Red Wine Pan Sauce

Rather than launching into the merits of the flip many over flip once of the steak cooking (not sure if there is a correct answer to that), I am kicking off with a simple red wine sauce. With a few ingredients wine, shallots,  stock, salt pepper and a little flour we can achieve a good result, in my opinion better than store bought which I always find to be too sweet.

Some time ago after a complaint from a family member that my steak cooking skills sucked. And after some reflection and realizing that there was some merit to this criticism, I set myself a goal to get me some steak cooking skills, and as it happened, also some steak-saucing skills to go with it.

The star of this sauce is the red wine which is really whatever you have on hand, also a good excuse to open a bottle. I am using a 2011 Cab/Sav picked up from Pfeiffer’s in Rutherglen, Victoria, from a recent visit to their cellar door. Thanks to Rose for a great weekend, I need to come back to restock already. I think the key to this recipe is a decent red, if you are happy to drink it it should be ok to cook with, and a good stock. I have used homemade stock, store bought and cubes all work as long as they are decent quality. Check saltiness before adding extra salt as some store bought stock is already very salty. I had two problems with my sauces when I first started, number one the steak would cool too much while it was resting and I was doing the sauce and number two it took forever to reduce to a suitable thick sauciness. I am guessing the pros would do it differently, but I overcome both these issues in the following manner. To solve the first problem I am aiming for a medium rare result. I first  preheat the oven to 100 degrees C, take the steak off when it has achieved rare doneness. Let it rest in the warm oven which I turn off as soon as it goes in. So now I have about 15 minutes to do the sauce, by which time it has finished / rested to a medium rare. The second problem is solved by making a simple roux in the pan with about a tablespoon of general purpose flour before the wine goes in. It is in the video I am sure it will make sense when you see it.