French Cognac, Red Wine + Mushroom Cream Sauce//Homemade Beef Broth (optional recipe)
[For those of you who may already be familiar with my Madeira Sauce recipe…please feel free to call me out on my plagiarizing of myself for the following forward, with the necessary reverses of the subject made. This French Cognac, Red Wine & Mushroom Cream Sauce is the other classic French sauce that I make, and I hold very similar feelings towards both, as they are so very alike.]
What can I say about this sauce? It’s pure magic. And it’s a precious recipe. It’s the essence of a formal French meal to me. It also feels a little weird to be sharing, almost like a secret that is not for the rest of the world to know…but I’m going to ignore that and rather choose to spread the yumminess! Here’s all you need to know: this is the sauce. The only sauce that you will ever need for any Holiday meal or fancy dinner. Well, I must say, a beautiful Madeira Sauce is another great recipe to have in your arsenal, and that recipe can be found here. It has the same mushrooms, shallots, herbs, cream, and red wine as this cognac sauce; it’s mainly just the broth and alcohols that differentiate the two recipes from one another. My family and I make this to accompany whatever main we choose to make for Christmas and Easter, and sometimes for Thanksgiving. Likewise, it takes a lot of mains, particularly proteins, to a ten. If you want to impress some dinner guests, you know what to do. This is a rich cream sauce, with an incredible depth of flavour from the cognac, red wine, homemade beef stock, mushrooms, shallots, fresh thyme, and fresh rosemary. Now, technically, this sauce is typically made for beef, and the aforementioned Madeira Sauce is to be paired with poultry. I’m doing my due diligence in telling you this, but quite frankly I love both for either white or red meat, and I don’t like to follow rules that I deem unnecessary—so do with that as you will! [I will say as a note for the serious foodies, I personally feel that the Madeira Sauce is slightly more equally versatile as far as its pairing with either red or white meat; the Cognac Sauce is good on poultry too, but is a little better on red meat, whereas the Madeira Sauce I feel is an absolute perfect fit for both. And for those curious, I do personally prefer the Madeira Sauce by a hair.] This unctuous sauce fills the house with the most wonderful aroma. I highly recommend trying this out in lieu of the usual North American gravy. Your life will be forever changed.
Recipe:
Notes
The recipe for the beef stock used is below the recipe for the sauce. Notes pertaining to the stock itself are also below.
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, the pink Himalayan salt used in the sauce is less salty than the fine white sea salt used in the beef stock.
If you don’t use the recipe below for the beef stock, you won’t be able to replicate the exact flavour and salt levels of the sauce. I would therefore strongly encourage you to use this recipe. If you choose not to, please try to use the best quality stock possible, and understand that the salt will be off, and adjust accordingly.
You can absolutely substitute portobello, chanterelle, girolle or morel mushrooms for the cremini mushrooms.
I use a French cooking wine for the red wine. By cooking wine, I simply mean that it doesn’t need to be costly. Use whatever you have, just ensuring that it’s a rich and full-bodied wine.
This sauce can even be used as a pasta sauce, if you have leftovers! You can just add in something like asparagus and chicken to accompany it. Otherwise, as is written in the notes for the beef stock, the prime rib bones are a very happy by-product of the stock, and are delicious paired with this sauce. This would make for a lovely meal, accompanied by green beans and roasted cubed potatoes, for example. Roast those potatoes with plenty of fresh rosemary and garlic…yum.
Like all cooked sauces, this sauce will only get better overnight and in the coming days, and will keep well in the fridge for upward of a week. If you want to make it for a special occasion, and want it at its absolute best, I’d recommend making it the day before.
If you double the recipe, the sauce will of course take longer to reduce. Feel free to add an extra tbsp or 2 of flour if you find yourself pressed for time, and need it to thicken more quickly.
French Cognac, Red Wine + Mushroom Cream Sauce
Ingredients
6 medium shallots (300 g, once peeled), fairly thinly sliced, about 2 mm thick
12 medium cremini mushrooms (450 g), medium slice, about 0.5 cm thick
1/4 cup unsalted butter
400 ml beef stock *recipe below
2 cups red wine
3 medium sprigs fresh thyme
1 medium sprig fresh rosemary
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
3 tbsp cognac
1 cup full-fat cream
1 1/2 tsp salt (pink Himalayan)
30 cracks black pepper
Instructions
Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat with butter.
When butter is melted and bubbling, add shallots. Cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes, or until they are translucent and have taken on a little colour.
Add mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally, for about 15 minutes. They are done when they have gone through the process of releasing their liquids, and that liquid has cooked off.
Add 1 cup stock, thyme, and rosemary. Stir. Cook with the lid off for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it had reduced a little.
Add wine. Stir. Cook with the lid off for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until it had reduced a little.
Sift in flour, stirring continuously as you do so. You must do so quickly, to avoid producing lumps of flour in your sauce. There will probably be some little ones anyway, even if you did this quickly, so stir and use the back of a spatula to crush them until the sauce is entirely smooth.
Cook for 1 more minute, to allow the flour to thicken up the sauce a little.
In a slow, steady stream, pour in the remaining beef stock, while stirring continuously. Reduce for another 20 minutes.
Add in 2 tbsp of cognac. Stir. Reduce for 5 minutes, with the lid off, stirring occasionally.
