Venison Stroganoff

My wife's brother loves to hunt, especially for deer.  He feeds his family with it all year and, when they come to visit, he always brings us pounds and pounds of delicious venison. While we do have some deer steaks and tenderloins in there, the freezer is mostly stuffed with ground deer meat. One can only have so many burgers or meatloaves or tacos, so now comes the task of trying to figure out something interesting to make with it all.

Looks pretty much like ground beef but has quadruple the flavor

I figured I could play around and come up with something tasty.  When I started cooking this, I had no idea how it would turn out.  I debated just calling it "deer stuff," but venison stroganoff sounds so much fancier, don't you think?  And, as we all know, I'm so fancy!

Before you completely write off this recipe because "deer meat is icky," hear me out!  Venison is actually quite good for you...much lower in fat than our traditional burger meat and very flavorful. Give it a chance and you really might be surprised at how fantastic it can be.  Let's get to work on something good!

I happen to have some onions and mushrooms in the fridge.  Those should blend in nicely with the meat!

I've got the meat sizzling away in another skillet.  I think I'll add a little olive oil to help it brown since it doesn't have much fat of it's own.  How 'bout a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce?  A couple sprigs of thyme?  Some rosemary?  Perhaps a bit of red wine?  And, shucks, let's go crazy with some beef broth!

Now that I've added my sauteed mushrooms and onions to the meat, this dish is really starting to come together!

As a final touch, I added a bit of cream to make this stroganoffy.  I made that word up.  Cute, huh?

I debated between serving this over egg noodles (like a traditional stroganoff) but ultimately decided to serve over rice instead to help soak up all the amazing gravy.  We were NOT disappointed.

I may have added a little Parmesan cheese to the cooked rice before dousing it with the deer....ok, ok, I definitely did.  I'm a parm-a-holic!  It really went well with my deer dish.

Try it.  You'll like it.

-Sam

Venison Stroganoff

1 lb. ground deer (or ground beef)
1 vidalia onion, chopped
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 cups beef broth
2 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup red wine
2 sprigs thyme
1 tsp. rosemary
1/2 cup heavy cream
cooked rice
parmesan (optional)

Brown and then drain the deer meat in a large, deep skillet with 1 tbsp. olive oil.  In a separate skillet, brown the mushrooms and the onions with 1 tbsp. olive oil.  To the deer meat, add the broth, Worcestershire sauce, wine, thyme, and rosemary.  Bring to a simmer and then add the mushrooms and onions.

Remove from the heat and stir in 1 cup heavy cream.  Stir over cooked rice with parmesan.