A Great Steak Sauce

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted. I really just needed a little break. I am still writing and there are more posts on the way. In the meantime, here’s another recipe. If you get the flavour balance right on this steak sauce, you will never buy A1, HP or any other similar steak sauce again. This was an effort to duplicate the sort of flavours found in these sauces but make it better. It is also another good use for the tamarind from the last recipe I posted.


2-3 small sweet or regular onions (1 really large one should be enough)
1 tblsp olive oil
½ cup red wine
1 cup ketchup
1/3 cup molasses
2 ½ tblsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp thai fish sauce
1 tblsp tamarind paste
1 tsp beef stock concentrate (see note)
3 tblsp soy sauce
½ cup water
½ tsp each:
pepper
cinnamon
allspice
nutmeg

Method:
cut onions into very fine dice (if you do not have very good knife skills, you could certainly use a food processor) and sweat them in olive oil. When onions are soft, add wine and bring to boil. Add all other ingredients except spices and stir well to be sure pastes are dissolved and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until sauce is a little thicker than ketchup. Add spices and cook for another 5 minutes and let cool. Serve over any kind of steak.




Notes:

The ingredient you use for meat flavour can be difficult to choose. Right now I am using a paste-like concentrate made from natural ingredients. Other options are stock, or demi-glace, homemade or commercial. If you are using stock you will need at least a half cup and will need to cook the sauce longer to reach the correct consistency. If you use commercial product, be careful of the sodium level of the product and read the label - you want to avoid preservatives and any ingredient that you do not recognize. Please do not use bouillon cubes - you are basically putting an artificially flavoured salt lick into your food. To succeed with this recipe, the most important thing is to taste as you go and be sure that there is a balance of taste. It should taste sweet, sour and savoury.