Craving a delicious and authentic dish for your dinner party? Try these pulled venison pies with gin and juniper berries, served with a tangy, yet sweet red wine and cherry sauce and sprinkled with crunchy cacao nibs.
Local butcher, mince pies and Scotland
Two years ago, when I first moved to my flat with a view in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, I also discovered all the great surprises the neighbourhood had to offer. And because I hated buying meat from the supermarket (especially ground – it tastes bad, seriously!), I started visiting my local butcher on a regular basis. I mean, why would I order stuff from the supermarket when I can actually go and pick the most red, fresh and beautifully looking meat? Anyway. With the butcher came my discovery of mince pies – and no, I’m not talking about the sweet ones that people in the UK have for Christmas, but the ones containing minced meat.
There’s something that I really liked in these pies (as well as plenty of other British products, such as black pudding, for example): the seasoning is lovely, with nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and allspice. And I come from a country where we only season meat with salt, pepper, savoury and paprika, so this was quite a significant discovery!
With more time spent in Scotland, I fell deeper and deeper in love with Scottish products, particularly venison, which is a lean, game meat, great for so many different dishes ranging from pies to sausages, burgers and tartare.
Trial, error and too much salt
This pie was originally supposed to be with duck confit, my twist on this GoodFood recipe. And while the first batch turned out fantastic from every point of view – taste, texture, thickness of the crust, juiciness of the meat, the second time I failed. The duck confit turned out way too salty and I rolled the puff pastry too thinly and it broke, which let hot air get into the pie and dry the meat. This recipe requires a fair amount of commitment in terms of time and effort, so I felt the disappointment of my failure even stronger.
Finally, because I loved venison meat and only had a couple of weeks left in Scotland, I decided to experiment again, but this time replacing the duck with the venison. Guess what? It turned out a lot more special than the duck pie, and there was no chance I was going to ruin this dish with too much salt since the venison doesn’t need to be coated in it for a couple of days, like the duck confit does.
In this recipe, you’ll see that cacao nibs are optional. That’s mainly because they are quite pricey and I’m not entirely sure how many of you would be able to find them easily. However, if you do have some around, I wholeheartedly recommend adding a few to the meat mix and sprinkling a couple onto the pie before serving it. This is another thing that Scotland has taught me: venison and chocolate work splendidly together!
The recipe
Craving a delicious and authentic dish for your dinner party? Try these pulled venison pies with gin and juniper berries, served with a tangy, yet sweet red wine and cherry sauce and sprinkled with crunchy cacao nibs.
Preheat the oven at 140ºC.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a large pot or pan. Brown the venison for a couple of minutes, then remove it and set it aside.
Add the onion, carrot and fennel and sauté until soft.
Add the venison, onion, carrot, fennel and remaining ingredients to an ovenproof dish and mix well.
Cover and cook for 7 hours, until soft.
Don’t worry if you think there’s too much liquid. Start pulling the venison using two forks. The juice will blend in with the thin strips of meat.
Turn the oven on higher, at 185ºC.
Add the eggs and gingerbread to the pulled venison and mix well.
Roll the puff pastry (it should be about 0.5cm thick).
You can either make a large pie (which will be less time consuming) or use 8 ramekins to make smaller, individual pies.
Once the pies formed, egg wash. With a knife cut small crosses onto the crust.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Serve warm with red wine and cherry sauce. Enjoy!
For the red wine and cherry sauce, you can use this recipe.
Enjoy!
Ioana
