Steak PoÃªle, Sauce Bordelaise

Andrei Marks · March 18, 2010

Last night was Day IV of my round-the-world cooking trip: Europe. Â I picked France and Pan-seared Steak with Red Wine sauce as the dish. Â I wish I’d taken pictures of the other nights.

  • Day I: North America, Beer, Brat, and Cheese Soup
  • Day II: South America, Arroz con Pollo
  • Day III: Africa, Kefta Kebab

I really like lining up all the ingredients before I actually cook, I don’t know why. Â It feels organized.

steak poele ingredients

This was the first time I’ve actually ever used shallots, as well. Â They strike me as being a mega-garlic/mini-onion sort of deal. Â I actually looked up which parts you’re supposed to use. Â Then I ended up mincing it like anything else.

shallot, uncutshallot, minced

I mixed the butter sauce (butter, shallot, garlic, parsley, chives, salt, pepper) and started frying the steak.

butter sauce

Then to make the sauce bordelaise. Â First I fried the shallots and the steak’s fond (the leftover browned bits in the pan), then mixed in the rest of the sauce (pinot noir, chicken broth, brown sugar, butter, thyme, salt, and pepper).

shallotssauce bordelaise

Also, this is the Rabbit, which is one of the greatest wine-related inventions ever, second only to wine itself.

the Rabbit wine-openerrabbit: step 1

Step 2.Step 3.

Bon appÃ©tit!

The dishes.Close up.

And since it was St. Patrick’s Day we threw in some baked potatoes and used the rest of the butter sauce for that. Â All in all, the food was delicious and I stuffed myself, but I don’t know if my estimation of French food has changed. Â Throw that much butter (here, about a stick) into your food, and it is pretty much guaranteed to taste good. Â It’s like having the cheat codes to the human alimentary system. Â I suppose that’s why we just fry it up straight in America, and not even bother with all the fancy garnishing. Â Google: “deep-fried butter.”


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