Glossary H
Hallacas refer to boiled Tamales made with beef, chicken or pork, and cheese and other ingredients.The Hallaca is the main Venezuelan Christmas dinner dish and is considered to be Venezuela's national dish. Hallaca combines the indigenous bananas leaves, a rich Spanish filling of beef, chicken, pork, olives and vegetables, with aromatic African spices. Hallaca's origin is unclear. It is theorized that they could could have invented from the Spanish colonists homesickness for their tasty and elaborate meals. This is shown by the similarity between the Venezuelan's Hallaca and Spain's Empanada Gallega, a pasty from Galicia. The filling is basically similar, with maize substituting for flour and the banana leaf wrapping.
Hare is a large relative of the rabbit with a darker flesh and gamey flavor. Rabbit has a creamy white flesh , while Hare's flesh is dark with a strong taste. It is a particularly lean meat rich in proteins and calories.
Hare is small mammal (60 centimetres and 3.5 kilos on average) from the Leporidae family. Like the wild rabbit, the Hare (lepus) differs from the latter by its russet-colored hide, black tipped ears longer than the head, with hind legs more developed than the forelegs, allowing it to take great leaps (up to 3 metres!). Furthermore, it does not dig burrows and lives in forms barely concealed in a fold of land. Hare feeds and mates at night. Like Wild Rabbit, the Hare is herbivorous and feeds on grains and plants in woods, fields, meadows and vineyards. When food is scarce, it will eat the bark of young trees.
In France, the two main hare breeds are the common hare also known as brown Hare and the variable hare, which has the particularity of changing colour with the seasons. They are found across Europe and through to East Asia.
Hare is cooked differently depending on the age: when young, Hares are roasted or pan fried and when older, they are cooked in a civet, stew or terrine. However, the most subtle recipe is still Hare à la Royale with foie gras and truffles.