The best Game Pie, made for Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd

Tucked away - nay, nestled - in our freezer for the last few weeks has been a pack of mixed diced Game, (being venison, rabbit, pheasant, partridge and wood pigeon), just waiting for the stars to align and for me to come up with a recipe.

Those lovely people at Farmer's Choice (Free Range) Ltd were kind enough to respond to my promise of a good Game Pie recipe and very obligingly supplied the necessary, for which, my thanks.  (Follow the link here which will take you to the relevant page of their website).  However, none of us quite reckoned on just how good this good Game Pie recipe would be.  It was more than good - it was (to quote my hubby) "a triumph".

Now bear in mind that I'm a bit of a novice when it comes to Game.

Yes, I've cooked several wild rabbits with success in the past, I've had a very bad experience with someone else's pheasant dish that was so high it was inedible and consigned two Mallards to the bin that just didn't even bear description.  So I think you could considered my experience somewhat chequered.

Undaunted, however, I had a vision of a Game Pie in my imagination and that vision was just busting to be made real.  Not a raised Game Pie (a sort of wild meat version of a pork pie) but a good old fashioned country style, hearty, stick to your ribs kind of pie.  One with a golden crispy crust that hides the cornucopia of deliciousness below.  All I can say is that I just wish I had this kind of vision more often, as the actuality exceeded expectation by a factor of many - and the expectation was pretty darned high to begin with!

I dare you to identify any one piece ... lol

I had the picture of the pie mapped out in my head from an early stage.

What I was lacking, were the links and balances between ingredients which would result in a great combination.  My starting point is always "what does the primary ingredient taste like?".  Now I have tasted venison before, but only in a sausage.  Rabbit I'm well versed in, pheasant - not so much, partridge was a new one and wood pigeon I've had once previously and loved.  So I had an idea of how the meats would taste, but only an idea.  (Incidentally, I had no compunction in eating wood pigeon having had many tubes of niger seed go down their gullets instead of into the intended goldfinches.  I considered it payback).  I knew I wanted BIG flavours, flavours that were easily accessible by most home cooks and a nice selection of herbs.  After that, it was open season.

A couple of rashers of smoked bacon were a definite, so the next question was what vegetables would go nicely and look appealing in the pie?  Good old favourites onion, garlic, carrot and celery always make a great start to a good flavoured gravy and sliced carrots add colour.  Mushrooms are excellent for flavour and baby button mushrooms look delicious, too.  I knew I wanted to use red wine, so I was looking for something to combat the acidity that the red wine would bring.  Carrots were a good start, but I needed something that would echo the earthy, whilst balancing the acidity with sweetness.  Something that would go well with Game.  Something like ... chestnuts.  Having had the chestnut idea, it led on to considering prunes.  Prunes - just a few cut in half - would lend their deep sweetness, fruity flavour and dark colour to the equation perfectly.

It was all coming together nicely.

The last question was regarding herbage.  My dislike of thyme is well documented and I felt it was too easy to just opt for that.  It's rapidly becoming today's Herbes de Provence.  Way back in the eighties, that hideous stuff was in just about every Delia Smith recipe that had been documented and as such I'm sick to death of it.  The same goes for thyme and .. whoops, narrowly avoided an anti-thyme rant.  *phew*

I remembered my two front-door herbs, rosemary and bay.  (So called because they are either side of my front door).  Both would be perfect with the wild flavours of the Game and I liked the idea of those straight away.  My mind was wandering along pine nut routes when I suddenly remembered Juniper berries.  They would provide a gorgeous aromatic quality, along with a subtle citrussy fruitiness that would be hard to pin down but very "there".  Oh yes, it was all coming together beautifully.

The pastry was an unspoken given, in that I would be using my superb (and it IS superb, I kid you not) butter/suet pastry.  Just the sheer fact that it contains suet qualified it for the job, but the deliciously crisp lightness of the end result was absolutely spot on.

I added a few more ingredients over the course of the cooking process - the spoonful of tomato puree both for colour and fruitiness, the Knorr stock pot for its invaluably deep, dark colouration and excellent flavour - and I can safely say that each and every ingredient became as important as the next in the production of the pie.

