For The Love Of Port

I have had a stupidly grueling week of "on-call" and am hoping to celebrate coming off it tomorrow morning with a nice dinner tomorrow night for the wife = yep, for putting up with the "vibrating menace" going off all night long, every night this week. (Come on now, it's a PAGER, get yer minds up and OUT of that gutter!! )

In any case, one of the things I have been meaning to try out, is a kick ass steak with a Port Reduction sauce. I have to admit, I have almost ZERO high-end culinary skills. I can grill with the best of them, so long as a simple rub or shaken spice or marinade is all you are looking for on WHATEVER it is that I am grilling. I can do a few special dishes with some flare and pizazz, but have nothing in the "high-end" repertoire.

There have been a few threads of late about Reduction sauces made with Port. It might be a good idea if we were to capture them here, in one thread. At the VERY least, help a brother out to impress his wife after she has put up with his office lackeys paging him all week long!!! :)

Here's the recipe I posted in the "cooking with Port" thread... just putting it here so it's with the others as well.

1 cup Port (I used a tawny because it was open, but I suspect a ruby would be better)
1 cup beef broth
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 T minced garlic
2 T dijon mustard
1 T thyme
2 T butter, divided
1 T flour
1 t salt
1 t black pepper

Bring the Port and beef broth to a boil in a pan and reduce to about 1 cup. In a separate pan, sweat the onions and garlic in 1 T butter. When the onions start to turn translucent, add in the reduced liquid, the dijon mustard, and the thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2-3 minutes, then remove from heat.

Make a roué from the remaining 1 T butter and the flour. Slowly add the roué to the sauce mixture, stirring briskly to avoid lumps. Add the salt and pepper.

I served it over a bacon-wrapped Filet Mignon along side some garlic and herb roasted potatoes. Muito delicioso!