The A - Z of Animals you can eat and how.

I is for Ibex!

I'm glad they use the oft-overlooked nutric system of measurement in this one.

Braised Ibex

Ingredients:

* 2 1/4 pounds (1 k) of Ibex
* A bottle of red wine
* An onion
* A carrot
* A rib of celery
* 2 sprigs sage
* 2 sprigs rosemary
* A bunch of thyme
* 3 cloves
* 1/4 pound (100 g) cured lard or pancetta
* A walnut-sized piece of butter
* Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:
Tie the herbs together, making a bouquet garnis. Coarsely chop the carrot, onion and celery and line a deep bowl with them. Lay the meat over the vegetables, together with the bouquet garnis and the cloves, and pour the wine over all. Cover and marinate; if the animal was wild the marinating time will be a couple of days. If it was instead farmed, figure about 4 hours. In any case, turn the meat several times as it marinates.

Come time to cook the meat, remove it from the marinade and pat it dry. Filter the marinade and bring it to a gentle simmer. Chop the lard or pancetta, heat it in a pot, and add the meat, turning it so as to brown it on all sides. Continue cooking the meat over a gentle flame, adding the hot marinade as necessary to keep the meat from drying out, until it is fork tender. At this point transfer it to a platter, let it sit for a minute or two, and slice it; spoon the pan drippings over it and serve it with steaming polenta.