Yes, it is basically a day-long labour of love to make this pie - but oh my gosh it is worthwhile.  Taken in stages, the process becomes an easy matter which I grant you is time consuming, but not difficult.  If you're looking for a dish with which to impress (and you could easily prepare the pie filling ahead of time and freeze it - which would make things a whole lot easier) you don't need to look much further.

"The nicest pie - both filling and pastry - I've had in many a long year" was my hubby's verdict. I think he liked it.

Perhaps not surprisingly, I have a few Cook's Tips for you.

The most important thing is not to rush this pie.  Give yourself a complete day in which to produce it if you're intending on making it all in one day, as it does take time.  Cutting the oven time short will only result in a potentially tough or undercooked filling that has none of the deep, developed flavours that a long oven bake will bring.

Don't make the pastry until the filling is made.  That way the pastry has a shorter time to wait and won't deteriorate in the fridge.

Don't be tempted to add the pastry to the pie until the filling is, at worst, luke warm or at best, stone cold.  Any significant heat will instantly melt your pastry, which will dissolve distressingly before you can get it into the oven.

Lastly, don't be scared to add a good deal of black pepper.  It gives a lovely warmth to the sauce that lingers on the tongue like a delicious echo.

You're also in luck that August is currently within Game season  - so invest in some mixed Game and tuck it away for a rainy day that can only be salvaged by the application of delicious Game Pie.  Your family will thank you.


GAME PIE     (Serves 3-4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp olive oil
10g butter
500g mixed Game, diced  (I used venison, rabbit, pheasant, partridge & wood pigeon)
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1 large carrot, half finely diced, half sliced small
1 stick celery, finely diced
2 rashers back bacon, diced
10 small round shallots
150g small button mushrooms, left whole
3 bay leaves
1 tsp fresh rosemary
8 juniper berries, crushed well
200ml red wine
1 heaped tsp tomato puree
1 Knorr rich beef stock pot
500ml water
10 semi dried prunes, halved
100g chestnuts.

For the pastry :

150g plain flour
50g vegetable suet
50g cold salted butter
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
Carbonated mineral water as necessary.

1 egg yolk to glaze.

Method :

In a deep frying pan, heat the olive oil and add the butter.  When the butter is frothy, add the game and sear over a high heat with a tiny pinch of sea salt and a good pinch of black pepper.  Just get two or three sides of the meat coloured, then remove to an ovenproof casserole dish, using a slotted spoon.

Add the chopped onion, garlic, carrot (both sizes), celery and bacon to the pan.  Season with a small pinch of sea salt and black pepper.  Fry over a moderate heat until the onion is transparent and the bacon fat has begun to render.

Add the whole shallots and button mushrooms and increase the heat under the pan.  Fry until everything has gained a little colour - around five minutes, or so.

Add the bay leaves, rosemary and crushed juniper berries and stir through.

Add the red wine and tomato puree, stir through and allow to boil rapidly for 2-3 minutes, then reduce the heat to moderate and add the beef stock and the water.  Stir through again to ensure the stock has melted properly.

Simmer the pan contents for 10 minutes, then taste for seasoning and add more salt or pepper, as necessary.

Add the prunes and chestnuts.

Decant into the casserole dish and gently stir to mix the game through.

Cover the casserole dish and place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 2 hours.

Once the cooking time is up, decant the casserole contents into your pie dish, cover lightly and set aside to cool.

Make the pastry by gathering all the ingredients except the water (and egg) into a large bowl.  Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour and suet, until you have a cross between breadcrumbs and cornflakes.  Add around 100ml of water and stir with a knife.  You will probably need a little more water, but what you are looking for is that the pastry dough just clings together and is damp, not wet.  Do not knead the dough at all, just pat and push it together then place onto a sheet of cling film and wrap tightly.  Rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before using.

When your dough is rested and your filling lukewarm, roll out the pastry to just bigger than the size of your pie dish.

Using a pastry brush, brush egg yolk around the lip of the pie dish.

Carefully lift the pastry on top of the pie, so that it overhangs the edge.  Using the tip of a knife, press down all around the edge then trim off the excess.

Brush all but a small amount of the remaining egg yolk over the surface of the pastry, taking care to go right to the edges.

Cut out some leaves or other decoration from your leftover pastry and lay them on top of the egg wash.  Brush egg onto the leaves.

Take a sharp knife and cut some holes into the pastry to allow the steam to escape.

Place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/350degF/Gas 4 for 35-40 minutes until the pastry is crisply golden and the filling is bubbling hot.

