Chef Jamie Oliver shared his delicious venison pie recipe which uses a cheap beef alternative – the perfect dish to make you dream of good home cooking this winter
Brits on a budget can now swap their steak and ale pie for a venison version, thanks to the booming deer population.
With wild deer numbers at a 1,000-year high, causing havoc in woodlands, the British Deer Association has hailed venison as one of the most sustainable and ethical meats available in the UK.
It’s not only affordable but also makes for a scrumptious meal, especially when using Jamie Oliver’s trusted pie recipe. The celebrity chef enthused on his website: “This is a beautiful pie and the kind of dish that makes me dream of good home cooking.”
He added: “The venison will cook to be delicious, tender and sumptuous. After all these years of cooking, a meal like this still gets my pulse racing.” Once a luxury, this lean and protein-rich meat is now accessible to everyone, with prices starting from just £3 at Sainsbury’s.
Jamie Oliver’s venison pie with juniper, rosemary and bay
Ingredients
- Olive oil
- Three red onions
- Three garlic cloves
- Two carrots
- Two celery sticks
- A knob of butter
- Four mushrooms
- 1kg quality stewing venison
- Three rosemary sprigs
- Six juniper berries
- A few fresh bay leaves
- 500ml ale
- One heaped teaspoon of plain flour (and extra for dusting)
- 350g ready-made puff pastry
- One large egg
Method
For those eager to try, Jamie Oliver’s venison pie with juniper, rosemary, and bay begins with preheating the oven to 180C/350F/gas 4 and heating a large ovenproof pan on the hob, reports the Express.
Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver shares his secret to creating the perfect pie filling that’s bound to impress any dinner guest. The recipe calls for a large glug of oil, slicing onions and frying them off until sweet without gaining too much colour.
Then you peel and chop carrots and garlic, trim and chop celery, before dialling up the heat to add in the garlic, butter, carrot, celery and roughly torn mushrooms. After stirring in the veggies, it’s time to tackle the venison by cutting it into cubes, chopping rosemary leaves, bashing juniper berries, and tossing them into the pan with bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper.
Cook everything off before pouring in some ale and flour, topping with water and simmering it all in an oven for two and a half hours. If the stew is still liquidy after baking, Jamie advises: “So if, when you remove it from the oven, it’s still quite liquidy, place the pan on the hob and reduce for 15 minutes or so until it thickens up a bit.”
The final steps involve rolling out pastry, laying it over the rich stew in a pie dish, scoring a criss-cross pattern on top, and brushing with beaten egg.
Pop the pie back on the bottom shelf of the oven and let it bake for 40 to 45 minutes, until the pastry is well cooked, puffed-up and golden. Serve it piping hot with a side of greens and mashed potato.