PAN SAUCE

Red wine and shallots add flavor and depth to the sauce
People tend to throw their pans into the sink after cooking a steak. What they don't realize is that they just threw the makings of a good sauce down the drain. Just a couple of steps and you can make an ordinary steak into something not-so-ordinary. Buy a decent red wine and use it for both the sauce and to serve in a wine glass with dinner. Shallots are usually found next to the garlic and onions in the produce section.

Have ready:

• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 cup quartered button mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon chopped shallot
• 1/4 cup dry red wine (burgundy or merlot is good)
• steak drippings (there should be some in the oven-proof dish that you cooked the steaks in and also the plate where the steaks are resting)
• 1 tablespoon cold herb butter (or 1 tablespoon unsalted butter and chopped herbs)

Turn stove on to medium high heat. In the pan you seared the steak in (don't wash the pan!), add the tablespoon of unsalted butter. Once the butter is melted, add mushrooms. Let the mushrooms sit in the pan for a minute or two without stirring, you want them to get a nice brown crust. Add shallots. Stir mushrooms and shallots around and cook until they have a golden brown color, taking care not to burn the shallots. There should be little bits of brown stuck to the bottom of the pan (from the beef and mushrooms). Pour red wine in the pan and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon(the bits stuck to the pan helps flavor the sauce). Cook until the wine is slightly thick and syrupy (the wine will reduce to about half of what it was). Add any and all dripping from the steak to the mushrooms. Once the sauce is bubbly, remove from heat and add herb butter. Keep swirling the pan around until all the butter is incorporated into the sauce. Season with salt and pepper (if needed). Serve with steak and mashed potatoes.