Game pie

I bought 500g of game pie mix at the Winchester's Farmers Market. I have not done pie the British way before so this was a good excuse to try something new.

Darina Allen, as usual, did not disappoint. Her book had a venison pie recipe which I used.

It is delicious but it took a long time to make. I made it in stages, 3 stages overall, spanning 3 evenings. I just did not have the time to do it all in one go.

Serves: 3 persons.

Ingredients:

• 500g game (venison, pheasant, partridge, rabbit)
• For the marinade:
• 140ml red wine
• 100g onions, sliced
• 1 tbsp brandy
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp lightly crushed black peppercorns (I used a pestle & mortar)
• bouquet garni made with parsley, 1 bay leaf and thyme
• seasoned flour
• For the sauce:
• 100g bacon, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 large garlic clove, crushed
• 150ml beef or game stock
• bouquet garni
• 9 small mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Soak the meat in the marinade overnight.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Drain the meat well, pat it dry on kitchen paper and toss in seasoned flour. I found it very difficult to pat dry. You would need a lot of kitchen paper and I did not want to waste that much. Wet meat meant that plenty of flour got stuck and that did not work well later on so make sure you dry as best as you can and then lightly flour the meat.
   
3. Brown the bacon in the olive oil in a frying pan, cooking it slowly at first to persuade the fat to run, then raising the heat until crisp on the outside. Transfer to a casserole.
   
   
   
4. Brown the meat in the fat, then the onions, carrot and garlic (do this in batches, transferring each ingredient to the casserole). Do not overheat or the fat will burn.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Pour off any surplus fat, deglaze the pan with the strained marinade and pour in the casserole. As you can see, too much flour means a coat of oily flour stuck in the bottom of the frying pan. I deglazed as best as I could but avoided rubbing too much as I did not want burned flour in the dish.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Pour enough stock to cover the meat and vegetables in the casserole.
7. Add another bouquet garni, cover closely and transfer to a pre-heated oven at 150°C.
8. Cook gently until the meat is cooked. Test after 1½ hours, but you may need longer - up to 2½ hours. For best results, it is wise to cook this kind of dish one day and then reheat it the next, which improves the flavour and gives you a chance to make sure that the meat is tender. I cooked it for 2 hours and then continued the recipe the next day - the meat was cooked.
   
   
   
9. Sauté the mushrooms in olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and add to the stew.
   
   
   
   
   
   
10. Taste the stew and correct seasoning, if needed.
11. Fill a pie dish with stew. My initial idea was to use 2 pie dishes but my partner managed to use all pie dishes but one to store the quince cheese he made. I then had to use the one pie dish and improvise with a Pyrex dish.
    
    
    
12.  Cover the pie dish with puff pastry:
1. Roll the pastry into a sheet 5 mm thick. I bought a block of 500g, cut it in half and froze half. From half the block I cut it again in half and used one half in each pie dish.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Place the sheet onto the pie dish.
3. Brush the lip of the pie dish with cold water and press the pastry firmly onto the lip.
4. Trim off the excess pastry.
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Egg wash the pastry and decorate with pastry. I wasn't feeling very artistic so made geometric shapes.
   
6. Make a hole in the centre.
   
   
   
7. Bake in a 230°C oven for 10-15min, then reduce the heat to 200°C and continue to bake until the pastry is cooked and the filling is bubbling. It was done in another 10min.