Merlot Wine Sauce (Good for Lamb or Steak)

Basically this sauce can go with almost any red meat. I personally served it with lamb. ( I tend not to have a lot of sauces with my Steaks, unless its an au poivre) But the recipe is so versatile theres no point in limiting it to one type of meat.

There are a lot of ingredients just in this sauce alone, so let me introduce you to this invention I've discovered called a food processor.

You see, in the old days, you know, when your parents ate food that didn't come in jars, people used knives to make food smaller.

Fuck that.

Step 1. Take all the veggies you need finely diced, etc, and throw em in a food processor, pulse a few times, remove.
Step 2. Have the wife/husband clean out the food processor bowl.
Step 3. Profit

Ok, ANYWAY...

Ingredients:
1 stick of butter
Two cloves garlic, peeled.
1 shallot, peeled.
1 tbps chopped fresh thyme
Salt
Pepper
1 cup beef stock
2 tbsp brandy
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup merlot wine
2 tbsp Tomato paste (Yes I'm serious...)

Step 1: Remember the food processor? Throw the garlic, shallots, thyme leaves in that sucker and dice them on up.

Step 3: Cook your meat. Wether its steak or lamb, etc, cook it in THIS pan. Once done, lower the temperature of the burner, remove your meat from the pan and leave the drippings in the pan.

Step 4: Add 2 tbsp butter to your pan. Allow to melt completely. Add in everything that was in the food processor.

Step 5: Saute the herbs.

Step 6: Add the wine, 4 tbsp butter, beef stock, brandy, balsamic. Add a dash of salt, and a few turns of a pepper mill.

Step 7: Step back and let heat do its work. Simmer, stirring often and allow sauce to reduce by at least 1/2.

Step 8: Once the sauce has reduced to the desired point, add in the tomato paste. Please, do not skip this step. It sounds bizarre, but this really is the absolute kicker for making this sauce work.

Step 9: Taste the sauce, adding additional broth, or wine to taste. If the consistency is too watery, add butter or tomato paste to thicken.

Step 10: Serve with meat.

Enjoy ridiculous decadence!