- Today I'm gonna show you the basic technique
of making a pan sauce for your steak.
(cheerful music)
The first thing I'm gonna do is season my steaks,
then get 'em in a hot pan to start searing.
Use a little bit of kosher salt
and some fresh cracked pepper,
(grinder grinding)
little bit of a neutral oil like canola.
(item clinking)
I'll get these in with the seasoned side down.
(pan sizzling)
And these steaks are just a strip filet.
So it's a strip steak split in half.
That way everybody gets a little medallion
rather than one large steak.
So I'm using a stainless steel pan.
I like this because it helps create a little fond.
You wouldn't wanna use a nonstick pan
because a nonstick pan
will not create the kind of fond,
which is where the meat itself
starts to stick to the pan,
create this little crust on the pan
which has a ton of flavor in it.
You can use cast iron,
but sometimes cast iron has that seasoning
that you develop over time,
and sometimes that may bring in some flavors
that you don't necessarily want in your pan sauce
or your pan sauce may take out a lot of that seasoning.
I'm gonna get these flipped real quick.
I can tell they were ready to flip
because they released easily from the pan.
All right, so that's what I'm looking for,
a nice sear, a nice mahogany crust
on the outside of that steak.
So I've taken my steaks out.
Now I can build my sauce.
So making a pan sauce has a few basic elements.
You're taking your steaks, after they've been seared,
you pull 'em out to rest.
You're building your sauce
upon that foundation that you have in the pan.
The first thing I would do
is add some kind of flavoring aromatic.
So in this case we've got pearl onions.
I'm getting a brown on these pearl onions.
If I was using shallots or garlic,
I would add the shallots first,
let them cook a little bit
before adding the garlic
'cause garlic can burn very quickly.
All right, next I'm adding the red wine
(pan sizzles loudly)
I add this first because I want it to reduce
and I want it to release a little bit of that alcohol.
Red wine has a little acid,
it adds a little complexity
and a complementary flavor to your steaks.
So I've let the alcohol cook off a little bit,
and now I'll go in with the beef stock.
So now I'll bring this up to a simmer
and allow it to reduce by about half.
Beef stock has a nice, rich flavor
that adds a little body to your sauce.
If you just had all red wine,
it would be too much on the wine.
You want something else
that's kind of rich and flavorful
to add to the sauce itself.
So after the beef stock,
I'll add in the tomato paste,
and then allow it to reduce by half.
So tomato paste is a nice thickener.
Again, it's rich, it gives body,
it adds a little bit of acidity to it
and it goes well with a red sauce.
You could use a mixture
of cornstarch and water like a slurry,
you could use a butter and flour mixture
known as a roux to thicken as well.
So now I'm trying to distribute
the tomato paste into the sauce
so it's evenly incorporated.
That way it thickens consistently.
And by doing this I'm also helping
to bring the fond off the bottom of that pan.
Tomato paste is well incorporated,
so I'll add the thyme.
I'm gonna turn this down
from a hard boil to a nice simmer
so it reduces gently.
All right, so it's just the consistency I want.
It's slightly syrupy,
and when I drag my spoon across the bottom of the pan,
I can see it kinda holds a line.
So that's a nice thickness for a sauce like this.
So the next thing I'm gonna do
is add in a little bit of butter.
Just I wanna finish this off with a butter.
It adds a sheen, it adds a rich flavor,
and it makes it kinda luxurious.
So you wanna keep the butter moving
as you add it to the sauce.
It helps to emulsify it in.
You don't want it just melting and pooling up on top.
You want it to emulsify into the sauce.
All right, now I'm gonna add the steaks back.
I cooked these steaks to rare,
so I wanna put them back,
kinda glaze 'em with that sauce
and just bring 'em up to that medium rare.
These can continue to cook for just a few minutes
while I go get my plates ready.
All right, now these are nice and glazed on that side.
I'm gonna flip 'em over
just to finish 'em off evenly.
All right, so now these have had a couple minutes,
the sauce has glazed them nicely.
So I'll plate 'em up
and then drizzle my sauce around,
and they'll be ready to serve.
(utensil tapping)
(utensil scraping)
So once you get the basics of making a pan sauce,
it's pretty easy to improvise and play around
with all the ingredients that go into it.
You just wanna build it nicely
and use up all that flavor
you've already built in the bottom of your pan.
There's a classic technique
on how to make a pan sauce at home.
Now you have a great way
to impress your friends and family.
(cheerful music)