Serve with buttered new potatoes and vegetables of your choice.

Printable version

Slow cooked Cumberland beef stew with donkey carrots

When I first set out to make this meal, it was supposed to be a crispy topped Cumberland pie.  However, I ran out of puff part way through it - and discovered how yummy just the beef part of the recipe could be on its own.

As with a lot of my recipes these days, this one has taken bits from several different recipes.  However, the original inspiration came from the BBC Good Food website and their Crispy topped Cumberland pie.

The original version was made with feather blade beef, however I opted to use our favourite shin of beef because a) I was going to be slow-cooking it and b) the flavour of beef shin is amazing.  However, this plan back-fired on me this time around - as you'll discover later.

I liked the idea of the sliced potatoes on top, along with the baked to crispiness cheese coating.  Cheddar always goes so well with beef, they are a real comfort food pairing.  I was a bit nervous about the sliced potatoes, however, as I've not had a lot of luck with them in the past.  They either wind up still hard (not long enough in the oven) or turn black and unappetising looking (wrong type of potato, left too long before baking).  You see, I know what I did wrong in the past - so I was determined not to commit any of these crimes this time around.  Hubby always greets the idea of sliced potato on top of a savoury dish with great scepticism, so I not only had my own failures to beat, I had his expectations to exceed too.

Swimming around happily

When it got closer to the time when I would make the transfer from the slow cooker to the oven, I think I had got myself so wound up over the potatoes failing (again), that I just opted for the easier route and didn't bother.

The marriage of beef and cheese is what makes a "Cumberland" something, Cumberland.  So, rather than miss the whole point of the recipe, I remembered seeing Jamie Oliver adding some grated cheese to a beef casserole - and did the same.  It was very definitely counter-intuitive to be grating cheddar into a beef casserole, but for all that it didn't taste obviously of cheddar cheese, it very definitely made a difference in both flavour and texture.

I must pause here and comment on the carrots.  You see, carrots have such a fundamental part to play in British cooking.  They appear on so many plates over the course of a lifetime's meals, yet rarely do you see anyone doing anything exciting with them (apart from the occasional carrot cake and maybe a carrot & coriander soup).  Now, I'm not saying that adding them to this stew was exciting, but if we could just have a little bit of appreciation here for the 'umble carrot in all its many forms, I think it would be appropriate.  The carrots used in this stew were the big fat donkey carrots.  None of your thin, springtime carrots, or your fancy Chantenay carrots.  Oh no.  What you need are big, fat, coarse carrots that are going to stand being cooked for a long time and have loads of sweetness to impart.

I love the name "donkey carrots" and have been wracking my brains to try and remember where I first heard the term.  It was either care of Raymond Blanc on his "Kitchen Secrets" programme - he is so funny in this programme! - or with Michael Caines during his carrot episode of the Great British Food Revival.  Either way, "donkey carrot" just suits this great big honking lump of carrotiness perfectly - and "donkey carrots" they shall be, for me, in future.  (I can remember when I owned horses and a donkey, buying a 25kg bag of just these type of carrots, for their feed!  More than one of them went home with me and wound up on my plate!).

Now, what was the end result like, I hear you ask?  Well, I loved it, son & heir loved it but hubby - oddly - couldn't take the texture of the beef shin.

See what I mean by connective tissue?  Can't trim it all out!

I'm really not sure what the difference was, as we've had and eaten beef shin on many other occasions and he hasn't experienced the same problem, plus I didn't notice any difference in the meat as I was trimming it up.  Trimming up beef shin is always a labour of love, so I very definitely went over it with a fine toothcomb for yukky fat and globby bits.  Shin of beef contains a lot of connective tissue, which during the course of slow cooking melts into the gravy and gives it a very rich, almost glutinous texture.  It makes me wonder if the addition of the cheese to the gravy didn't just push the texture over the edge of palatable for hubby, as he really is so terribly sensitive to soft textures in food.

For me, the cheese made the gravy incredibly savoury, rich and unctuous along with giving it a certain indefinable and very pleasant something.  I really liked the carrot and the combination of onions and celery had just melted away into the gravy.  I used my favourite Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot to provide a good amount of additional "oomph!" to the gravy base - they really are indispensable to me, now.

That oddly coloured carrot on the right, is a purple carrot!

