Venison and Blewit Casserole

Both these mushrooms and rich red deer meat pack fantastically powerful flavours that complement each other wonderfully and are the perfect way to end a hearty winter walk through a frosty landscape . . .

Blewits are a wonderful late-autumn and winter mushroom (I have picked basketloads as late as February). They have such a powerful flavour that they should always be cooked and even then can upset some delicate stomachs and can easily overpower some meats. Roger Phillips suggests a chicken and blewit pie, but I think they work best with stronger flavours. Both wood and field blewits taste very similar, so either can be used, but beware the cultivated version of the latter which are now sometimes available on supermarket shelves. These are not only very expensive, but are almost flavourless compared to the wild version. 

1     Large onion (chopped)
2     Carrots (diced)
1     Leek (shredded)
2     Cloves garlic
500g     Diced venison (stewing steak or mutton also work)
1     Large tin tomatoes
1     Large glass red wine
200g     Wood (or field) blewits
200g     Cultivated button mushrooms (optional)
2     Sprigs fresh rosemary
4     Bay leaves
Olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Roll the meat in seasoned flour while you soften the onion in olive oil. Then add the carrot, leek, garlic and meat. Brown the last lightly to seal, then add the blewits, tomatoes, wine and cook in a low oven for two – three hours. Twenty minutes before serving check for consistency (if necessary thickening with a little cornflower or tomato puree) and season to taste. The vegetables and blewits will have largely melted into the sauce, so you can add cultivated button mushrooms to reinforce the fungal theme. Serve with mashed or baked potatoes – but polenta provides an authentically Continental backdrop.

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