Photo: Venison and Wild Mushroom Stew Recipe
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
- 2 pounds venison shoulder, excess fat removed, cut into 1-inch cubes
- Salt
- Black pepper
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup dry red wine
- 1 large onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
- 2 ribs celery, diced
- 1 large parsnip, peeled and diced
- 1 leek, white only, diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 pound mixed wild mushrooms, such as wood ear, chanterelle, morel, or shiitake, sliced
- 1 12 ounce bottle amber beer
- 21/2 quarts veal or beef stock
- 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
- 6 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 teaspoon allspice
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 baking potatoes, like russets, peeled and cubed
- 1 pound cooked egg noodles
Directions
In a large stockpot cook the bacon over high heat until crispy. Remove the bacon from the pan and drain on paper towels. Season the venison with salt and pepper, and then lightly dust with flour. Add the oil to the pot and sear the venison on all sides over medium high heat. Remove the meat from the pot and add any remaining flour, stirring constantly. Deglaze the pot with the red wine, scraping with a wooden spoon.
Add the onions and cook over medium high heat until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots, celery and parsnips and saute for 2 minutes, then add the leeks and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms to the pot and cook until they release their moisture, about 5 -- 7 minutes. Add the beer and scrape to remove any browned bits from the bottom of the pan, then add the veal stock, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, allspice, bay leaves and tomato paste. Bring the stew to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer. Cook until the meat is tender and the stock is reduced, about 1 1/2 hours. Add the potatoes to the pot and continue cooking until they are cooked through, about 20-30 minutes.
Season to taste and serve with egg noodles tossed with butter.
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By BestBeach
Destin, FL
on March 03, 2013
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I made this dish last night and the "Great White Hunters" at the table said hands down the BEST venison recipe they had ever had. Now about the negative reviews. The bacon and bacon grease is salty. I did add 1 tsp. kosher salt to the stew. I too wondered about deglazing with wine which does not evaporate but followed the recipe anyway and the stew is fabulous. Also, I only added the bottle of beer and 1 qt. of beef stock. The stew was very soupy. I cooked it in a 350 degree oven UNCOVERED for 2 hrs. It reduced by 1/3 and was perfect. The venison fell apart. DO NOT leave out the Allspice, key ingredient, and there is no substitute. The Wild Mushrooms make the dish more exotic and more expensive. Regular mushrooms would be just fine. I did not put in the potatoe. The recipe omitted returning the meat to the pot, SO WHAT, use common sense people. This is intermediate level cooking. If you are a beginner try another recipe.
By Jennifer Schafer
Willmar, MN
on January 05, 2012
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I made this for my family tonight. I have five children and they are pretty fussy to trying new things. They LOVED IT. My husband LOVED it too. He said that we should make this for a holiday because it was a stew that was made "fancy". This is a dish we definitly will make again.
By Schmitty2456
Houston, TX
on October 26, 2010
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This was an annoying recipe that has several things wrong with the directions. First, when rendering bacon fat, don't cook it on "high" in a heavy stock pot, it will burn. Second, an entire cup of red wine to deglaze was way too much. It never evaporated enough to allow my veggies to caramelize. Instead they softened in a wine slurry and never developed that important layer of flavor that a caramelized vegetables get. Third, I'm assuming you're supposed to add the meat back in when you add the broth because it never actually says when to add the meat back. And last but not least there's this little thing called salt, and most good recipes call for it (besides just in the flour.
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