Red wine reduction mushroom steak sauce
I wish I had a more elegant sounding name for this sauce since the grocery-list style name seems pretty blah to me.
When it comes to steak, everybody has an opinion about how to prepare, what should go with it, and so on. I tend to appreciate a thoughtfully prepared sauce with my steak (mmm, bernaise) and I think that this one fits the bill. Flavor-wise, this sauce is rich, dark, earthy, and kind of heavy on the mouth, but it really stands up well with a good steak.
- 1.25-1.5 cups of a full-bodied, dry red wine (Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz is preferable–something nicer than cooking wine, but nothing too fancy/expensive)
- 4-6 garlic cloves
- 2-3 shallots/chives (the greens, not the bulb)
- a handful of coarsely chopped baby bella (or some other small kind) mushrooms
- 3-4 sprigs of fresh rosemary
- 1 Tbsp Worchestershire sauce
- a pinch of flour
recommended, but optional:
- italian flat-leaf parsely
- basil/tarragon
- oregano
Finely mince up the garlic and fry very briefly (like 2 min) in some extra-virgin olive oil to take the edge off of that sharp flavor.
Then, very finely dice up all of the fresh herbs (except for the rosemary–leave that as is so its easy to remove later) and mix in with the garlic, flour, and all of the wet ingredients. I take the easy way out and toss all of this into the food processor. Then, once that’s all nicely mixed together, toss in the mushrooms and the rosemary.
The pinch of flour is to help thicken the sauce up a little bit as time goes on. The mushrooms will bring a really nice, earthy flavor to the sauce, and the sweet aroma of the rosemary will bring it all together. And hey, red wine is good any time! The rest matters, too, but you get the idea.
Simmer this gently on low/medium for about 30 minutes. You’ll have to stir this some what regularly as you don’t want tacky, gooey chunks to form in the sauce because that would look bad on your prize cut of meat. You just want it to thicken up, become more viscous, and for all of the flavors to get up close and personal with one another. Remove the rosemary sprigs when you’re done and pour some of this over your steak just prior to serving.
This makes enough for 2-4 plates, depending on how much you ladle on.
A glass of red wine would go nicely with this, and I’m going to go out on a limb now and speculate that you probably have an open bottle of red wine handy at this point. I know–what are the odds, right? Cheers!
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