate bowl put the plums in the red wine for an hour.

Saute the drained meat in a saucepan, then sauté the onions and then the solid marinade ingredients, mixing them with a spatula. Quench them with the marinade liquid and add the meat and the sautéed onions. Bake for 90 minutes at a moderate temperature of 150 degrees.

Then we put them in a hull where they are simmered at a temperature of 120-130 degrees. An hour before the end of the cooking in the hull, we put the potatoes that were cooked on their own and half an hour before the end we add the onions and the plums.