Venison pie
A traditional pie with a slight twist
You need (for 10 to 12 hungry people)
· 2 cups buttermilk
· 1,5 kg venison leg or shoulder, cubed
· 125 g rindless bacon, chopped
· 1 tablespoon butter (no, not margarine)
· 1 big onion, chopped, plus another onion into which you stick 5 cloves
· 3 big garlic cloves, chopped
· a little cooking oil
· 500 g lamb shanks (the twist in the recipe)
· a little cake flour
· 2 bay leaves
· 2 tablespoons ground coriander
· 2 cups beef stock
· 1 cup red wine
· salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
· 1 roll ready-made puff pastry
· 1 egg, beaten
Here’s how
1. Pour buttermilk over the meat. Cover the dish and marinate the meat in the refrigerator for about 24 hours.
2. Using a big pan with a lid, fry the bacon in the butter. Add the chopped onion and garlic, and stir-fry until tender and translucent.
3. Using the same pan, heat a little oil and cook the lamb shanks until golden brown. Remove them from the pan.
4. Sprinkle flour on the venison cubes and fry a few blocks at a time until golden brown. Put all the venison in the pan and add the lamb shanks, the onion-and-bacon mixture, the onion with cloves, the bay leaves, the coriander, the stock and the wine. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Heat everything to boiling point. Lower the heat, put on the lid and let it simmer for 3 to 4 hours or until the meat is tender and the lamb falls from the bone. Add more liquid if necessary.
6. Let it cool down and remove the bones and the whole onion. Flake the meat.
7. Preheat the oven to 230 ºC. Ladle the meat into a big pie dish and top with puff pastry. Paint the pastry with a little beaten egg and prick it with a fork to allow steam to escape.
8. Bake for 15 minutes. Lower the heat to 180 ºC and bake for another 30 minutes.
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