Add in cream, salt and pepper. Stir. Reduce heat to medium-low or low, depending on your stovetop—we want it to be gently bubbling away. Simmer for a further 15 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced to a desirable consistency. It mustn’t be too liquid-y, and nor should it be overly thick, but rather somewhere in the middle. As long as it’s the viscosity that you like, consider it the right consistency!
Stir in the remaining 1 tbsp of cognac. Simmer for 2 final minutes.
Serve hot, over your red meat (or poultry) of choice. And be generous! Like all cooked sauces, it will only get better overnight and in the coming days, and will keep well in the fridge for upward of a week.
Enjoy!
Beef Broth
Makes 2800 ml of broth
Notes
Prime rib bones with the meat still attached are used for the stock, along with marrow bones. It’s vital to include meat in addition to the bones, for flavour (hence the former). Please feel free to substitute whatever cuts of beef you have on hand, or can get your hands on. Simply ensure that you don’t use less than what the recipe calls for in weight, as the stock wouldn’t be flavourful enough otherwise. Financial considerations may also influence your choice here, so use whatever you are comfortable buying. My butcher suggested the prime rib bones, as they are more cost effective than some alternatives; the 3 lbs costed me about 20$ CAD, however they become the main for a family meal in and of themselves, which make them worth it for me. The ribs become gorgeously tender in the stock, which simmers for 5 hours, and they quite literally fall off the bone once ready. I recommend serving the ribs with the sauce overtop, paired with green beans and roasted cubed potatoes, as an idea, but enjoy them in whatever way you like!
I specify the type of salt used, as different salts are more or less salty than others. If you don’t have the same kind of salt used, be mindful of this and adjust accordingly. Generally speaking, the fine white sea salt used in the beef stock is more salty than the pink Himalayan salt used in the sauce.
The garlic and tomato paste are not individually perceivable flavours. I highlight this in particular, as for a neutral beef broth, one doesn’t want it to taste of garlic or tomato, as this wouldn’t be very versatile to be used in a wide array of recipes. They rather serve to add a certain depth of flavour to the broth, but you won’t taste them.
Roasting the ingredients before using them in the stock will create a considerably more flavourful and savoury end product.
You will have 2400 ml of stock left after making the sauce. Why not make a beautiful French Onion Soup next? That recipe is forthcoming, and calls for 2 L of it. Stay tuned!
Ingredients
500 g yellow onion (4 small for me), unpeeled, cut into quarters
315 g carrot (3 medium for me), unpeeled, cut into chunks (cylinders ~3cm long)
365 g leek (1 large for me), roots cut off, in large chunks (cylinders ~5cm long)
240 g celery (2 large stalks for me), in large chunks
150 g cremini mushrooms (6 for me), whole
1/2 of an average sized head of garlic (30 g), unpeeled and left intact
1/2 cup olive oil
3 lbs beef prime rib bones, with meat still attached *see notes
3 lbs beef marrow bones
1/4 cup tomato paste
30 g fresh parsley, whole stems (7 large for me)
4 g fresh thyme (3 large sprigs for me)
5 medium dried bay leaves
1 tbsp black peppercorns, whole
4 L cold water
1 tbsp + 1/2 + 1/8 tsp fine white sea salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit, and ensure that one oven rack is positioned in the middle, and another is positioned below it.
In a large bowl, combine the onion, carrot, leek, celery, mushrooms, garlic, and 1/4 cup of the olive oil, using your hands. Pour the contents onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Set aside.
In the now empty bowl, add in the the prime rib bones and marrow bones. Pour over the remaining 1/4 cup of olive oil, and the tomato paste. Massage the oil and paste into the beef (coat it). On a second baking tray lined with parchment paper, place a full-sized cooling rack, or several small ones. The purpose of this is to allow for full air flow to all sides of the beef as it roasts. Place the ribs and marrow bones on top of the rack(s).
Put the tray containing the beef on the middle rack in the oven, and the vegetable tray on the lower rack. Roast for 25 minutes, or until the contents begin to brown. After the 25 minutes, take both trays out of the oven. Stir the veggies, and flip the beef. Put the trays back into the oven for a further 10 minutes, or until the contents look properly browned. Remove from oven.
Pour the roasted vegetables, including their juices, into a large stock pot. Using tongs, add in the ribs and marrow bones, including any bits that may have fallen off the bone. Do not add in the beef fat which will be in liquid for at the bottom of your pan. Discard the fat (unless you want to save it for something, but I don’t care for it personally). Add in the remaining ingredients, except for the salt.
Bring the stock to a boil over high heat, uncovered.
Reduce heat to medium low, but closer to low, cover, and simmer for 2.5 hours. After the 2.5 hours, stir in the salt. Cover again, and simmer for 2.5 hours more.
The stock is ready at this point. Remove the ribs and set aside. All of the other solids (including the vegetables, marrow bones, and aromatics) may be discarded. I find the easiest way to do this is to fish out the ribs using tongs, and then to set a large colander in a large bowl, and pour the stock into it, to remove the solids. You may need to do this in a couple of rounds. I then like to pass the broth through a fine-meshed strainer, to make it extra smooth. Again, set this in a large bowl to catch the broth.
Time allowing, allow the broth to come to room temperature, and then cool it in the fridge. This will cause the beef fat to solidify on the surface of the broth. Once you see this tangible layer of fat, remove it with a spoon and discard. Your broth, if fully cold from the fridge, is likely to be gelatinous—don’t worry, this is normal. Heat it up again, and it will turn back into a liquid. Always measure broth in liquid form. The broth is now perfect and ready to use.
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