Ingredients
- 1kg/2lb 2oz Venison, off the bone, cut into large chunks (you can ask your butcher or your mate that shot it to do this)
- 40g dripping
- 2 large onions, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp plain flour
- 1 teaspoon English mustard powder
- 4 medium carrots, finely chopped
- 1 Cup Glasseye Creek Wild Meat Sauce
- 500ml Speights Old Dark
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
- 3 tbsp malt vinegar
- Pinch freshly ground black pepper
- Sea salt
For the topping
- 1 pack of Maxwells Ready Rolled Puff Pastry Plain flour, for dusting
- 1 medium egg, beaten with 1 tbsp milk
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C
Heat the dripping in a large, lidded, non-reactive flameproof casserole, then add the onions. Fry until the onions are soft and golden-brown.
Turn off the heat and sift the flour and mustard powder into the pot. Stir until you have a thickened onion mixture.
Add the meat and carrots and stir into the onion mixture. (You are not browning the venison, as this will toughen the meat.)
Add the Speights, Glasssye Creek Sauce, sugar, vinegar, freshly ground black pepper. Stir once more. Cover the contents of the pot with a circle of greaseproof paper and put the lid on the casserole. Transfer to the oven and bake for 1½ hours.
Remove from the oven and season, to taste, with sea salt. Stir in more Glasseye creek if you feel the need.
Transfer the contents of the casserole to a pie dish. Use a smaller-diameter, deep dish, as a wide shallow one will make the pie crust droop in the middle and become soggy.
Increase the temperature of the oven to 200?C
Roll the puff pastry out on a floured work surface to be big enough to cover the dish with a slight overhang. Lay the pastry over the venison filling.
Crimp the edges of the pastry with a fork and brush the top of the pie evenly with the beaten egg and milk mixture.
You can fashion any pastry motif appropriate to your mood from any leftover pastry and place it on top. Brush this with egg and milk mixture as well.
Pierce a small hole into the middle of the pastry to allow steam to escape, then place into the oven to bake for 40-45 minutes, until the pastry is a rich brown.
Remove from the oven and serve at the table in the dish with whatever ripples your undies. Goes well with classic mashed spud or veg. Serve with Glasseye Creek Sauce on the side.