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GTB · Bushton Bushwacker Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 2206 Status:

Game pie.

In my stock pot I have Snipe, Rabbit, Pheasant, venison and wood Pigeon simmering away in a home made red wine sauce along with shallots, cubed home made panchetta and fresh bay leaves and thyme. It also has a good glug of brandy which I used to flambé the meat with. It has just had some mushrooms added which were gently fried in butter until brown.

After the game has been slowly simmering away for a few hours you need to take out all the meat and mushrooms. Pick off all the meat from the joints and cut into small pieces - most of the meat just falls apart anyway it's so tender. Make sure you remove the tendons, bones and skin from the meat.

You should end up with something like this. The bowl on the left is a meaty mixture of snipe, rabbit, pheasant, wood pigeon and venison. It also has the panchetta, mushrooms and onion in it. The bowl on the right is the remnants.

Now thicken your sauce. By turning up the heat and adding crumbs of buerre manie (50/50 flour and butter) this will thicken to a desired opacity.

Add your meaty mixture to the thickened sauce and check for seasoning. Keep on a low heat until you have made your pastry.

Now's the time to fill those pies!!

For the first two pies I am using puff pastry which I have bought - cheating I know. Simply roll out your pastry and line out your tin/dish with the game mixture.

Only fill the mixture to the top of the tin and then put a layer of the rolled puff pastry on top. Brush over with some beaten egg and make a small hole in the pastry to release some heat and steam from the mixture when it is cooking.

Pop the pie into an oven set at 220c and cook until golden. They should come out looking something like this.

Here is the night's endeavours. The other pies were made with home made short crust pastry.

It's a great way to use up a load of game which normally sits in a freezer until you re-discover it 5 years later. The pheasant which I used were not in prime condition to be roasting birds because they either had broken up legs or were a bit shot up - so I whipped the breasts of and any good legs which were on offer. I've always got a bit of rabbit and pigeon about and the snipe was just a luxury tit-bit along with the venison. It's not an overly expensive pie to make really because the meat never cost me anything, just a half bottle of red wine and a good glug of Brandy.

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Local lass · Calnetalk Oracle Joined: 05 Jun 2007 Posts: 4792 Status:

lloks good .surprised you put puff pastry on the bottom of the pie.i would do a short bottom and a puff top.
let us know how they tasted.