Recycling Your Squirrels: Squirrel Pie

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds of cleaned and quartered squirrel meat
• Chicken or beef broth (2 cartons)
• Onions, mushrooms, garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper
• Olive oil
• Butter
• Flour
• Pie crust

Directions:

    Lightly flour cleaned and quartered squirrel and brown in the biggest pan you have with fresh rosemary and ground pepper in some olive oil.  Cook on high heat to sear, and then turn the heat down and cook through.  When the meat is fully cooked, turn on low heat, and cover the bottom of the pan with chicken broth, let simmer for several minutes.  If desired, add ale, or white or red wine.

    Pour the contents of the pan into a colander over a bowl to collect the broth.  Repeat until all the meat is cooked.  Let the meat cool enough to pick out.

    While the cooked squirrel is cooling, cut up onions, garlic, and mushrooms (however much you prefer).  Use the pan to cook the vegetables in olive oil on low heat, stirring periodically.

    While the vegetables are cooking, pick the meat from the bones and place on a separate plate.  When the vegetables are done to your liking, add the squirrel meat to the pan, and mix to create an even consistency.

    In another, smaller pan, make a roux (1/4 cup butter and 1/4 cup flour).  Melt the butter in the pan, sprinkle the flour evenly in the pan, and whisk.  Add enough of the reserved broth (start with a cup and go from there) to create a thick gravy.

    Add the gravy to the squirrel/vegetable mixture.  Add salt and pepper to acquire the taste you are looking for.  This is the finished mixture.

    Spoon the mixture into a pie crust, cover the top with crust, crimp the edges to connect the two pieces, and cut slits in the center of the pie to allow for steam to escape.  Bake pie in the oven at 425* for 20-25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown.

Recipe courtesy of Mrs. Patience Wood