So all in all, I'd very definitely do this recipe again - but I think I'd choose something like Brisket of beef, or perhaps Silverside (depending on the price!), both of which have far less connective tissue and thus would make it palatable for hubby.  After all, there's no point spending all that time trimming, cooking and serving if he can't eat it!

SLOW COOKED CUMBERLAND STEW WITH DONKEY CARROTS   (feeds 4)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp rapeseed oil
6-700g beef brisket (or braising cut of your choice)
2 big donkey carrots, peeled and chopped into chunky pieces
2 onions, chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
3 bay leaves
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 Knorr Really Beefy Stock Pot (or a beef stock cube)
1 tsp Bovril
half a tsp of freshly ground black pepper
500ml hot water
1 tbsp softened butter
2 tbsp plain flour
a large handful of grated mature cheddar cheese.

Method :

1.  Heat the oil in a frying pan until really quite hot.  Add the beef - you may need to do this bit in stages, so as not to overcrowd the pan - and sear until you have a good dark golden brown colour on at least two sides.  Decant into the slow cooker with a slotted spoon and turn it to low, making sure to replace the lid.

2.  Add the carrots to the slow cooker and replace the lid.

3.  Add the onion to the frying pan (you may need a touch more oil) and cook gently for 5-6 minutes until softened, transparent and just beginning to take on colour.

4.  Add the celery and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes.

5.  Add the bay leaves, tomato puree, tomato ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, stock pot (or stock cube, if using), Bovril, pepper and water and stir gently to combine as it heats through.

6.  In a small dish, mix the butter and flour together.  Remove the frying pan from the heat and add a teaspoonful of the flour mixture to the gravy.  Stir well to ensure it mixes in without forming lumps.  Continue until you have the consistency you prefer - less flour mix for thinner, more flour mix for thicker.

7.  Return the pan to the heat and stir until properly thickened.

8.  Decant into the slow cooker.  Replace the lid and leave to cook for the next 8-10 hours.

9.  Just prior to serving, remove the lid and using the slotted spoon, move the meat to one side of the slow cooker.

10.  Add the grated cheddar to the non-meat side and stir it gently into the gravy.  Once melted, stir the meat back in to the cheesy gravy.

Serve.

Printable version
 

Introducing ... Hampshire Hash!

Many years ago - longer than I care to remember - my friend Linda Hessell and I went on a Western Horse Riding weekend at Burley in the New Forest.  I was in my teens and it was my first holiday away without my parents.

When I think about it, we were babes in the wood really - but we took care of each other and managed to emerge unscathed at the end of the weekend, having had a great time.

Funny how sometimes your world turns in ways that return you back across tracks you've already travelled.  Some thirty five years (oh darn, there, I've remembered!) and eight house moves later, I find myself living within a twenty minute drive of Burley and have been past the same riding stables several times.

There are many reasons for remembering this holiday fondly, not least being the food - which was fabulous.  They had a housekeeper/cook who fed us all really well at the end of each day, with lashings of comfort food when we were all starving after riding across the New Forest and trying to look like we knew what we were doing.

Two recipes stand out from the weekend, firstly the Corned Beef Pie that I blogged back in December 2011 and this Hampshire Hash.

Now it is very probable that the affection with which I remember the holiday, may have something to do with where these two recipes stand in my memory.  My liking for Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie are well known - and Hampshire Hash fits very neatly into that category.

Before going into the oven ...

However, it had been some while since I last made Hampshire Hash as it had evolved into something which wound up being rather greasy - and occasionally, with semi-cooked potato cubes on top.  You can just imagine how much Hubby enjoyed that combination!

I'd been hankering after having another go at Hampshire Hash for some time and had been pondering on how to ensure a) it wasn't greasy and b) the potato was cooked.  I thought I had a plan and hubby agreed to give it a try, so we were set.

.... and after.  Mmmmnn!

Now previously, I will admit to not skimming the fat from the minced beef once it was browned - which obviously contributed a lot to the grease.  So that was an easy change - to fry the mince to the point where all the water had evaporated, the fat was rendered down and the mince was caramelising - then skim off the fat.  Sorted.

Now the potato aspect to the dish also had some input into the grease element.  Basically, you toss the potato pieces in a combination of full fat mayonnaise (low fat is just disgusting once cooked) and tomato ketchup.  Sounds a bit odd, but it works.  However, too much mayonnaise and you'll find it releases a lot of grease once it warms up.

