No Sweets Today

A friend of mine recently commented that he noticed my blog was primarily sweet stuff. I didn’t think this should come as a surprise. For anyone who has yet to clue in, I’ll tell you right now, I like sweet stuff. I like it a lot. It also makes for better photographs. As much as I enjoy a good stew, (and I do, I really do) they don’t photograph well. Stew looks like brown mush. Is it tasty? Most definitely, but it doesn’t always show it. And when you can’t smell the amazing aroma of a stew to make you forget that it’s ugly, it doesn’t always look that appetizing. A cake on the other hand, always looks good. Cake slices nicely and can be drizzled with a pretty sauce if it needs gussying up. I suppose you could stick a dumpling on top of a bowl of stew to try for some visual contrast but it’s not the same. This post is a bit of a compromise between the sweet and savory worlds. The picture you see is of a venison and wild mushroom pie that’s clearly savoury but has taken the form of a sweet. I thought that struck a happy balance between the two. And because I couldn’t drizzle this pie with a caramel or chocolate sauce, I topped it with my Mom’s homemade zucchini relish. In this case, that’s just as good.

Venison and Wild Mushroom Pie, (from Food & Drink magazine, Autumn 2007)

1 lb venison, cut into ½ inch dice, (you could also use beef)

Salt and ground pepper

¼ cup vegetable oil

2 medium onions, diced

2 tsp chopped garlic

¼ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp dried marjoram

1 lb wild mushrooms

¼ cup all purpose flour

½ cup dark lager

2 cups venison or beef stock

1 lb frozen puff pastry, defrosted

1 egg, beaten

2 T milk

Season venison with salt and pepper.

Add 2 T oil to a large heavy bottom pot over med-high heat, and heat until just smoking. Add venison and cook for 3-4 minutes or until browned all over. Remove venison with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Return the pot to the element, reduce heat to medium and add onion, garlic and herbs and cook for 3 minutes or until browned. Add mushrooms, cover and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes or until juicy. Add remaining 2 T oil to pan and stir in flour to coat mushrooms. Add beer and then the stock, stirring each time so that the paste is incorporated into the liquid. Return venison to the pot, bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 1 hour or until the venison is tender and sauce is thick. If too thick add a little extra stock.

Preheat oven to 375F.

Divide frozen puff pastry into 2 pieces. Roll out to make a top and bottom crust to fit a 9-inch pie plate.

Beat together egg and milk to make an egg wash. Fill pie shell with the venison mixture, brush the edges with the egg wash. Top with remaining pastry and press to seal edges. Cut a few slits in the top to allow steam to escape. Brush the pastry top with more wash and bake for 30-35 minutes or until pastry is golden brown and mixture is bubbling.

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Venison + Mushrooms