Game pie
By Donna Ross
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 2-3 hours
Serves 5-6
Lapsang souchon tea may sound like an odd ingredient in a casserole or pie but it works brilliantly with game, particularly venison. I was introduced to the idea by a venison stall holder at the Edinburgh Farmer's Market and I've found it brings a lovely smokiness with tasting of tea. The pancetta lardons add some much needed fat to the casserole and cured pork is another winning flavour with game.
This can be a one pot meal if you have a cast-iron pot or large lidded sauté pan that can also go into the oven.
160g pancetta lardons
1 onion, diced
2 stems of celery, diced
8 juniper berries, crushed
500g game pie mix
2 tbsp plain flour
3 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
1 cup of strong lapsing souchon tea
250ml red wine
250g puff pastry
You will need a large lidded saucepan or sauté pan, and also a pie dish if you want to transfer the mix to a different receptacle for the pie part.
1) Fry the pancetta lardons over a medium - high heat until beginning to brown and some of the fat has melted. Reduce the heat a bit and add the onion and celery and fry with the lardons for about 5 minutes until the onions are translucent, and both onion and celery have softened. Add the juniper berries and the game pie mix and fry gently until bits of the meat have begun to brown. Sprinkle over the flour and some salt and pepper, and stir round to coat everything in flour. Add the carrots, tea and wine, and stir round. Top up the pan with some water until everything is covered with liquid and add some salt and pepper. Put a lid on the pan and turn the heat very low. Leave it to gently cook for a couple of hours by which time the game will be tender and yielding. Taste for seasoning and add more if you want.
2) At this point you can serve it as a game stew (it would be lovely with some herby dumplings cooked on the top for half an hour), or proceed to making a pie!
3) If the gravy hasn't thickened as much as you'd like, thicken it now with a little cornflour and water made into a paste and briskly stirred in while the sauce is at simmering point. Either transfer the filling to a pie dish, or if your cooking receptacle is oven safe, save on washing up and top the filling with the pastry lid as it is..
4) Roll out your pastry to roughly the size and shape of your pie dish. Gently place the rolled pastry over the mix, and trim/tuck any start edges away. If you have trimmings, make a pretty little decoration for the top (or just throw them away!). Brush the pastry with some milk or egg wash, and bake in the oven at 180c for 30 minutes, or until the pastry is risen and golden.