Sunday, March 14, 2010

Getting Sauced

I love my grill. It is an easy way to make flavorful foods, and the flavor itensifies due to the searing from the high heat (plus the slight "charring" effect).

So, the recent "snowmageddon" that buried us under four feet of snow wasn't particularly welcome.

As such, I'm sitting here with some decent steaks, and no access to the grill. Time to resort to searing them in a skillet and finishing them in an oven. All well and good, but now I've got this skillet with all of this nice bits of flavor. I can't let that go to waste, can I?

Now, how to make a sauce without jacking up the carb count? I can't use flour or cornstarch, for obvious reasons. I don't want to use ThickenThin, because that will be more like a gravy. Hmmmm... what's left?

Heavy cream. That will do the trick nicely.

First things first, though. The skillet needs to be deglazed. A splash of wine will get all of flavors released.

Then add cream. Really, I don't measure stuff like this. A lot depends on how much you're making. Probably 1/4 to 1/2 cup. Add some salt and pepper to taste, and stir frequently over medium to medium high heat until the cream thickens.

As decadent as it sounds, add in about 1-2 tablespoons of butter and stir it in as it melts. This will keep the sauce smooth.

Now, all of this gets you a basic sauce. You can experiment from there, adding flavors. For example, I've added hot sauce with the cream for a more peppery flavor. Another time, I sauteed some garlic in the pan drippings before adding everything else. The sky's the limit!

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