This week I’ll be schooling Emily on the most important wine region in the world – Bordeaux!
We’ll chat about what Bordeaux tastes like, the classification systems, and more.
We’ll even hear from St Emilion local Kelley Moueix about the secret underground quarries of the limestone plateau.
This week’s recipe is steak with red wine bordelaise sauce!
Steak à la Bordelaise
This is a recipe that is not really a recipe, the basic gist of it is that you reduce red wine and stock until it’s got a thick syrupy texture, then mount it with butter. Pretty simple. It’s not something that you need huge quantities of either, 2 or 3 spoonfuls is enough. It’s intense!
1 Sirloin Steak (8oz for two people seems good to me with sides but you may want 2 x 6oz, leftovers never hurt)
Sauce Bordelaise
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of chicken, beef, or veal stock
1 bay leaf
2 sprigs of thyme
2 tbsp of butter, divided
- In a small saucepan reduce the red wine and the stock with the bay leaf until it has reduced to about a quarter cup, it should be thick and syrupy
- Press the steak dry with paper towels and then salt and pepper liberally
- I set up a little bowl of salt and pepper mixed together before doing this step so I’m not getting meaty hands all over everything
- Add a glug of neutral oil to frying pan or cast iron pan and get it searing hot, it should smoke
- Add the steak and press down on it with your spatula
- Flip and press until it’s nice and brown and cooked to your liking . You can see a guide here for internal temps!
- Remove from the pan and cover with foil to rest
- Add 1 tbsp of butter to the pan and the diced shallot along with a pinch of salt and cook for a minute or two until the shallot goes translucent
- Add the stock/wine reduction and whisk
- Off the heat, whisk in the other 1 tbsp of butter and season with salt and pepper
- Slice your steak and serve with a few spoonfuls of this intense sauce!