Hunter's Pie (Shepherd's Pie with Venison and Mushrooms)
This homemade hunter's pie is a shepherd's pie made with ground venison and fresh or dried mushrooms instead of ground lamb in the filling. This hearty British "pie" is a baked casserole with a mashed potato topping, often with butter and cheese added to make the topping rich and crispy. Baked until bubbly and golden brown, this is warm, sturdy, comfort food for cold nights. It's easy to make ahead and bake off for a quick dinner, and it freezes, reheats, and travels well.
Equipment
- skillet or dutch oven
- dutch oven or large baking dish
- pot and strainer to cook potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground venison (substitute ground lamb or beef for shepherd's or cottage pie, respectively)
- 3 slices smoked bacon, chopped roughly
- 1½ cup white or yellow onion, diced
- 1 cup carrot, peeled and diced
- ¾ cup celery, diced
- 1 cup venison, beef, chicken, or mushroom stock
- 1 oz sliced dried mushrooms (button, cremini, or wild mushroom blend) (substitute: 4 oz fresh sliced mushrooms)
- ¼ cup scallion or leek top, minced (substitute: 3 large cloves garlic, minced)
- 8 oz tomato paste
- 1 ½ cups frozen peas
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme or marjoram
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup all purpose flour substitute 2-4 tbsp cornstarch or potato starch for gluten-free filling
Mashed Potato Crust
- 4-6 med-large potatoes (russet or Yukon gold preferred)
- ⅓ cup whole milk, half and half, or cream
- 4 oz salted butter divided (use half in mashed potatoes, half on top)
- ⅔ cup grated cheese
- 1 tsp kosher salt (or to taste)
- ½ tsp pepper (white or black pepper)
- ⅛ tsp nutmeg (pinch, preferably freshly grated)
Instructions
prep ingredients:
- Wash, peel, and cut the carrots, celery, and onions into small to medium dice.
- Mince or chop the bacon into 1/4"-1/2" pieces.
- If you're using fresh mushrooms, brush them clean and slice thinly.
- For dried mushrooms, slice them if they're whole, and re-hydrate them with a cup or so of boiling water or broth.
- Wash and mince a bit of leek top, green scallion, shallot, or garlic.
brown venison (or beef/lamb):
- Preheat a 10-12″ heavy skillet (I use cast iron) over medium high heat.
- Crumble and brown the ground/minced venison (or substitute beef or lamb), stirring and breaking up the meat.
- If you are using canned ground meat, drain well, reserving the broth for later, and just heat the cooked minced meat through.
- Add the diced onion, seasoning with the salt, pepper, and Worcestershire.
- Stir and saute the onions together with the ground meat until the onions are soft and translucent and just beginning to brown.
make casserole filling:
- Add the celery, carrots, and garlic, leeks or scallions and dried herbs to the pan.
- Stir and saute a few minutes until the carrots are just softening.
- Add the fresh or soaked dried mushrooms (drained, but save the soaking liquid) and saute together with the meat and vegetables until the dried mushrooms are soft, or the fresh mushrooms have released their liquid into the filling.
- Sprinkle the flour over the top and stir well to mix in until there are no lumps. This will help thicken the filling.
- You can use a slurry of cornstarch or arrowroot and cold water or stock instead of the flour if you need to make the pie gluten-free.
- Add the tomato paste and saute together with the filling.
- Stir in the stock or broth (or the canning liquid if you used home canned ground meat) and the soaking liquid from the dried mushrooms and simmer until just thickened.
boil potatoes:
- While you are preparing the meat filling, start boiling the potatoes for the mashed potato topping.
- Scrub and trim the potatoes, and bring them up to a boil in salted water.
- Simmer the potatoes until they are easily pierced with a fork.
- Drain the potatoes and let them cool and dry out a bit until they are just cool enough to handle.
drain and mash potatoes:
- Peel the still-warm potatoes and pass them through a ricer or food mill, or mash them by hand or with a mixer.
- Do not over-whip them if you are using a mixer, as this can make them gluey.
- Add the milk (or cream) and softened butter, and fold together.
- Season to taste with salt, white pepper, and if you like, a pinch of grated nutmeg.
assemble casserole
- Pour the meat and vegetable filling into a buttered 9″x13″ casserole dish (you can also leave it in the skillet or dutch oven that you used to make the filling if it is large enough and oven-safe).
- Spread the mashed potato filling over the top, carefully dropping it in dollops evenly over the surface and then using a spatula or wooden spoon to spread the potatoes across the top to make an even layer.
- For an even more posh looking presentation, you can use a large heavy-duty piping bag and a large open star pastry tip to pipe the filling out over the top. Pipe overlapping shells or star shapes, or use your imagination to cover the surface of the cottage pie. This is a bit more fuss but makes even this humble casserole look fancy! It also gives you more surface area to brown and crisp up for a crunchier potato topping.
- Dot the surface of the potato crust with half teaspoons of butter, spread evenly across the surface. Instead of dotting the top with bits of butter, you can melt the butter and gently brush it on, like for dauphinoise potatoes.
- Sprinkle the whole casserole lightly with grated cheese (optional, but delicious).You can add the cheese at the beginning of the bake and cover it with foil until the last 10 minutes, or add the cheese part-way through to make sure you don’t burn it.
bake cottage/hunter’s pie:
- Place your prepared hunter’s cottage pie into a preheated oven at 375℉ (reduce heat to 325-350℉ for a frozen casserole, and do not preheat the oven)
- Bake your casserole for 35-45 minutes (less if everything was piping hot when assembled and immediately baked, add more time if you are baking a chilled or frozen dish).
cool slightly and serve:
- Take your casserole out of the oven when it is heated through and the topping is crisping on top and bubbly.
- For a previously frozen or refrigerated casserole, check the center with a meat thermometer to ensure it has reached 165℉.
- Let the casserole cool for a few minutes, then scoop out portions and serve (or cool slightly, and then refrigerate or freeze immediately).
Notes
Notes on Nutritional Information: Values shown are only an estimate, and calculated using venison and dried mushrooms with leeks and whole milk, and with the seasoning quantities listed. Changing ingredients will affect the estimated nutritional values.
Make-Ahead and Freezing Instructions: The hunter's or cottage pie will hold in the fridge for up to 4 days... perfect for meal prep, or make an extra and bring it to a friend. This casserole recipe also freezes beautifully.
You can assemble it and bake it off to be quickly reheated, or freeze the unbaked shepherd's pie and bake it fresh before serving. If you used a foil or metal pan, you can pop it right into a cool oven (300-350F) and bake slowly from frozen.
Nutrition
Calories: 368kcalCarbohydrates: 22gProtein: 20gFat: 23gSaturated Fat: 12gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.5gCholesterol: 92mgSodium: 1545mgPotassium: 809mgFiber: 5gSugar: 9gVitamin A: 3944IUVitamin C: 22mgCalcium: 134mgIron: 4mg
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