Wild Venison Filo Cigars with Cranberry Dip
Crisp filo rolls filled with gently spiced wild venison mince, served with cranberry dip.
- Prep
- 25 min
- Cook
- 1 hr
- Total
- 1 hr 25 min
- Serves
- 8
- Difficulty
- Moderate
Species: Muntjac, Chinese Water Deer, Roe Deer, Fallow Deer, Red Deer
Ingredients
- 500 g wild venison mince
- 15 ml olive oil
- 120 g onion, finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 25 g tomato purée
- 100 ml water
- 15 g parsley, chopped
- 8 large filo pastry sheets (about 240 g)
- 60 g butter, melted
- 100 g cranberry sauce
- 1 g fine salt
- 1 g ground black pepper
The cut for this recipe
Wild Venison Mince
Method
Heat the oil and soften the onion for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and mince and cook for 7 minutes, breaking up all lumps.
Stir in the cumin, cinnamon, tomato purée, water, salt and pepper. Simmer for 8 minutes until nearly dry. Check the mince is piping hot, has no pink and reaches 70°C for 2 minutes. Stir in the parsley and spread the filling thinly to cool for 15 minutes.
Heat the oven to 200°C, or 180°C fan. Cut each filo sheet in half across its width. Keep the unused sheets under a slightly damp clean cloth.
Brush a half-sheet lightly with butter. Put a narrow line of filling near one short edge, fold the sides inward and roll into a cigar. Repeat to make 16 and arrange seam-side down on a lined tray.
Brush the tops with the remaining butter and bake for 18–22 minutes until crisp and golden and the filling is piping hot. Spoon the cranberry sauce into a separate bowl for dipping.
Serve the warm cigars with the cold dip. Fill only as many as you can fit comfortably on the tray so steam can escape between them.
Storage
Cool baked pastries in shallow portions and refrigerate within 1–2 hours at 5°C or below. Eat within 48 hours. Freeze promptly for up to 3 months for best quality, thaw in the fridge and use within 24 hours. Reheat the finished pastries only once until piping hot throughout. The brief cooling before the first bake is part of making the recipe; if you instead use a separately chilled, previously cooked filling, that bake counts as its one reheating and the finished pastries should not be reheated again. Store the cranberry dip separately according to its label.
