Grilled Venison Orecchiette Stroganoff
Recipe: 05/29/2024
Comfort food has a dedicated place in all our hearts. There’s a reason that when life hands you lemons, you resort to binging pasta and… in my case… hamburger helper.
Though, our version of “hamburger” growing up was almost exclusively ground deer and elk meat.
Now, when the road gets rough, I resort back to some combination of pasta and ground meat. Because I’m me, it also almost always involves cheese, mushrooms, and CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP.
Yes, I went there. Could I make a cream base from scratch? Sure, I could.
Does Campbell’s already do it in a way that absolutely works every damn time? You know they did. Get off your high horse and grab a can opener.
If you’ve read this far, I assume this means you are a fungi-phile in the same ways I am. This recipe is actually one I put together several years ago, but because it’s morel season, I happen to have a fresh batch of wild mushrooms I foraged. This means my mushroom recipes are seeing the light of day again.
Regardless of the mushroom variety, this works. I mean, the portobellos are sort of a requirement for the vessel, but aside from that, go nuts. I use chanterelles, morels, oysters, and anything else I can find.
Enough of the pre-recipe BS - let’s cook.
Ingredients:
All the butter
1 lb ground venison (of your choice)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 can cream of mushroom soup (fight me)
sliced mushrooms of your liking
large portobello mushrooms, deveined and stemmed
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
4 cups Orecchiette pasta
fresh shaved parm
chopped fresh parsley
Cooking Instructions:
1. Bring seasoned water to a boil. Get that pasta cookin’.
2. In a hot and heavily buttered cast iron pan, sauté up a heap o’ shrooms with garlic. Brown that venison while you’re at it to a caramelized crisp. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Combine the two and cover 'em with the DANG CAN OF CREAM OF MUSHROOM soup, sour cream and milk. Season with pepper and paprika.
4. Butter up those portobellos and get the grill raging. Toss in a layer of pasta, then your meaty, mushroomy, deliciousness. Top it off with some fresh shaved parm, curly parsley, and finish 'er off with Montana Mex MILD CHILI seasoning.
5. Onto the grill until it’s all melty and gooey and awesome.
6. Eat. Nap.
