Pan-roasted Steaks With Mushroom Sauce Serves 2-4
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke - Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Pan-roasted Steaks with Mushroom Sauce
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
Pan-roasting is a combination of searing in a skillet, then finishing the cooking in the oven. Before sou vide machines, it was the most predictable way to get moist venison steaks, even if you cook them until all the pink is gone. I still pan-roast because it’s very quick and I don’t have to make room for another specific-use appliance. Be sure to have all your prep work done before starting the pans though.
My friend Rich admits he’s pretty methodical at cooking, which translates into slow. When he made this recipe, he had dinked around with the sauce for so long his steaks got a bit more done than he liked them. Don’t be Rich. For best results, once you’ve seared the steaks, leave them in the oven no longer than 10 minutes. No more. The longer you leave them in the oven, the more done they will be, but at 475°F 10 minutes will cook a 1-inch thick steak a still-pinkish medium-rare.
If you have cremini or portobello mushrooms use them. In a pinch, the common white ones are fine, but the others will deepen and expand the flavors.
Pan-roasted Steaks with Mushroom Sauce
Serves 2-4
Ingredients
1 pound steaks, about 1-inch thick
5 tablespoons butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup Marsala wine
3 green onions, chopped
Cooking
1. Trim and dry the steaks with paper towels.
2. Chop and measure the rest of the ingredients, so they’re ready to go. (To avoid possibly getting burnt, always pour spirits into a measuring cup first, rather than pouring them directly from the bottle into a hot skillet. Especially hard liquor and fortified wines like Marsala.)
3. Place cast iron skillet #1 in the center of your oven; preheat to 475˚F. On the stovetop, bring 2 tablespoons of the butter to a sizzle over medium-high heat in cast iron skillet #2 and sear the steaks on both sides, about 3 minutes.
4. Transfer the steaks to skillet #1 to finish cooking in the oven: in ten minutes, a 3/4-inch steak should be a slightly pink medium; a 1-inch steak, medium rare. Remove the searing pan (#2) from the heat for 30 seconds, then continue.
5. Add the rest of the butter to the pan #2, lower the heat to medium, and sauté the garlic and mushrooms for about 3 minutes or until tender. Add the Marsala to the mushrooms and let it reduce in volume by about half. Then return the steaks to the pan. Spoon the sauce over the steaks a few times, then transfer to a preheated platter. Toss the chopped green onions on top and serve.
Eileen Clarke’s all-venison cookbook, Slice of the Wild has 100 recipes for our favorite game including several simple pan sauces for steaks. It’s available at https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/406-521-0273. There may even still be copies at Goose Bay Glass and Reading Leaves here in Townsend.
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PhotoCredit: Eileen Clark Photo
Image 1 Caption: Eileen Clarke with her "smiling elk"
Eileen Clark Photo
