You will be angry at your mother for not cooking like this for you…fair warning.

Tinder braised deer meat, thick flavorful gravy, with delicious ripe Old Man of the Woods Mushrooms served over a bed of Louisiana grown white rice, and a side of sauteed green briar and bull thistle.  This is a meal fit for a Cajun Caveman! All of the ingredients except for the rice, flour, seasoning and butter were collected by this chubby little chef from the wild green yonder.  Once your understanding of certain wild foods begins to grow, you can leave the house with a few staples, and make a restaurant quality meal out of what you pick along the way….Or you can go through a drive thru, and only use your foraging ability in a survival situation.  Whatever makes your dingo dance.

If you don’t care for wild foods, then the ingredients listed in this recipe can easily be swapped out for a multitude of grocery store alternatives.

Ingredients for the Braised Venison & Rice and Gravy:

1.  1 to 1.5 lb Venison Round Steak. You can substitute with beef, or pork.
2.  2 good handfuls of Old Man of The Woods Mushrooms.  You can substitute whatever your favorite store bought mushroom here (portabello mushrooms, porcini would be killer, etc.)
3. 1/2 to 3/4 cup of flour
4. 3/4 stick of butter
5. 3/4 cup chopped wild onion bulbs.  You can substitute about 1/2 of a large white store bought onion & 2 cloves of finley minced garlic.
6. 1 cup of short grain white rice.
7. Cajun style seasoning to taste. You can substitute for whatever goes for awesome seasoning where you come from.
8. Water (or a broth of your choice).

Cooking Method for the Braised Venison & Rice and Gravy:

1. Season the Venison with your favorite seasoning (I would recommend getting a good Cajun seasoning mix).  I used Larue Tactical’s dry rub, Dillo Dust…that makes this dish a tactical recipe, right? It’s what I had in my truck.

Season dat!

2. Brown the meat in a black iron pot/skillet with 1-2 tbsp of butter, bacon grease or oil.

Brown dat!

3. After browning, remove the meat, and store covered (or it will dry out) in a warm location.

4. We are going to make a roux.  Place about 3/4 of a stick of butter in the bottom of the skillet, and melt.  Add roughly 1/2 cup of flour little bits at a time, and mixing with the butter until you get the right consistency.  If too thick, you can add a small amount of butter, if too thin a small amount of flour. It will start out as a paste, then as it cooks together it will become more like a viscous liquid.

5. Cook the roux on medium to medium high heat, stirring constantly to avoid sticking to the bottom of the skillet and burning.  If you get black specks in your roux, then you burned it…start over.

6. When you get your roux dark enough (look for a light chocolate color), then add your chopped onion, and cook until soft.  Then add garlic and cook until the mixture is incorporated into the roux.

7.  Add water or broth until you get the desired thickness, and amount of gravy.  Then add your chopped Old Man of the Woods mushrooms (or whatever kind you’ve got).

Old Man of the Woods Mushroom

Old Man of the Woods with its rust color after chopping

Old Man of the Woods before chopping

Add your mushrooms to the gravy.

Simmer mushrooms in gravy

8.  Simmer the mushrooms in the gravy until they begin to soften, then add your meat back tot he pot.

9. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours, or until the meat is fork tender.  Add water or broth to the gravy if necessary.

10.  Serve over Louisiana short grain rice.

Ingredients for the sauteed vegetables:

1. A few handfuls of freshly picked greenbriar shoots.  You can substitute with asparagus spears.
2. A few handfuls of chopped bull thistle leaves with the spines removed.  You can substitute swiss chard.
3. Wild Garlic.  You can substitute about a clove of finely minced garlic.
4. 1 tbsp of butter.
5. Salt/Pepper or Cajun seasoning.

Cooking Method for the Braised Venison & Rice and Gravy:

1. Wash your greenbriar shoots, and bull thistle leaves.  You can substitute with asparagus, and swiss chard if you wish.

2. Remove the spines from the bull thistle by cutting with a knife or using a pair of scissors.

Cutting away the spines with my Mora knife

Our veggie plate for the evening

3. Cross chop the bull thistle, and add them to a skillet with the butter, garlic, seasoning and sautee.

Sautee in butter, garlic and seasoning

4. Enjoy the fruits of your labor, and nature’s gifts.

A wild meal for wilder men.

To see the identification and collection of the plants, meat & mushrooms eaten in this recipe, see the following articles:

• Wild Edibles – Wild Onion or Wild Garlic (Allium)
• Wild Onion/Garlic Update,
• Wild Edibles – Greenbriar (Smilax),
• Wild Edibles – Bull Thistle (Cirsium horridulum),
• 11 Years & Nine Points – Finishing the Deer Season Like a Boss
• Old Man of the Woods: Edible Wild Mushroom

Requisite Lawyer Happy Provision:

Don’t eat anything collected from the wild that can not be properly identified from reputable sources.  Don’t pick and eat anything from the wild if you are an idiot.  As an idiot, you are unable to distinguish foods that can kill you from the ones that make you healthy and happy.  Don’t tug on Superman’s cape or pee into the wind. Never get in a fistfight with the biggest guy in the bar.  Never get in a fistfight with the smallest guy in the bar.

Categories: Food, Foraging, Mushrooms, recipe

Tags: bull thistle, bull thistle recipe, cajun cooking, cajun food, comfort food, deer meat, deer recipe, deer round steak, forage, Foraging, greenbriar, greenbriar recipe, Louisiana Edible, Louisiana wild edible, old man of the woods, rice and gravy, round steak recipe, sauteed, Smilax, Strobilomyces floccopus, Strobilomyces strobilaceus, venison, Venison recipe