BY JOHN MACNAB

This is the second in my series of recipes using fox meat as the main ingredient. Inflation is rising, energy and food prices are going up and people are looking for cheaper alternatives to butcher meat. What better than the ready supply of free meat available from our burgeoning urban fox population? Each recipe provides a different way of obtaining your fox and in a previous article, I covered how to prepare your fox. Each recipe comes a with serving suggestions and wine pairing advice. Happy hunting!

First kill your fox

Having upset your neighbours after letting fly a few times at foxes in your garden with a shotgun and bringing the wrath of those nancies in the animal liberation front down on you, it is time to change tactics. This time I recommend using a rifle, it makes a cleaner sound and will not be as loud as a shotgun. And the perfect rifle for the task is the reliable old .22, preferably a long model. You can even fit a silencer.

If you have a hunting rifle in the cupboard that you have used to fell a stag, don’t even think about using this for foxes. Those babies fire huge bullets that, essentially, explode inside the animal. Shoot a fox with one of those and you’ll be collecting pieces of fox from your garden for weeks. And you’ll have a prominent red patch on your lawn that will only raise the neighbours’ suspicions that you are up to no good with their beloved foxes.

As with the shotgun approach the only requirement is a window overlooking your garden. Preferably a first floor window. If you followed my previous advice, you will have fitted motion activated security lights.  Lay your bait—I hope you agree that cooked meat is best—on your garden and retire to the window. Keep the window open and your gun pointing out. You are now a seasoned fox hunter so you will be aware that you need to minimise movement.

When the security light comes on, and a fox is sniffing the bait, without hesitation take aim and pop! Try to hit the fox in the head or neck. If you hit it properly it should drop like an empty sack. If you only wound it, you could be in for a long night running about in your neighbours’ gardens trying to put it out of its misery. If you feel you need a bit of practice, who not try out your skills first on a few cats. Those bloody things are always making a noise so nobody will pay any attention if you only wound one.

Skinning a fox

Check here.

Butchering techniques

Check here.

Braised leg of fox

Preparing the fox meat:

• For this recipe you will need the four legs with the meat still attached.

Ingredients:

• Fox legs x 4 (if you can find any 5 legged foxes, let me know).
• Extra-virgin olive oil (none of that old slapper stuff), 1/2 cup coarsely chopped red onion, 4 cloves garlic (minced), salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste, 1/2 cup all-purpose flour, 1 cup cheap dry white wine, 2 tablespoons tomato paste, 4 to 6 sprigs rosemary.
• Heat a large pan, brown the legs and remove from the pan. Heat the oil in the same pan and then fry the onions and the garlic and then the tomato paste. Add the wine and once that is bubbling, add seasoning to taste and add two cupfuls of water. Bring to the boil, add the fox meat and the rosemary (if you don’t have any some old grass cuttings will do) and stick it in the oven 1 hour. Oh, and make sure the oven is switched on otherwise the whole exercise is pointless.

Serving suggestion

• Fox legs goes very nicely on a bed of rice. As with the oven advice above, the rice needs to be cooked and I have no idea how to do that. Ask the wife or read the instructions on the bloody packet.

Wine pairing

• You might be reaching for that bottle of red wine or even considering finishing off that bottle of cheap dry white wine, don’t even think about it. This fine dish calls for the Dom Perignon Blanc Vintage 2012 which, at £169.00, is a bargain. Remember, the fox was free.

John MacNab is a fictional character from the eponymous John Buchan novel. He tweets @JohnMacNab10