Game season has a way of making itself sound more complicated than it is. There are feathers, fur, shooting calendars, unfamiliar cuts and the sense that unless you own a wax jacket and know someone with a Labrador, you are probably doing it wrong.
In the kitchen, though, game is far less forbidding. Venison, pheasant and rabbit are made for the sort of cooking autumn encourages: deep flavours, crisp pastry, mushrooms, dark sauces and the kind of dishes that make being indoors feel like a reasonable choice again.
Richard Corrigan’s game pie takes that instinct and runs with it. Venison shoulder, pheasant and rabbit are cooked with smoked bacon, mushrooms, redcurrant jelly, orange and Madeira before being tucked beneath a burnished shortcrust lid. It is rich, properly savoury and exactly the sort of thing a cold Sunday afternoon was designed for.
Callum Leslie, from the Tommy Banks group, goes in a rather more portable direction. His Scotch eggs mix venison with sausage meat around a soft-centred egg, before being breadcrumbed, fried and served with a vivid wild garlic mayonnaise. Familiar enough to know what you are getting into, but considerably better than anything lurking under clingfilm at a motorway service station.
If cooking game at home still feels like the preserve of restaurant chefs and country estates, these are two fairly persuasive places to start. No elaborate roasting rituals required: just a pie, a Scotch egg and a good reason to embrace the fact that summer is over.
Game pie by Richard Corrigan
Ingredients:
2 tbsp grapeseed oil, divided into 2 parts
250g venison shoulder, diced
2 pheasants, deboned
250g rabbit legs, deboned
2 shallot, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
50g leek, finely sliced
150g smoked back bacon, diced
150g button mushrooms, sliced
35g all-purpose flour
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
4 bay leaves
5 tbsp orange zest
4 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp red currant jelly
350ml chicken stock
100ml madeira
150ml walnut oil
1.5kg shortcrust pie pastry
50 prune chopped fine
1 large free-range egg beaten
Method:
1. Gather the ingredients.
2. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan, brown the game meat in batches, and keep to one side.
3. Heat the rest of the oil, cook the onions and leek until starting to soften but not colour. Add the garlic, bacon, and mushrooms and then cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
4. Stir in the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Season well with salt and pepper, and stir in the bay leaves, orange juice and zest, red currant jelly, stock and madeira.
5. Bring to boil, add the meat, and simmer gently, for 30 min or until the meat is tender. Remove from the pan and season meat with walnut oil. Reduce stock down to thick coating consistency, add meat back to the stock along with prunes and allow to cool.
6. Heat the oven to 190C.
7. Flour the inside of small pie tin – do not grease. Roll out enough pastry to fit the inside of the skillet plus 1cm. Gently press the pastry base into the skillet leaving an overhang of 1cm. Fill the pastry case with the meat mixture. Roll out the remaining pastry for a lid. Brush the top edge of the pastry base with beaten egg and lay the pastry lid on top. Press down edges with the end of a spoon. Cut a steam hole in the center. Brush the pastry with beaten egg to glaze.
8. Bake for 30 minutes on the bottom shelf of the oven followed by 30 minutes on the top shelf, until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is piping hot.
Venison Scotch egg by Callum Leslie
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
For the Scotch eggs:
4 medium eggs
250g venison mince
250g sausage meat
2 eggs, beaten (for coating)
Plain flour, for dusting
Panko breadcrumbs
Maldon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Oil, for deep frying
For the wild garlic mayo:
200g fresh wild garlic
600ml neutral oil
1 egg yolk
30ml white wine vinegar
Method:
1. Bring a pan of water to the boil and cook the eggs for 5½-6 minutes for a soft centre.
2. Transfer immediately to ice water to stop the cooking, then peel carefully.
3. In a bowl, mix the venison mince and sausage meat together. Season well with salt and pepper.
4. Divide the mixture into 70g portions.
5. Flatten each portion of meat in your hand and wrap it evenly around each egg, sealing well.
6. Roll each egg in flour, then dip in beaten egg, and coat with panko breadcrumbs.
7. Heat oil to 175C and fry the Scotch eggs for 2-3 minutes until golden brown.
8. Transfer to a preheated oven and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 75C.
9. Season immediately with Maldon sea salt.
For the wild garlic mayo:
10. Blend the wild garlic with the oil until smooth.
11. Strain through cheesecloth to create a vibrant green oil.
12. In a bowl, whisk the egg yolk with the white wine vinegar.
13. Slowly drizzle in the wild garlic oil, whisking continuously, until a thick, glossy mayonnaise forms.
To serve:
14. Serve the Scotch eggs warm, halved to reveal their soft centres, alongside a generous spoon of wild garlic mayonnaise. For an extra flourish, add sharp, briny capers or pickled vegetables.
