Wild Eats

This was one of the venison backstraps I saved from deer season this year.

I remove the silver skin and cut a section of backstrap from the thickest end...
butterflied the piece to lay flat.



Pounded the backstrap with a meat tenderizer to flatten more.. then sprinkled with 1 TBS of tenderquick mixed with 1 tsp of turbinado sugar for a quick cure.

I let the meat cure for 2 hrs in the fridge, then rinsed well.

Placed some of my dried morels from Morel hunting in water to hydrate...


Made a wild rice stuffing by cooking a few minced onions, minced garlic and morels in a butter/olive oil mix. Then adding cooked wild rice and cracked black pepper.

Spread the morel, wild rice mix onto the cured venison and sprinkled with green onions...

wrapped in a bacon weave.. (that was tricky, it's easier to wrap a fatty. lol )




into the smoker with some mild apple wood...





I smoked the venison low at first then cranked the heat up to crisp the bacon in the end...
total cooking time was 1hr and 45 minutes.

made a sauce with the morel infused water..

drippings from the smoke pan, minced onion, a pinch of rosemary, a pinch of thyme and a good shot of wild grape wine ...

then thickened with a cornstarch slurry.

both the smoke and the cure give the venison a pink look...the meat is so moist and tender..




I really, really liked this. :)


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Reminded me of the fun I had during the year while harvesting the meat, shrooms and wild grapes. :)