Clove Club serves hare à la Royale, a gutsy seasonal dish

Hare arrives at Clove Club as a dish for those with a genuine appetite for wildness. The strongest of the British wild meats, it carries the flavour of its untamed diet into the kitchen, demanding respect and understanding from both cook and diner alike. This season the restaurant has reimagined the traditional Jugged Hare, a British classic with European cousins, by composing it across three separate courses that build in intensity.

The hare’s legs and shoulders become a miniature à la Royale, braised until their fibres yield to the fork. The loin, by contrast, arrives barely kissed by heat, sliced thin and still blushing rare. A splatter of damson purée, blood red and tart, sets the emotional tone on the plate. Blood plums join it in slices, their own darkness echoing the sauce that follows: a reduction built on smoked bone marrow and housemade prunes, thickened with the animal’s blood as tradition demands. The diaphragm intact upon delivery, this reserve is carefully kept and stirred through at the last moment, binding everything with depth and richness.

A small amount of Jerusalem artichoke and potato purée arrives by the waiter’s hand at the moment the plate reaches the table, finishing the composition with earthy sweetness and ballast. The dish calls for Barolo or Barbaresco, wines substantial enough to meet hare’s gamey insistence. It is the kind of food that announces itself as serious, uncompromising, and designed for those who understand that true luxury often lives in intensity rather than restraint.

Imagery courtesy of Clove Club (@thecloveclub).