For this meal, we wanted to recreate some of our culinary delights from our trip to England and Wales earlier in the year. Since that trip, we’ve attempted to make quite a few different English and Welsh dishes. We’ve attempted pasties, a healthy fish n chips recipe, grilled tomatoes, and we even added two recipes that we cooked in our air BNB kitchen in Wales! This dish is fairly similar in style to our Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie recipe, but with a completely different flavour profile and texture…and a slightly different approach to the pastry topping.
We paired this with Roasted Brussels Sprouts, but we’d encourage you to try this with mushy peas, “chips” (or “fries” as they’re called on our side of the pond), or a side salad.
Time: 75 Minutes
Ingredients:
- For the filling:
- Venison steaks
- Mushrooms
- Onion
- Worcestershire sauce
- Any other veggies you wish to add (peas and corn would work well)
- Corn starch
- Shredded cheese (we used cheddar)
- An Egg
- For the crust:
- Whole wheat pastry flour (we needed 1/3 of a cup for our two ramekins)
- 1 tablespoon of butter
- 1 ounce of cold water
Method:
- Prep your dough:
- Pour your flour into a food processor.
- Cut your butter into small cubes, and add to your flour. Pulse to combine.
- Slowly (about 1/3 of an ounce at a time), add in and pulse your water. Stop when it starts to clump nicely into larger globs.
- With your hands, mush the dough together and form a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap, and stash in the fridge.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F, and cover a baking sheet with a little foil (to prevent potential spillover messes).
- Turn your attention to your Filling:
- Wash and quarter your mushrooms, and toss them into your food processor.
- Dice your onion, and add it to the same food processor. Pulse to chop and combine.
- Melt some butter or heat some oil into a large pan, and when it’s hot, add your mushrooms and onions.
- While those cook, thinly slice your venison steaks.
- Add your venison, Worcestershire sauce, and any other veggies you like to the pan, and brown the meat.
- There should still be some liquid in the pan from the mushrooms and onions. If not, add a little liquid.
- In a container (we used a 4 oz measuring cup), mix about a teaspoon of corn starch with two teaspoons of warm water, and stir to combine. Pour this into your meat and mushroom amalgamation, and let simmer for about 30 seconds.
- Pour your filling into your ramekins, and top it with cheese.
- Remove your dough from the fridge, and cut it into the number of pieces you need. Working one by one, roll each out so it is just a bit larger than the circumference of your ramekins. Then, cut little vent slots in the top.
- Spread your dough over your ramekin, and crimp the sides down.
- When all of your ramekins are topped, beat an egg, and brush it on (will give a golden brown colour when cooked).
- Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the topping is golden brown and a little crispy (no need to worry about your filling since it will be very done and extremely hot by this time).
- Plate, (carefully) devour, and enjoy!
