Building a Red Wine Sauce

A proper red wine pan sauce starts with the fond - the brown bits stuck to the pan after you've seared meat. Don't wash it; that's flavour. Sweat shallots and garlic in the same pan, then deglaze with the wine, scraping the fond up with a wooden spoon. Reduce the wine by at least half to cook off the alcohol, then add stock - chicken, beef or veal, whichever matches the dish - and reduce again until the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Finish off the heat with a knob of cold butter swirled in (monter au beurre) for shine, then strain. Skipping the reduction leaves the sauce thin and boozy.