Slow-cooked buffalo and mushroom pies

Few things beat a homemade meat pie, especially when it’s filled with tender, slow-cooked game meat. Naturally lean and full of character, buffalo is a delicious alternative to beef, with its robust taste standing up beautifully to earthy mushrooms and a rich, savoury gravy. It takes a little patience, but the reward is a batch of golden, hearty pies that are well worth the wait.

Serves: 4-5
Duration: 7 hours

Ingredients

• Buffalo backstrap cut to fit in a 12V Travel Buddy oven
• 1 pack low salt French onion soup mix
• 2 punnets of Swiss brown mushrooms
• Plain flour or gravy powder
• Fresh garlic
• 1 small onion
• Salt and pepper
• Red wine – optional.

Method

1. Pie maker – cut shortcrust pastry sheets to size for the base and puff pastry sheets for the top. Use sesame seeds if you want to be fancy.
2. Put the raw meat (from room temperature) in an oven bag with a pack of French onion soup mix. No need to add any liquid. Pre-heat the Travel Buddy (or similar) to 95°C and cook the buffalo for six hours, turning once to keep the meat sitting in natural liquid.
3. Pour the meat and liquid into a large mixing bowl. Take the meat out and pull apart. Remove all fat and cut across the grain in 1.5cm slices so it can be pulled apart. Put the shredded meat into the mixing bowl.
4. Gently brown the cut onion and cook down the sliced mushrooms with some butter and garlic, with a bit of salt and pepper to taste.
5. Combine the meat and mushrooms/onions. Thicken any sloppy mix with flour or gravy powder. Add salt, pepper or even a dash of red wine to taste.
6. Follow the pie maker directions, cool on a rack and serve with Sriracha Ketchup.