234: Random Game Pie

Two weeks ago I was tempted into a Pigeon at the Butchers. It's only a small shop, and there's usually a queue on a saturday, but there's a little fridge where you have to wait - where they place random things to tempt you with. Last weekend, I spotted this:

I've stated before, that I love a little bit of random. Even after I'd got this home and looked at the small print, I still can't say exactly what game it was - all the label says is "at least 3 different types".

Hey-ho. Game pie mix, game pie coming up.

Game is not really anything that appeals to Mrs VegBox, which meant I could indulge myself at will. And even though I say so myself, I've always been good at self-indulgence.

What I wanted to do, was to create a pie which was an entire meal in itself - so all the effort went in the preparation; but then the cooking would be very simple. In line with the recurring theme of this blog, I wanted to use up some of the less popular/flexible items from my VegBox. I dismissed Parsnips, as I thought they would dominate and potatoes as being too useful in other things. Leaving my ingredients as:

• 500gs Game Pie mix, contents still broadly unknown
• 400gs Turnip
• 3 small Leeks
• 1 large onion
• 3 Cloves of garlic
• 18.75 mls red wine (Merlot)
• 1 round of black pudding (this was thrown in just becuae I had it and thought it would go ok)
• 150gs mushrooms
• Herbs: Sage, Thyme & Bay Leaves (these were dried, another non Mrs VegBox indulgence)

Method - Pie:

• Chopped the Onions fairly small and fried
• Added the garlic
• Finely chopped the leeks and threw them in too
• Likewise the Black pudding; ensuring it breaks down
• Chopped the turnip into 1/2" cubes and boiled it
• Put all this in a caserole
• 
  Fried the meat in a little flour to seal it
• Added the meat mushrooms, herbs and a wee bottle of Merlot
• Stir, cover and in the oven @150c for 2 1/2hours
• 

For the pastry, I went for all butter. I'm not sure that was wise from my waistline hey-ho. So, pretty simple:

• 400gs plain flour
• 200gs butter
• Salt, Sage and Thyme (just because I could) 
• Nearly 100ml of water

Most pastry recipes seem to say to add very little water - which I've tried to do. However, last time it was far too crumbly, so I thought sod it and put plenty in. After this was mixed, clingfilmed and the fridged, it rolled out very easily. So much so that I managed to make it pretty thin *slightly smug smile spreads across face*

There he is, the beauty. Popped in to the oven for ~40 minutes @200, oh my crispy buttery pastry.

Lovely, quite the best thing I've cooked in a good long while and even better, I got to eat it all.