Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 1 1/2 pounds venison backstrap (or any cut of venison/steak), in one piece
- 2 large shallots, minced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 pound sliced button mushrooms
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
- 1/4 cup Madeira wine or sherry
- 1 cup sour cream, at room temperature
- Dill pollen to garnish (optional)
- Heavy cream, optional (to loosen sauce)
Directions:
- Salt the venison well and let it sit on the cutting board for 20 minutes. Get 2 tablespoons butter in a large saute pan good and hot over medium-high heat. Pat the venison dry and sear all sides well in the butter. Cook it until it's rare to medium-rare. If you don't know how to determine this, use the finger test for doneness. When the meat is ready. move it to a cutting board and let it rest.
- Add the mushrooms to the pan and turn the heat to high. Soon they will give up their water, and when they do, use a wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. When most of the water has boiled away, add the rest of the butter to the pan along with the shallots and saute everything for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, toss and cook over high heat for another 3 minutes or so. Sprinkle some salt over everything.
- Add the Madeira/sherry and toss to combine. Let this boil down furiously. While it is doing so, grate some nutmeg over the mixture. When the Madeira/sherry is mostly gone, turn the heat down to low. Slice the venison thinly and return it and any juices that have collected on the cutting board to the pan. Stir to combine and add most of the chopped fresh dill.
- Stir in the sour cream and turn off the heat. Stir to combine and let it heat through from the heat in the pan. Do not let this boil, or even simmer, or Very Bad Things will happen. Think nasty curdled crap.
Serving suggestions: over egg noodles or, as I would personally suggest, homemade spaetzle.
Posted by Emilee