Old-school venison pie with juniper, rosemary & bay
This is a beautiful pie and the kind of dish that makes me dream of good home cooking. We're filling the pie with venison, which will cook to be delicious, tender and sumptuous. After all these years of cooking, a meal like this still gets my pulse racing. For a bit of a treat, use 500g of pastry and line the bottom of the pie dish - just make sure you cook it at the bottom of the oven so the pastry has a chance to crisp up.
Estimated Nutrition (whole recipe, rough)
Counts 14 of 15 ingredients — the other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and contribute nothing above, so the real totals are higher.
What these numbers assume — 14 portions →
| Ingredient | Portion assumed | kcal |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1 cup (125g) all-purpose | 455 |
| Venison | 100g cooked | 158 |
| Olive Oil | 1 tbsp (14g) | 119 |
| Egg | 1 large egg (50g) | 78 |
| Red Onion | 1 medium (110g) | 44 |
| Carrot | 1 medium (61g) | 25 |
| Mushroom | 1/2 cup sliced (35g) | 15 |
| Celery | 1 stalk (40g) | 6 |
| Black Pepper | 1 tsp ground (2.3g) | 6 |
| Garlic | 1 clove (3g) | 4 |
| Rosemary | 1 tsp dried (1.2g) | 4 |
| Thyme | 1 tsp dried (1.4g) | 4 |
| Bay Leaf | 1 leaf (0.6g) | 2 |
| Salt | 1 tsp (6g) | 0 |
| Pastry | not in our table | 0 |
Totals for the whole recipe, adding one typical portion per ingredient — listed above. Quantities in the recipe are not counted, so this is a rough guide only — not suitable for medical or dietary planning.
Ingredients
- olive oil
- 3 medium red onions, peeled and sliced
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
- 2 sticks celery, trimmed and chopped
- 4 field mushrooms, peeled
- 1 kg quality stewing venison, cut into 2cm cubes
- a few sprigs fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
- a few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
- a few fresh bay leaves
- sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 5-6 juniper berries, bashed in a pestle and mortar
- 500 ml ale, preferably Scottish
- 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
- 350 g ready-made all-butter puff pastry
- 1 large free-range egg, beaten