courting {steak} sauce

Here's a bit of irony for you.  I'm a vegetarian, but I make a great steak sauce.  (I do eat it on potatoes- still delicious!)  Before Brian and I were married, I made him this steak sauce for his birthday.  We were engaged not long after.  So my mom calls it "courting sauce."  Yes, I know I have set back the feminist movement by entrapping my husband with cooking.  But it WORKED.  Haha!  Trapped forever because of a little sauce for his steak!  So if you're single and working on becoming engaged, here's a great little recipe for you.  If you're married and would like to keep it that way, it wouldn't hurt to throw this little number into your culinary line-up.  Gather these ingredients:

2 T olive oil
1 med carrot
2 celery stalks
1 med onion
5 med garlic cloves
2 T tomato paste
3 cups beef broth
2 cups dry red wine
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2-4 T fresh rosemary
1 1/2 t whole fresh peppercorns
serves 4-6

Start by heating your olive oil over high heat in a large sauce pan.  Roughly chop up all your vegetables. 

Saute in the olive oil.  Roughly chop your garlic cloves, and after about 5 minutes, throw them in to saute, too.

Once your vegetables start browning slightly, reduce your heat to medium and stir in your tomato paste.  Stir for about 2 minutes.

*side note* I use the tomato paste from a tube, so that I'm not opening a whole can that I won't use right away.  Have you seen these tubes of tomato paste?  So helpful!

Next you'll add your beef broth.

And your wine.  This recipe handily uses only half a bottle of wine, so it's pretty mandatory that you finish off the rest while you make this sauce.  Yes!  Mandatory!  Glass optional.

And now add your balsamic vinegar.

Also add in the rosemary (I add in A LOT).

And throw in the peppercorns.

Simmer your sauce for about an hour.  Next set up a sieve over a big heat-resistant bowl.  I highly suggest doing it in the sink.

Drain the sauce from the vegetables.

Press down on the vegetables with the back of a spoon to release all the juices.

Now I suppose you could toss your wine-soaked vegetables, but I like to pick out the peppercorns and save the vegetables to make soup for later.  You can also use leftover steak sauce in the soup- it works! 
Pour your vegetable-free sauce back into your sauce pan, and continue to simmer for an hour to an hour and a half more. 

Curse yourself for not owning a gravy ladle, and serve it up still warm!  Over steak, over potatoes, over everything on your plate.  It is delicious.  Trust me.

{Yesterday I roasted red potatoes, onions, green peppers, and brussels sprouts in the oven coated in left-over steak sauce- also deeeelicious!}

Enjoy!  And if you aren't engaged within the year, then you probably didn't make it right.  Ha!  Just keep trying, you'll either find the right sauce or the right partner eventually.