Make Red Wine Sauce
Main courses and side dishes can be enhanced greatly when paired with a sauce to complement natural flavors and maintain moisture. Busy cooks may not have time to fuss with complicated, time consuming recipes, so a simple yet tasty easy-to-make sauce is essential. Learning how to make red wine sauce can benefit any cook because it is easy to make and has a rich, zesty flavor that enhances many dishes. Often thought of as a sauce for red meat, red wine sauce also goes well with fish, poultry, pork and even vegetables. Once you know how to make red wine sauce with easy steps and a basic recipe, you can use it for countless dishes and vary the ingredients to make your very own variation of this versatile sauce.
Contents
Ingredients
- Red wine
- 1 can of stock, beef, chicken or vegetable
- Butter
- Flour
- Salt
- Pepper
- Herbs and spices
Steps
- Melt 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) of butter in a saucepan on medium heat.
- Add 3 tablespoons (45 milliliters) of flour after the butter melts.
- Cook on a medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir the mixture while cooking it to make sure it doesn't stick to the pan and to completely blend it together.
- Remove the butter and flour mixture from the heat and add 1 cup (240 milliliters)of red wine.
- Stir the ingredients of the red wine sauce thoroughly before returning the mixture to the heat.
- Return the red wine sauce mixture to the heat and continue cooking, stirring continually to thicken it and remove lumps.
- Taste the mixture as it continues to cook at a medium high temperature until the flavor indicates that the alcohol has been cooked off, or reduced.
- Cook the red wine sauce mixture while you add the can of stock.
- Pour the contents of the can slowly into the mixture, until the red wine sauce ingredients reach a creamy consistency.
- Remove the red wine sauce from the heat.
- Stir in salt and pepper to taste, then let your red wine sauce cool and thicken for 5 to 10 minutes before serving on meat or vegetables.
Tips
- Add white or brown sugar to taste to bring out a sweet flavor to your red wine sauce recipe. If you like a bit of a tangy taste, add 1 to 2 tablespoons of vinegar or lemon juice to the mixture.
- Experiment with adding various herbs and spices to your red wine sauce mixture. Garlic, paprika and rosemary go well in red wine sauce.
- Try using olive oil instead of butter in your red wine recipe for a more healthful dish.
- Red wine sauce with a bit of sugar for a sweet taste goes well with salmon or tilapia.
- Once you learn the basic red wine sauce recipe, try varying it to perfect it to your desired taste.
- Artichokes are a vegetable that go very well with the flavor of red wine sauce.
Warnings
- Never use margarine when making red wine sauce. It doesn't cook as well as butter or olive oil, and does not provide rich flavor.
- Never cook the red wine sauce recipe at high temperatures, as this will cause the mixture to cook too quickly. The result will be a runny consistency with less flavor.
- During the beginning steps of cooking a red wine sauce, be careful not to burn the butter and flour to be sure the end result has a smooth texture and rich flavor.
Things You'll Need
- saucepan
- Stirring spoon
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