What Do You Want For Supper?

What Do You Want For Supper?  The age old question in our house.  It comes at different times every day, but there is a guarantee that at some point during the day it will be asked by one of us.  Yesterday afternoon, I decided that it was going to be bear steaks with mushroom gravy over herb crusted oven roasted potatoes... yummm!  The other day while digging to the BOTTOM of the freezer (a place rarely seen,)  I came across a couple packages of bear steaks that I forgot we had.  The steaks are from a bear I harvested a couple years ago.  After waiting 8 years to draw a tag to hunt it, I was tickled pink that I succeeded on getting my first bear.  I will share a pic of the mount with you, as I was too hungry last night to take a pic of the yummy meal.

This is a recipe that was passed down to me from Bob, and has been shared in Bear Camp by him many, many times.  Bob usually serves it over noodles, as it's faster to cook a huge kettle of noodles than potatoes when you have a camp full of hungry hunters coming out of the woods.



Bear Steaks with Mushroom Gravy over Herb Crusted Oven Roasted Potatoes


2 lbs of bear steaks sliced 1/4" thick
1 large onion, diced large
1 sm pk of baby bella mushrooms, quartered
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 envelope of onion soup mix
2 envelopes of mushroom gravy mix
4 cups of water
salt & pepper to taste


6-8 small red potatoes, bite sized pieces
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp dry thyme
1/2 tsp dry rosemary
2-3 TBSP extra virgin olive oil

Place half of the diced up onion, mushrooms and peppers in the bottom of a slow cooker.  Place your bear steaks on top and sprinkle the onion soup mix and gravy packets over the top of the meat.  Put the rest of the veggies in on top of that and add your salt and pepper.  Slowly pour the water in and let simmer on low for 6 hrs.  Stir occasionally to make sure your steaks don't stick together and to get the gravy between each piece to absorb as much flavor as possible.  The steaks will be fall apart tender when done.  If your gravy is too thick add more water. 
Mix potatoes, herbs and olive oil together in a bowl and spread out on a baking sheet.  The last half hour of the bear cooking, I put my herb crusted potatoes in the oven for 30 min at 350 degrees, stirring once to get a crust on all sides.  Slightly mashed them with a fork on my plate and served them with the gravy over the top.

This meal can easily be made with venison steaks or beef, and goes great with glazed baby carrots on the side.  I think my Momma would have even liked this meal, and she's not a big fan of bear meat!

Until next time...
Sara