Red Wine Sauce:

By lorik

Medium-bodied red wines, such as Côtes du Rhône or Pinot Noir, are best for this recipe. You can substitute chain meat trimmed from a beef tenderloin for the stew meat called for here.

Ingredients

• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 5 pieces and chilled
• 12 ounces beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon cold water
• Salt and pepper

Preparation

Step 1

1. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add beef and cook, stirring occasionally, until well browned and fond forms on bottom of saucepan, 10 to 12 minutes.

2. Add tomato paste and cook until darkened in color and fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in wine, broth, shallot, soy sauce, sugar, and thyme sprigs and bring to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Cook until reduced to 4 cups, 12 to 15 minutes.

3. Strain sauce through fine-mesh strainer set over bowl; discard solids. Return sauce to saucepan and bring to boil over medium-high heat. Dissolve cornstarch in cold water. Whisk cornstarch mixture into sauce and boil until slightly thickened, about 30 seconds. Reduce heat to low and whisk in remaining 4 tablespoons butter, 1 piece at a time. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat and cover to keep warm.