A Fish Dinner in Memison

The Guardian had an article today on the growing fad in Britain for squirrel:

It's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate.

The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.

This recipe was included in the article:

Squirrel pasties

Kevin Viner's recipe for two pasties:

140g squirrel meat cut into 1cm cubes
100g sliced potato
100g sliced swede
50g diced onion
30g smoked bacon
15g chopped hazelnuts
75g butter
5g chopped parsley
a good pinch of salt and pepper

Method:

· Egg wash edges of pastry circles.
· Place the potato, swede, hazelnuts, parsley and seasoning on to each circle followed by the bacon, squirrel meat and, finally, the onion.
· Place butter in each pasty, then fold over the pastry and crimp the edges.
· Put the pasties on to a greaseproof baking tray, egg wash both pasties well, place in a pre-heated oven at 180C [350F] or gas mark 5.
· Bake for 45-50 minutes. The juices should start to boil and the pasties should be able to move on the tray with ease.

This recipe assumes you have the pastry dough rolled out already, and doesn't provide a recipe for it.

For non-Brits: "swedes" are rutabagas (yellow turnips).