Venison Pie

We don't eat much meat for a variety of reasons and I have been a vegetarian on and off since high school. I love animals so much it makes me sad to eat them and I have a horror of the meat industry. "Fast Food Nation" anyone? That book seriously changed the way I eat. But I love meat, so every once in a while I fall off the vegetarian wagon and have some bacon.

Then there is the fact that my motto has always been "the cuter they are, the better they taste." Cows are OK, bacon delicious, duck is divine, lamb is fantastic, venison is even better and rabbit is heavenly. I don't see the point in wasting calories on food that is not fabulous, so I don't eat a lot of meat. In fact, in 2010 we are going to start a policy of only eating meat that was killed by someone we know. I couldn't possibly do the killing myself -- I'm not a good enough shot and I faint when I see blood.

Luckily, Drew's dad is a hunter, so we get quite a lot of venison every year and I made venison pot pie based on a recipe out of the November issue of British Country Living called "Venison, Guinness & Chestnut Pie." I didn't have chestnuts, so I added mushrooms and used a bottle of Duck Rabbit Milk Stout. I bought the beer because the logo is fabulous. The beer is so-so.

I cubed some venison cutlets, dipped them in salted and peppered flour, browned the meat in a large pot and set the meat aside aside. Then I sauteed leek, garlic and carrots and set that aside with the meat. Next added stock and scraped up the browned bits from the venison pan, added the meat and all the vegetables and the bottle of beer and some sprigs of thyme. Once it was bubbling gently, I put on the lid, turned down the heat and wandered away for about an hour until the meat was tender.

After the meat was done and the sauce thickened, I poured it all into a 2 quart baking dish, topped with pie crust decorated with pie dough antlers and baked it at 375 degrees until the crust was browned. YUM. Here is the recipe as I made it.

1 to 2 lbs. venison stew meat

3 TBSP flour

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 to 3 TBSP butter or olive oil to over bottom of pan

1 leek, chopped

3 carrots sliced

4 garlic cloves crushed

several sprigs of thyme

1 bottle stout beer

2 to 3 cups of beef or game stock

1/2 to 3/4 lb. mushrooms

1 recipe of pie crust for a single crust pie (only butter in the pie crust, please)

1 beaten egg to glaze

Toss the venison in flour, salt and pepper. Melt butter in a large pan and cook in batches until nicely browned. Transfer to a plate. Add leek and carrots and cook 15 minutes, add garlic and cook until fragrant and soft, sprinkle in thyme. Transfer to plate with venison.

Add the stock and bring to a boil, scraping up meat residue and browned bits. Add meat, vegetables and beer. Bring back to a boil, lower heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender, one hour or more.

While cooking, heat butter or olive oil and saute the mushrooms until they give up their liquid and are browned. Once the meat is tender, add cooked mushrooms. Leave to cool or the pie will boil over when it goes in the oven.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Pour the filling into a large pie dish or baking pan. If there is too much liquid, reserve it for serving as gravy. Cover the filling with the pastry, using the trimmings to shape antlers to decorate the pie. Brush with beaten egg to glaze and bake for 45 minutes until deep golden.