Venison Rib Eye with Creamy Mushroom Pilaf

I use a select few commercially prepared condensed soups to make sauces and dips but I always  substitute my home canned stocks and broths when a recipe calls for the commercially canned versions.  The reason being is home canned or simply home made stocks and broths are less expensive but have better flavour.  Stocks and broths add a wonderful flavour to rices so unless I need plain white rice for a particular dish, I always cook rices in stocks (eg. beef, chicken, vegetable, tomato).

The guys had a successful hunt camp which translates into me having a bit of venison in the freezer.  Venison is wild game that can have a gamey edge to it if not cooked properly.  This is mainly due to the meat being very low fat and the mouth feel of what fat there is.  For this reason, venison is usually cooked with pork or bacon fat.

We pan fried the venison rib eye steaks in a little bacon grease in one of our new ceramic coated non-stick EcoPans.  The pan was amazing to use to the point my restaurant grade Teflon coated have officially been retired.  I served the venison steaks with home canned green beans and a creamy mushroom pilaf.  The recipe called for using part of the Parmesan cheese and parsley as a garnish.  I omitted both as venison is a very rich meat so I wanted the pilaf to complement rather than compete with that richness.

Creamy Mushroom Pilaf
modified from: Campbell's, Simply Delicious Recipes (1992), Pp. 130

3 tbsp butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 c fresh sliced mushrooms
1 c uncooked long grain white rice
1¼ c homemade stock
¾ c water
¼ c dry white wine
¼ tsp pepper
¼ c sour cream
½ c fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Place the onion, mushrooms, rice and butter into a 2-quart saucepan.  Cook until rice is lightly browned on medium heat, stirring often.  Stir in broth, water, win and pepper.  Heat to boiling.  Reduce the heat to a low simmer.  Cover and cook 20 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Stir in the sour cream and half of the cheese.  Cover and let stand 5 minutes.  Stir.  Garnish with remaining cheese and parsley if desired.

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