Tony’s rich game pie

By Chef, Tony Carr

This pie is a huge success whenever it appears on the menu. It’s not too complicated, but it does need time to prepare and marinade, so tackle this recipe at a weekend, or whenever you have plenty of time on your hands!

To make 4 individual pies

For the pies you will need:

• 1 oven-ready pheasant
• 1 oven-ready partridge
• 500gm of best sausage meat
• 200gm chicken livers
• 100g of bead crumbs
• 1 onion finely diced and sweated in oil
  
• 750gm of all butter puff pastry
• 1 beaten egg and a little milk

For the marinade:

• 200mls of red wine
• 200mls of port
• 200mls brandy
• sprig of thyme
• 1 x onion sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 2 bay leaves

 
The day before you want to cook it…

1. Marinade for the chicken livers. Bring the red wine, port and brandy to the boil and let boil for 1 minute to burn off the alcohol. Remove from the heat.
2. Added the sliced onion, garlic, thyme and bay leaf. Cover with a lid and allow to cool. Once cold add the chicken livers and marinade over night in the fridge

On the day: 

1. Take the breasts off the partridge and pheasant. Heat a large frying pan till very hot and seal the breasts very quickly. Once coloured on both sides allow to cool on a wire rack.
2. De-bone and mince the legs of the partridge and pheasant and mix in the sausage meat, onion and marinade from the livers.
3. Mince the chicken livers and add to sausage meat mixture.
4. Dice in to small 1cm pieces the breasts and add to the sausage mix.
5. Season with salt and pepper and mix in 100g of bead crumbs.
6. Roll out the puff pastry and cut out 4 round discs approximately 8cm in diameter. Then cut out a further 4 discs, 15cm in diameter. 
7. Place a ball of game mixture on top of the 8cm disc and egg white around the outside then place a 15 cm disc over the top and seal firmly to the bottom disc. Cut away any excess pastry.
8. For decoration, you can leave a 1cm edge all the way around the bottom disc when cutting and then pinch the pastry together around the sides to create a pretty edge.
9. Place your pies on a tray lined with grease proof paper, egg wash and allow to rest for at least 2 hours before cooking.
10. Make 3 to 5 scores in the top of the pastry.
11. Bake in a preheated oven gas mark 5, 190ºC electric or 170ºC fan for about 25 minutes until the pastry in golden brown all over.