In a prior article, I discussed venison Korean barbecue style, and venison pot-au-feu. Here are a couple more venison recipes.

Venison with Mushrooms and Sage in Puff Pastry

This is inspired by a recipe that Ari Pavlou, the chef at my Bistro, published in a book called "Foie Gras: Wonderful Ways to Enjoy Foie Gras." My variation doesn't use foie gras, since that's a bit hard to find. Also, his version uses wild mushrooms, but with mine you can use any mushrooms, fresh or dried. And I don't marinate the venison in Sauterne.

You do not need a lot of venison or mushrooms for this dish. A little goes a long way in the puff pastry. Figure about 1/4 cup of filling for the puff pastry per person -- so for 4 people, you will only need 1 cup of the combined mushroom/venison mixture -- not much at all.

Marinating the Venison:

Start marinating in the morning if you are going to cook it for dinner. Take a little venison, maybe a half pound or even less, chop into small pieces and sprinkle with salt, pepper, and a bit of freshly grated nutmeg (not too much). Sprinkle on a little local red or white wine, some olive oil, and add some chopped garlic and fresh herbs (the wine, oil, garlic, and herbs are not in Ari's recipe, but that's how I like to marinate lamb). Let it marinate in the refrigerator all day.

Mushroom sauce:

• olive oil
• shallots, local if available
• 4 oz. white wine, local if possible
• several sage leaves, chopped, local or homegrown
• chicken bouillon - powder, paste or cubes
• 4 oz. heavy cream
• mushrooms - fresh and chopped, and/or dried and reconstituted and chopped - best is probably a combination of the two

Heat the olive oil and shallots. Add the white wine and chopped sage, cook down for a while, then taste. To the extent it needs salt, add the chicken bouillon instead of salt. Add the heavy cream and cook down some more.

Puff Pastry:

Since it's very time-consuming to make puff pastry from scratch, I just buy it from the store – basically Pepperidge Farm, the only brand they sell in the supermarket. It comes in two frozen, folded, sheets. The sheets are folded into thirds. You will have to defrost the sheet slightly to unfold it. If you want to make 9 fairly small puff pastries, cut the sheet into thirds along the crease lines, then cut into thirds again to make nine squares. Alternatively, for bigger pastries, cut each sheet into 4 pieces.

Put the puff pastry squares onto a baking sheet. Put a little of the venison-mushroom-cream mixture onto the center of the puff pastry square, then fold to make a triangle. Crimp the edges together with a fork. Bake for about 10 minutes, according to the instructions on the box. Be careful not to over-bake them.

Orzo with Venison and Mushroom Sauce

Use the same recipe for the venison, mushroom, cream and sage, but instead of putting the mixture into puff pastries, just serve it over orzo. I love cooking orzo, since it is fast and easy – it boils up in about 5 minutes. You can also serve with local North Fork potatoes.