Venison steaks with mushroom game sauce

4 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
-----steaks-----
4 Venison steaks cut from loin
Juniper berries; ground
2 teaspoons Salt
⅓ cup Butter; melted
2 cups Wild mushroom game sauce ---sauce-----
1 ounce Dried boletus edulis (cepe,
2 cups Water
2 ounces Fresh onions; chopped
3 tablespoons Butter; melted
3 tablespoons Flour
1 cup Rich meat stock; * see note
½ cup Dry red wine
Salt and pepper; to taste
6 Juniper berries; crushed fin
2 Allspice berries; crushed fi
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
¼ teaspoon Paprika
2 ounces Dill pickles; diced

Directions

Recipe by: plgold@... (Pat Gold) * preferably from the game being used, commercial ok

Notes: Prepare wild mushroom game sauce.

STEAKS:

Do not overcook the venison here. It should be done no more than medium rare in the center. This perparation does not require marinading, because the tenderness of the loin meat. Serve with quick-sauteed potatoes with dill sauce, and Stag's Leap Cabernet.

1. Pound the steaks to ½-inch thickness. Sprinle lightly with the juniper berries and salt.

2. Saute the steaks with the butter for about 3 minutes on each side. The meat should be done no more than medium rare.

3. Heat the wild mushroom game sauce, adjust for salt, pour over the steks, and serve.

SAUCE:

This sauce is excellent for furred game, especially if the meat has not been marinated. It is very much in the traditional European Hunter's Style, which uses juinper berries and pickles. It was developed through the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by cooks working on the great landed-gentry estates of France, Poland and Germany.

1. Clean mushrooms thoroughly under brisk running water.

2. Combine the mushrooms and about 2 cups of water in a saucepan, and bring to a boil. Then reduce the heat, and let simmer for 30 minutes.

Remove reconstituted mushrooms from broth, and set aside for later addition to sauce.

3. Prepare a roux: Saute the onions in the butter until they are almost traansparent; add the flour, and stir for 1 minute.

4. Add the simmered mushroom extract, strained meat stock, and red wine to the roux mixture, and stir till blended and slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Add juniper berries, allspice, mustard, paprika, reconstituted mushrooms, and dill pickles. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add salt and pepper. The sauce is now ready to use.

Serves 4.

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