These enclosed puff pastry pies, also known as pithiviers, aren’t as fussy as they look. Team with creamy mashed potato or chips and lots of gravy or, if you feel like something a bit different, leave to cool and serve with a fresh salad.
Serves 2
Ingredients
For the pie:
50g carrot, diced
50g onion, diced
20g chestnuts, chopped
25g pigeon, diced
25g pheasant, diced
25g partridge, chopped
2 red skin potatoes
Ready-made pastry
Fresh thyme
1 egg yolk
Equipment needed:
Baking tray
Egg slice
Knife
Pastry brush
Saucer
Method
Bake the red skin potatoes in the oven until soft (approximately 35 minutes), scoop out the potato from the skin and mash up in a bowl. It doesn’t need to be smooth; a lovely, chunky texture will help your pie.
Meanwhile, dice all the meat and remaining vegetables into 1cm cubes, then combine everything with the mashed potato. So long as you’ve chopped everything small enough, all the ingredients will cook through while the pie is in the oven. Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle over some fresh thyme leaves.
Roll out the pastry until it’s roughly the thickness of a pound coin. Place a saucer on the rolled pastry and cut around it to make four circles. Spoon the game mixture into the centre of two of the pastry circles, leaving a good inch around the edge to seal the lids. Brush the inch space with egg yolk and place a lid on top of each pie. Using a fork, press down around the sides of the pastry to seal. Use a knife to decorate the top of the pies with any pattern you like, then brush with egg yolk.
Heat the oven to 170 degrees and bake for 25mins until golden brown. Remove from the baking tray and serve straight away.
Recipe from eatwild.co
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