Wild Venison Party Empanadas
Small baked pastries filled with wild venison mince, red pepper and olives for sharing at a party.
- Prep
- 35 min
- Cook
- 1 hr 5 min
- Total
- 1 hr 40 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
- 150 g red pepper, finely diced
- 1 garlic clove, chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 20 g tomato purée
- 100 ml water
- 60 g pitted green olives, chopped
- 600 g shortcrust pastry
- 1 egg, beaten
- 150 g tomato salsa, to serve
- 1 g fine salt
- 1 g ground black pepper
The cut for this recipe
Wild Venison Mince
Method
Heat the oil in a sauté pan. Cook the onion and pepper for 7 minutes, add the garlic and mince and cook for another 8 minutes, breaking up any lumps.
Stir in the cumin, paprika, tomato purée, water, olives, salt and pepper. Simmer for 8 minutes until fairly dry. Check the meat is piping hot with no pink and reaches 70°C for 2 minutes.
Spread the filling in a shallow bowl for 15 minutes to stop steaming. Heat the oven to 200°C, or 180°C fan, and roll out the pastry. Cut sixteen circles about 11 cm across.
Place a small spoonful of filling on each circle. Brush the edges with egg, fold into a half-moon and seal firmly with a fork, keeping the filling clear of the seam.
Arrange on lined trays, brush with egg and make a small steam slit in each. Bake for 22–27 minutes until golden and the centres are piping hot.
Serve warm with tomato salsa in a separate bowl. Take care with the hot filling when biting into 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.
