Delicious hot and excellent cold. No idea how much game (a bag of venison and another of mixed) plus sausage meat to line the hot-water pastry and there was a pie weighing in at about 5kg!
It really took no time: defrosted hot-water pastry (made in an earlier leisure time); lined the special tin (sides clip into base and then to each other); lining of sausage meat to add succulence; filled with game drained from its marinade (2 days in red wine, herbs and seasoning); lid on and holes bored before a quick egg-wash. Oven for 30 minutes at a medium temperature, a couple more at a lower heat and left in the cooling oven for two more hours.
Superb with a simple gravy/sauce: a carrot, couple of celery stalks, spring onions all peeled and chopped fine, sautéed in butter; the rest of the red wine(diluted), a couple of Stock pots and seasoning; bubble for an hour or so; blitz to a smooth sauce and serve piping hot.
Otherwise it was mash various: classic spud; celeriac; root (parsnips, swede, carrot).
In the midst of this domestic idyll, Mark was filling and re-painting a couple of ceilings, repairing a kitchen cupboard, moving various stuff in or out of the studio loft. Alongside Steve was doing hydrotherapy in the pool, Karen was arranging the daffodils and the sous-chef was hiding in the study. A typical Friday (standfast the ukulele!).
And I couldn’t not share this final image of me alongside the “stag butler” I spotted at the Culinary Concepts sale (went with Sue and Joan). Just fabulous and a great joke for your average entrance hall!