OPEN VENISON PIES

Open venison pies topped with red onion and orange marmalade, fluffy sexy mash and salad. It was so worth the wait! This pie would be perfect on any gastro pub menu.

Venison hash: (baked in gas oven at 150°C over 9 hours)
5 kg venison bones with some meat still on it
1,5 liters warm mutton stock
500 ml gin (for lack of juniper berries)
100 ml white vinegar
2 large onions sliced
10 ml ground cloves
10 ml ground ginger
10 ml ground cinnamon
20 ml ground cumin
20 ml ground coriander
8 large cloves of garlic cleaned

Add all the spices to the stock, gin and vinegar.
Divide the meaty bones between two large oven trays.
Divide the stock mixture and rest of spices between the two trays.
Place the onion slices on top.
Cover the trays with tin foil and seal the edges.
Put into oven at 150°C for at least 8 hours. Once the meat comes off the bones easily, it’s done.

Remove the meat and marrow from the bones and keep aside along with the onions and garlic cloves.

Pour the liquid from the two oven trays into a saucepan, add the following and boil until it reduces by half and thickens:
125 ml of dry red wine (I used Wolftrap Red)
125 ml of passata sauce

Add the meat, marrow, garlic and onions and stir well to combine. It should be a thick mixture which is wet enough to be used as a pie filling. Allow to cool before it’s used on dough.

I used the hot water pastry recipe, but doubled it to make 14 individual open pies topped with red onion and orange marmalade (recipe also on the blog under name Red Onion and Pink Peppercorn marmalade).
https://yourrecipeblog.com/recipes/red-onion-and-pink-peppercorn-marmalade/
Press the pastry down in muffin or small bread tins, fill with the cold pie filling and bake at 200°C vir 25 minutes.
https://yourrecipeblog.com/recipes/kookwater-deeg-vir-pasteitjies/

NOTE:
From the 5 kg meaty bones I got 1 kg of meat after it was cooked.

Recipe and photo: Elsabie Templeton