This will serve about four people, depending on the size of the hare. I add eight or so golf-ball sized potatoes to the top of this to serve with it together with buttered, shredded, steamed cabbage or a salad.

The hare backstraps (equivalent of a beef eye-fillet) are better kept for something else. My favourites are topped with pate and wrapped in filo pastry (hare Wellington) or sandwiched together with pesto, wrapped with proscuitto, tied up and baked and sliced into medalions. Heart, liver and kidneys can go in pate.

Front and back legs of a hare, bone in (about 1kg in weight). You’ll probably need to joint the back legs to make them fit more easily in the pot.

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped

large bunch of spinach or silver beet, roughly chopped (about 250g)

thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped

1 tablespoons curry powder or paste (I use Thai green curry – you won’t need as much salt as with curry powder)

salt and pepper to taste

Coat the inside of the slow cooker with a tablespoon of oil and turn on to low. Fry the garlic and onion in another tablespoon of oil until soft but not browned. Add the spinach or silverbeet and cook until wilted. Pour the onion, garlic and spinach into a blender or food processor, add the curry powder or paste and ginger. Process until smooth. Pour a pool of sauce into the slow cooker. Add the hare thighs, a layer of sauce, the remaining meat and top with the remaining sauce. Cook on low for 6 to 8 hours. Stir a couple of times during cooking if you can.  Taste and season with salt and pepper.

You could cook this in the oven on low for about 3 hours.

Hare backstraps are the equivalent of a fillet steak – the muscle that runs down each side of the hare’s spine and make the perfect meal for two people. I could have used 250g beef or venison fillet or lamb backstraps in this recipe, instead of the hare. Cooking the meat like this keeps it moist and tender. I prefer them to remain slightly pink in the middle. To make my version of hare wellington I fried up a couple of rashers of Freedom Farm bacon with a chopped spring onion, some fresh thyme, freshly ground pepper and four flat mushrooms in some olive oil and blended to a rough paste in a blender. I curled each backstrap round in a spiral and put half the mushroom mixture on top of each. I wrapped each in two sheets of filo pastry to make a squarish parcel, sealing in the moisture and juices. I brushed the parcels with olive oil and bake on a greased oven tray for 25 minutes at 190 degrees C. I rested them for 10 minutes in a warm place (the switched off oven with the door open) before serving with buttered greens.

I had three sheets of filo pastry left over so made a couple of cheesy leek and potato flans at the same time.