original ideas for a stew?

[Hallie]

I've just bought a few pheasant breasts and some venison meat and have been trying to find a decent recipe for a slow cooker stew that doesn't rely on the predictable carrot-celery- potato-red wine and bay leaf base. Personally I'm vehemently anti-carrot and celery in most stews and soups. I don't think that this combination adds anything flavour-wise (lately I've started replacing celery with fennel which makes a huge difference). I'm also utterly against just dumping a tin of cream of mushroom soup over something and letting it simmer in that. Seems like a waste of good meat.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I'd like to do something fairly healthy - so no cream. Perhaps something Italian or with Med-flavours? Or something eastern European-ish or unusual.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I adore the lamb-centric stew in Bernard Clayton's Soup & Stew book which uses eggplant, green beans, and a hint of cinnamon for a Greek-style stew.

If you search for "daube" recipes instead of stew, you will come across a whole bunch that don't use carrots or celery either -- many with mushrooms or onions or just meat.

[highchef]

I'd add turnips for the breast, and pearl onions, a half bottle or so of a decent red. thicken at the end. How big are the breast? Are you planning to leave them whole?

[Hallie]

I'd add turnips for the breast, and pearl onions, a half bottle or so of a decent red. thicken at the end. How big are the breast? Are you planning to leave them whole?

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The breasts are quite small - sort of small chicken breast size so I was thinking of dicing them up and throwing them in with the venison as a sort of game stew (or is this a bad idea? Should I just stick to venison stew?) Been thinking that I'd like to throw some mushrooms in with this and maybe some fresh herbs - though nothing overwhelming.