Home Recipes Hare loin miso noodle bowl

Hare loin miso noodle bowl

Prepared well and cooked with care, hare is a rich and gamey treat. Tim Maddams pairs the meat with Asian flavours for a touch of zing

Slices of pink, spice-crusted hare loin with rice noodles, spring onion and coriander in miso broth — Hare loin, pink in the middle, over noodles in a hot miso broth. Credit: Andrew Sydenham; iStock

Hare loin is surely one of the finest cuts of meat in the land. Usually, I tend to charcoal or pan roast these beauties, and serve them very simply indeed – sliced and drizzled with a little oil and perhaps a dash or two of sherry vinegar.

Turning hare loin into a noodle bowl

Here, however, I’ve made the hare loin into a super-indulgent noodle bowl. It is simple, very quick to make and would go down well with a few beers on a Friday night. Despite a few flavours, the hare still sings out; you always know when it is hare in a dish – there’s nothing like it.

You can, of course, mix and adapt this dish to your personal taste by adding a bit more chilli, if that’s your thing, or a seaweed sheet for a touch of the exotic. It is, after all, your bowl of noodles to have any way you wish.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Total time: 25 minutes
Serves: 2
Difficulty: Easy

Ingredients

For the spice mix

1tsp Sichuan peppercorns
1tsp coriander seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp fennel seeds
1 whole star anise
1tsp small dried red chilli
1tsp ground cinnamon

Grind the whole spices in a small electronic grinder or a pestle and mortar, add the ground cinnamon and mix together – this will keep well in a jar for weeks. The spice mix is a great ingredient to have around, but it is highly addictive.

For the rest

1 large hare loin, or two smaller ones
A little sesame oil
1tsp of the spice mix
A little olive oil
A handful of shiitake mushrooms
½ pack of rice or udon noodles, blanched and refreshed in cold water, then well drained (follow the instructions on the packet)
1dsp of miso paste – in this case I have used a fermented fava bean paste from Norfolk, dissolved in 1 pint (568ml) of boiling water and kept hot on the stove – for the broth
A handful of beanshoots, washed
2 spring onions, washed and sliced
20g fresh coriander leaves

How to make a hare loin miso noodle bowl – step by step

Step 1. Prepare the miso broth and then warm a couple of bowls – it’ll be ready in a few minutes.
Step 2. Place a good frying pan on the stove and bring to a moderate heat. Rub the hare loin with the sesame oil and ½tsp of the spice mix. Put the olive oil in the pan and cook the loin. You want a good amount of colour on the outside, leaving the meat pink in the middle.
Step 3. After a few minutes of tending the hare loin, turning it now and again, it will firm up a bit. At this point, remove it from the pan and leave on a board to rest. Return the pan to the heat.
Step 4. Halve the mushrooms by breaking them with your fingers and put them in the pan. Once they start to cook, add the noodles to the hot broth to warm through and divide them between the two bowls.
Step 5. Add the beanshoots to the mushrooms and allow them to warm through a little.
Step 6. Shred the spring onions and then slice the cooked hare loin into finger-thick slices. Place the mushrooms and beanshoots in the bowls, together with the spring onions. Top with the hare loins, pour over any remaining broth and sprinkle with plenty of the coriander leaves and the other half of the teaspoon of mixed spices.

Serving suggestion

You can put extra condiments on the table that will complement the Asian flavours if you like – soy sauce springs to mind and shredded root ginger would also work well.

Tips for hare loin noodles

Make the spice mix ahead – it keeps well in a jar for weeks. Cook the loin to a good colour outside and pink in the middle, and rest it while you cook the mushrooms. Add more chilli, or a seaweed sheet, to suit your taste.

Frequently asked questions

How do you cook hare loin?

Tim Maddams rubs it with sesame oil and a little spice mix, then pan-fries it over a moderate heat, turning now and again, until it has good colour outside and is still pink in the middle, before resting and slicing it finger-thick.

What is in Tim Maddams’ spice mix?

Sichuan peppercorns, coriander, cumin and fennel seeds, a star anise and small dried red chilli, ground together and mixed with ground cinnamon. It keeps in a jar for weeks.

What noodles work in a hare noodle bowl?

Rice or udon noodles, blanched and refreshed in cold water, then warmed through in the hot miso broth.

About the author

Tim Maddams

A chef, food writer, cookery teacher and broadcaster, Tim grew up on his family's farm in Wiltshire and cooked with Fergus Henderson, Alistair Little, Marco Pierre White and Mark Hix, and ran VIP catering for the Ferrari Formula One team in Europe, before returning west to join Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall as head chef at River Cottage in Axminster, appearing regularly on the Channel 4 series and the Fish Fight campaign. He founded Green Sauce in 2012, teaching, cooking and consulting on ethical food, and moved to Moray in 2020. He is the author of Game: River Cottage Handbook No 15 and the River Cottage A to Z, and a shooting man himself, taking woodpigeon, pheasants, duck, geese, rabbits and deer. He writes on game cookery for Shooting Times.

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Hare loin miso noodle bowl

Turning hare loin into a noodle bowl