Ingredients

  • 25g butter
  • 100g streaky bacon. These are good to roll up to make them more robust in the pie otherwise diced is good too
  • 8 small shallots – par boil for 5 minutes, strain and when cool trim and peel
  • Few sprigs fresh thyme and 2 bay leaves
  • 1 kg game pie mix
  • 2 tbsp flour
  • 200 ml of a red wine you like, then you can drink the rest
  • 400 ml chicken stock
  • 75g redcurrant jelly
  • 500g puff pastry
  • 1 egg beaten

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 150ºC/300ºF/gas2. You will need a deep casserole dish with a lid. Heat the butter and fry the bacon until nice and golden. Remove these and set aside.
  2. Then place the shallots along with the thyme and bay leaves into the casserole and fry until golden too. Remove and set aside.
  3. Season the flour with sea salt and black pepper and place in a shallow bowl. In small batches roll the meat into the flour and fry in the casserole until browned on all sides. Remove and set aside and continue with the rest of the meat. It is important to do this in small batches so that the meat browns nicely.
  4. Add the red wine to the casserole and give it a good stir making sure to scrape the bottom as this will help to thicken the sauce.
  5. Then add the stock and red currant jelly. Bring to a simmer and return the onions, bacon, herbs, and meat. Place the lid on and pop into the oven for an hour.
  6. The meat should be very tender and check for seasoning.
  7. Increase your oven temperature to 200C/390F/gas 6.
  8. Leave this to cool in your pie dish whilst you roll out the pastry. Pop the pastry on top and brush with the beaten egg. Bake for 30 minutes until lovely and golden.