Name: Alvie Forest Rabbit and Venison Scotch Pie
Yield: Makes 12
Cuisine: British
Ingredients: 1 tsp ground mace; 1–2 tsp ground coriander; 1–2 tsp peppery bolete powder, or white pepper; 1 onion, finely chopped; 100 g rusk (you can get this from your butcher); 12 ready-made pie shells and lids from your butcher; 1 tsp salt; 350 g fatty venison mince (when the stags are in their prime before the rut) or lean venison mince with a little pork mince through it; a few sprigs dried wild thyme or 2 tsp Herbes de Provence, or any herbs you have at hand; 1 onion, peeled and quartered; 200 g of dried boletes (Chris uses whatever he finds – slippery jacks, larch jacks, Swedish jacks, aspen and orange birch boletes, old ceps and dries them in a dehydrator or in a hot cupboard on wire racks); 2 whole rabbits, skinned and gutted

Preparation info

Makes
12

Difficulty
Complex

Appears in

A Taste of the Highlands

By Ghillie Basan

Published 2021

About

Fresh out of school with a bit of kitchen portering experience already under his belt, Chris McCall got a job at the Michelin-starred Airds Hotel in Port Appin where he worked under head chef, Steve MacCallum, who was a keen forager and used to take his staff out to pick mushrooms, gather seaweeds, rake cockles, put down crab pots and go out on Loch Linnhe in a dodgy little rented boat that was forever breaking down to catch whatever they c