It's Good Though…

Yield: 4 servings

A delightful mushroom sauce for chicken

• ¼cup finely chopped shallots (chopped onion will work if you can’t find shallots)
• 2oz butter (½ stick)
• 8oz fresh supermarket mushrooms, sliced
• ½cup white wine
• 8oz chicken based demi-glace
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Melt butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat and sauté shallots briefly until they become translucent. Add the wine, then the mushrooms and cook until most of the wine is cooked off. Add chicken based demi-glace and simmer for approx. 5-6 minutes (until sauce has thickened). You know the sauce is ready when it is thick enough to coat a spoon.

Restaurant trick – If you want an even richer sauce, whisk in a tablespoon or two of butter at the end.

Sauce is excellent over any grilled, roasted, or pan-fried chicken.

Peppercorn Sauce

Yield: 4 servings

Forget about having to go to a fancy upscale restaurant to be served Steak au Poivre when you can make your own Peppercorn Sauce at home in less than 20 minutes.

• ¼cup finely chopped shallots
• 1oz butter (¼ stick)
• 1TBS cracked black (or green) peppercorn
• ½cup red wine (Use a good table wine)
• 8fl oz demi-glace
• 2TBS finely chopped parsley
• Pepper to taste

Melt butter in a sauce pan and sauté shallots for approx. 2 minutes (until transparent). Add peppercorns and red wine, and reduce to an essence (approx. 2-3 minutes).

Add the demi-glace and stir with a whisk until glace is dissolved. Add water and simmer until the sauce is thick enough to coat a spoon.

Blend in chopped parsley and serve over broiled steaks. Sauce is best over strip steaks (approx. 8-12 oz) with all fat trimmed. Steaks can be either pan fried, broiled, or grilled, whatever your preference.

The amount of peppercorn may be varied to suit your personal taste.

Yield: 4 servings

” A good base lightly flavored with Madeira will produce one of the greatest of all sauces.” Raymond Sokolov, The Saucier’s Apprentice.
The history of Madeira wine goes back to 1418 and the wine initially was not fortified. It was ordinary wine that was a favorite of George Washington who was believed to have drank a pint of it daily.
This classic Madeira sauce recipe goes well with beef, chicken, chops or veal.

• 3TBS finely chopped shallots
• 1oz butter (¼ stick)
• ½lb white or Cremini mushrooms, sliced (optional)
• ½tsp cracked peppercorn
• 1bay leaf
• 1sprig fresh thyme (¼ tsp dried)
• ¼cup red wine
• ¾cup Madeira wine
• 1cup demi-glace
• ¼cup heavy cream (optional)

In a medium sized saucepan, sauté shallots in butter for 1-2 minutes or until translucent. Add mushrooms and cook until mushrooms are tender. (approx. 3 minutes). Remove mushrooms and set aside.

Add peppercorns, thyme, and bay leaf and cook 30 seconds. Add red wine and reduce by half. Add Madeira wine and bring to boil.

Add demi-glace and whisk until incorporated into the sauce. Return mushrooms to pan and add heavy cream and reduce briefly.

Serve over beef, veal, pork, chicken or other grilled or roasted meats. The heavy cream is strictly optional and gives the sauce a richer color and flavor.

Yield: 4 servings

Source lost

This classic French sauce is named for the great wine area of Bordeaux and is made with red wine, bone marrow, shallots, pepper and demi-glace. Bone marrow is listed as optional, but it is really a key ingredient.
NFB this is not a beginners sauce. There is nothing overly difficult here, but marrow and real demi-glace are specialty ingredients.

• ¼cup finely chopped shallots
• 1oz butter (¼ stick)
• 4oz diced beef bone marrow *
• ¼tsp cracked black peppercorn
• 1sprig fresh thyme
• ½cup red wine (Use a good table wine)
• 1cup demi-glace

Melt butter in a sauce pan and sauté shallots for approx. 2 minutes (until transparent). Add red wine and reduce for approx. 2-3 minutes (to an essence). Add thyme and peppercorns and reduce further for approx. 2-3 minutes (until almost no liquid remains).

Add demi-glace and simmer for approx. 5-6 minutes (until sauce begins to thicken).

In a separate pan, simmer diced bone marrow in water for 3-4 minutes. Drain water and add diced marrow to sauce and simmer for approx. 2 minutes. Serve over tournedos, beef tenderloin steaks, or rump steaks.

Sauce is excellent over most cuts of grilled or roast beef, especially whole roasted beef tenderloin.

*If bone marrow is not available, you can substitute butter instead. It’s still a good sauce but it isn’t Bordelaise.

Yield: 4 Servings

Elizabeth E. Skipper

A child of sauce hollandaise, Béarnaise has vinegar, shallots, tarragon and pepper. It is great on steaks, burgers, asparagus or salmon.

• ⅓cup white wine
• ⅓cup apple cider vinegar
• ¼cup chopped shallots
• 2TBS dried tarragon
• 2tsp dried chervil
• 1tsp salt
• ½tsp white (or black) pepper
• 3egg yolks
• ½lb butter, melted

With the first seven ingredients, make an acid base and reduce until there remain only 3 TBS-liquid in the pot. Cool slightly, add the egg yolks, and cook whisking over medium heat until the mixture mounds and thickens. DO NOT use aluminum pan, it reacts with the vinegar.

Remove- from the heat and add -the melted butter, slowly at first, to form the emulsion. Whisk in remaining butter, strain sauce through a coarse strainer to remove solids, and serve.

Can be made 1 hour ahead, sit at room temp. Add a little water, reheat and whisk thoroughly.

If desired, add a small amount of ground fresh tarragon.

Yield: 4 servings

This classic French sauce was very popular in France in the 17th century and to this day no one is positive where its name came from but think it was derived sometime in the 16th century.

Sauce Robert is considered a brown sauce but is made with white wine and mustard and goes great with beef and pork.

• 1medium onion
• ½oz butter
• ½cup white wine
• 1TBS Dijon mustard
• freshly ground pepper to taste
• ½oz butter for finishing
• 8oz demi-glace
• Sauté the onion in butter over medium high until translucent.

Add the white wine

• andreduce to an essence.

Add the demi-glace, stir and reduce until the sauce is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.

Add the mustard, taste for seasonings and finish with the remaining butter.

Melt the butter in a heavy saucepan. and mix in the flour. using a whisk. Cook for two to three minutes to remove the raw flour taste. Add the stock off the heat. whisking briskly to prevent lumps. Continue whisking over medium heat until the sauce thickens. Add the heavy cream, heat through. check the seasoning and adjust to taste.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Provençal sauce, made from herbes de Provence, chicken broth, butter, garlic, and lemon juice, is a simple sauce that goes great with chicken.  It can include tomato or not.  This recipe does.

• 3TBS finely chopped shallots
• 1TBS olive oil
• 1clove garlic, minced
• 1tsp herbes de provence (basil, fennel seed, lavender, marjoram, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme)
• ¼cup white wine, dry
• 8oz chicken demi-glace
• ½cup tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 2tsp fresh chervil, chopped
• 2tsp fresh parsley, chopped
• salt & pepper (white)

Sauté shallots, garlic, and herbes de provence in olive oil for 1-2 minutes or until shallots are translucent. Add wine and reduce by half. demi-glace and whisk until dissolved. Bring to a rapid boil for 30 seconds. Add tomatoes, chervil, parsley, and salt and white pepper to taste. Serve with fish, chicken, lamb, or grilled vegetables.

Sauce is primarily to be served over duck.