Quick Brown Sauce

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            FOOD FUNNY
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Thanks to the mysterious reader known to me only as "Hethn"
for this one:

You Know You're A Bad Cook When...

- You use the smoke alarm for a cooking timer.

- You consider it a culinary success if the S'mores-flavored Pop
Tart stays in one piece.

- Your dog goes to the neighbor's house to eat.

- Your family buys Alka Seltzer and Kaopectate in bulk.

- The EPA insists that all your garbage cans be marked with
biohazard symbols.

- Your microwave display reads "TILT!"

- Your two best recipes are meatloaf and apple pie (but your
dinner guests can't tell which is which).

- Your pie-filling bubbles over and eats the enamel off the bottom
of the oven.

- You've used three boxes of scouring pads (and a bottle of Drano
and a crowbar), and that macaroni and cheese STILL won't let go
of the pan.

- The guy from the local Pest Control company keeps pestering
you for your recipes.

- Your family says grace AFTER they eat!

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            TODAY'S RECIPE
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I'm rather pleased with this week's recipes because I just love
sauces. They can turn even the most basic foods into marvels,
adding flavor (and often texture) to everything they touch. This
week I will provide basic recipes for several classic sauces, and
readers of the PLUS Edition will also receive several variations
on those same sauces. Here is the lineup:

(Recipes in brackets are in the PLUS Edition only.)

Monday's "Extra"
Quick Brown Sauce
[Madeira Sauce]

Tuesday's "Extra"
Hunter's Sauce
[Sauce Marchand de Vin]

Wednesday's "Extra"
Basic Tomato Sauce
[Puttanesca Sauce]

Thursday's "Extra"
Beurre Blanc
[Beurre Blanc Variations]

Friday's "Extra"
Custard Sauce
[Custard Sauce Variations]

The French call this "sauce espagnole," and many a French chef
has earned his reputation on the quality of his brown sauce because
it serves as the base for countless other sauces. The classic
preparation requires mountains of beef bones and several days
of cooking, and I'm going to go out on a limb by suggesting that
most of my readers don't have the time for such a major project.
This quick version takes advantage of canned beef broth, so be
sure to use only the best quality for this sauce - this is no time
to use bouillon cubes. You can also make a vegetarian version by
using vegetable stock. I strongly recommend you double this
recipe and divide it into 1-cup portions before freezing it - you'll
have enough to sauce several future meals. Serve it on meats or
poultry, or use it as the base for other sauces.

Quick Brown Sauce

1 Tbs (15 ml) vegetable oil
6 Tbs (90 ml) butter
2 large red onions, finely chopped
2 Tbs (30 ml) sugar
1 cup (250 ml) dry red wine
6 cups (1.5 L) beef stock
1/2 oz (14 g) dried mushrooms, pulverized in a blender
or spice grinder
1/2 tsp (2 ml) dried thyme
1/4 cup (60 ml) all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat the vegetable oil and half the butter in a large heavy skillet
over high heat and saute the onion until well browned, about 5
minutes. Stir in the sugar and cook until the sugar is dark brown
and begins to smell burned. Stir in the red wine, beef stock,
mushroom powder, and thyme. Bring to a boil and cook for 3 to
4 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh strainer and set aside.
Heat the remaining butter in the same skillet over moderate heat
and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring frequently, until medium brown -
about the color of a paper shopping bag. Add the strained stock
back to the skillet, stirring to dissolve the flour mixture. Bring to
a boil and cook, stirring frequently, until it's the consistency of
heavy cream, about 8 minutes. Adjust the seasoning with salt
and pepper and strain again if desired. Makes about 4 cups (1 L).
Received on Mon Apr 10 06:22:12 2006