So I decided to split the par-boiled potato pieces into two groups.  One which sits on top of the mince and absorbs the gravy - and the remainder which gets the mayonnaise/ketchup treatment and goes on the top.  That way, you still get the lovely flavours, with much less mayonnaise involved.

Well, it worked up to a point.  Interestingly, even though I put the minced beef in the casserole dish at a high temperature and added the plain potato pieces immediately, the ones with the mayonnaise on them cooked far more quickly.  I suspect this is because a) they were on top and b) the oil in the mayonnaise helped to "fry" them - and at a higher temperature than the ones underneath.  So we wound up - still - with some pieces of potato being noticeably harder than others.

So my cunning plan - reflected in the recipe below - is to leave one half of the potato pieces to cook for longer at the par-boiling stage.  I figure that if you start off with them slightly ahead of their mayo-coated brethren, everything should finish at the same level.  Also, make sure you give them the full three-quarters of an hour in the oven, to get that lovely caramelised edge to the potato pieces.

I really like this dish.  As a change from your regular Shepherd's Pie and Cottage Pie, it fits the bill well.  Especially as the minced beef part to it is flavoured differently - with curry powder and cinnamon - to add to the interest.

Oh and one other point - take care not to over-salt the dish.  The addition of curry powder can give a similar effect to salt, so you can afford to be sparing.

Hubby gave this version the thumbs up as regards grease and overall flavour, so I think I've probably succeeded where that is concerned.  Son and heir polished off his plateful, having been somewhat doubtful about how hungry he was to begin with - so that's another vote of approval.

I served ours with steamed carrots, butternut squash, peas and sweetcorn - but it would go with just about any vegetable of your choice.

HAMPSHIRE HASH   (feeds 4-5)

Ingredients :

3 or 4 large Maris Piper potatoes, peeled
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped finely
500g lean minced beef
3 chestnut mushrooms, chopped finely
1 large celery stalk, de-stringed and chopped finely
1 heaped tsp Madras curry powder
half a tsp ground cinnamon
200g tin of Heinz baked beans
1 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot (or a low salt beef stock cube)
200ml hot water
a good pinch of ground black pepper
1 dessertspoonful of mayonnaise (don't use low fat - it's horrid!)
1 dessertspoonful of tomato ketchup.

Method :

1.  Put a large saucepan half filled with water and a little salt added, on to boil.

2.  Cut the potatoes into dice of approximately 1cm - and try to get them evenly sized, so that they cook evenly.

3.  When the water boils, put all the potato dice into the water and cook for 3 minutes.

4.  Remove half the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place into a bowl - allow to cool.

5.  Cook the remaining half for another minute or so.  Drain and replace in the saucepan.  Allow to cool.

6.  Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the onions.  Fry gently until softened and golden.  Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and put onto a plate.  No need to keep them warm, as they'll be back in the pan in a moment.

7.   Place the minced beet into the pan and turn up the heat to maximum.  Fry the beef until all the water has boiled off and the fat has reduced.  The beef should be beginning to caramelise.

8.  Reduce the heat to moderate and push the beef to one side.  Spoon off a good nine tenths of the fat - and discard (or give to the dog!).

9.  Return the onions to the pan, together with the mushrooms and celery.  Cook until the mushrooms have taken on the remaining oil and the celery is softening.

10.  Add the curry powder and cinnamon.  Stir through and continue cooking for 1-2 minutes.

11.  Add the ketchup, baked beans, stock pot (or stock cube) and water, along with the pepper and stir through.  Allow to simmer - stirring occasionally - until the ingredients have all combined nicely and a good gravy has formed.

12.  Decant the meat mixture into a casserole dish.

13.  Sprinkle the extra-cooked potatoes from the saucepan, on top of the meat mixture.  Don't mix them in - just allow them to sit on the surface in a single layer.

14.  Add the mayonnaise and ketchup to the potatoes in the bowl, and stir through taking care not to break up the potato cubes.  The potatoes should be well covered.

15.  Sprinkle these potatoes over the top of the plain ones and settle them into an even layer.

16.  Bake at 180degC/340degF/Gas 4 for 35-45 minutes or until the potatoes are beginning to become browned and crispy.

Serve with your choice of vegetables.

Printable version