3 great sauces for steak & pork

The best of all the mother sauces is Espagnole. It is the classic brown sauce. So rich, so flavorful, I could eat it on almost anything.

Brown Veal Stock
Mirepoix (Onions, Celery, Carrots)
Clarified Butter
Flour
Tomato Puree
Sachet (Bay Leaf, Dry Thyme, Parsley Stems)
Saute Mirepoix in butter until caramelized, add flour to create roux, cook together to blonde creamy consistency, stir in tomato puree, slowly whisk in stock, add sachet, simmer for 2 hours & strain.

Espagnole on it's own is very good, but that's just the beginning. From there you can make a demiglace, which is very easy. Take equal parts Espagnole & straight brown stock, reduce it to half & there is your demiglace. Once you have a demiglace you can make 3 very fantastic sauces; Chasseur, Robert, & Marchand De Vin.

Chausseur - Saute mushrooms & shallots to good caramelized color. Add white wine & reduce, add demiglace & diced tomato, simmer, then finish with chopped parsley (a nice hearty, chunkier sauce, very flavorful that goes well with any red meat or even chicken.)

Robert - Sweat a small amount of diced onions in butter. Add about a cup of white wine, reduce by 2/3, add demiglace, simmer, strain, then finish with a bit of dry mustard & a little sugar dissolved in a small amount of lemon juice. (very good on pork, gives a sweet, sour, tangy flavor.)

Marchand De Vin (MY FAVORITE & the easiest) - Reduce red wine with chopped shallots by more than 1/2. Add demiglace & strain. (So rich & thick & great with steak. A little goes a long way.)

After we made the demiglace & turned it into each of the three sauces chef grilled some flank steak & we had a great dinner of steak w/ our sauces, polenta & leftover bread from the baking & pastry class next door. After 8 weeks of classes I finally get to eat a decent dinner. The sauces were great. Especially the Marchand De Vin & the Chausser. Robert, I don't know, maybe it is better with pork. I'll have to give it a try. The other thing that was sinfully good was dipping the bread into leftover clarified butter. Clarified butter has a beautiful flavor that is very different than just regular melted butter. We use clarified butter instead of raw butter in almost everything. That's a lesson for another day. I'm still trying to completely understand the technique. I like to think it makes the butter a little less fattening. Wishful thinking, I'm sure. More to come on that topic.

I really have to study all of these sauces this weekend, plus 4 more that we will do on Monday. I still have to get through Emulsion Monday - Hollandaise, Bearnaise, Mayonnaise & Beurre Blanc. On Tuesday I have a sauce practical test & will have to create 2 sauces (of the chef's choosing) without recipes, by myself, out of about 12 that we've learned. Quite a challenge. Should do okay. Bandaged fingers crossed. (Oh yeah, cut a couple of fingers along with the onions....again....OUCH!)

-CLG