Roast venison with buttered cabbage with wild mushroom pithivier

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan, and add the butter. Tip in the mushrooms, garlic and rosemary and fry for 1 minute. Pour in the cream and cook briskly for a further minute on a medium heat. Leave on one side to cool while you roll out the pastry.

2. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to ½ cm thickness. Stamp out 2 discs 10cm and 12cm in diameter. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

3. Spoon the cooled mushrooms in the centre of the smaller pastry round. Brush the edges with the egg yolk, and cover with the larger disc. Using the point of a knife, make curved indentations across the top of the pastry in a spiral shape. Brush the surface with more beaten egg yolk, and bake for 8-10 minutes, until the pastry is golden. Turn the oven temperature up to 200C/gas 6.

4. Heat a non-stick pan over a moderate heat and sear the venison on all sides before removing from the pan.

5. Season the venison with salt and pepper and transfer to a roasting tin. Cook in the oven for about 10-12 minutes, until just tender. Make the sauce and cook the cabbage while the meat is in the oven.

6 For the sauce; boil the wine until it has reduced by half, and pour in the venison stock. Cook down, until reduced by half again.

7. Take the sauce off the heat and whisk in the cold butter.

8. Tip the cabbage into a large pan and place over a high heat. Add a dash of water along with the butter, salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes, until the leaves begin to soften. Stir in the chopped thyme and cook for a further minute.

9. To serve, put the pie on a serving plate, and surround with the cabbage. Carve the venison and drizzle over a ladleful of sauce. Serve the rest of the sauce separately.