venison pie

I recently made a commitment to myself, that as a english chick married to a cool afrikaans boy, in a somewhat afrikaans community, it really is my duty to muster up the courage and become a bit more adept at some local afrikaans traditional recipes.... with all my foodie background, I never really delved into local  cuisine, except for a little here and there (I do make a mean bobotie - but that is for another day).

And then Stefanie and LJ gave us some venison, and I was seriously thrown into the deep end.  I have no experience cooking venison.  Specifically gemsbok.

First things first: phone the mother-in-law.  Martin took over stage one...boiling the meat of the scraps of bones.

For this you will need a pressure cooker,
1 litre water
1/2 cup brown vinegar
8 whole cloves.
bones with meat

Cook in the pressure cooker for 1 hour till the meat starts to fall off the bones.
Allow to cool a bit, then remove the meat from the bones.

Making Pie...

I did some research and came up with this:

1 onion, finely chopped
3-4 clove garlic, crushed
4 rashers streaky bacon, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped into small cubes
3 cups beef stock (I used Nomu)
1 cup of red wine
3 Tbs peach / apricot chutney (otherwise use apricot jam)
3 bay leaves
a small handful of fresh thyme
1 packet shop bough puff pastry (sorry not yet brave enough)
1 egg

Heat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

Fry the onion and garlic over a medium heat (in a pot). As the onions become translucent, add the bacon, fry for 1 minute, and add the meat (enough for one medium size pie), beef stock, carrots, red wine, chutney, bay leaves and thyme. (If you want to add peas or other veggies, knock yourself out). Bring to the boil, and the simmer till the juice has reduced and you are left with yummy pie filling. About 20 minutes.

Scoop filling into pie dish.  Roll out pastry, which should be at room temperature, on a floured surface.
Brush some of the whisked egg mixture on the edge of your pie dish, and cover the dish.  Use the prongs of a fork to push the edges of the pastry onto the rim of your pie dish, and scrape off any excess pastry. Cut a small incision in the centre of the pastry.

Brush the pasty with the egg, and pop into the oven for about 30 minutes or until your pastry is golden brown.

For some sides:
Made a simple tomato, red onion and basil salad, drizzled in olive oil.
Peeled and boiled 2 large sweet potato and mashed them with about a tablespoon of butter & a heavy sprinkle of light brown sugar.

Try it. I dare you.  I made one for the extended family on the weekend... it got a 9/10.
Okay, so I can make a venison pie.

Now for those gemsbok steaks.  Any ideas?