Sauce Demi-Glace (Espagnole, Mirepoix, Spice Pouch)

This 2nd generation mother sauce derives from Sauce Espagnole. Demi-glace (demi-glaze) is full of beefy flavour, so rich it will coat your mouth and often referred to as black gold in kitchens. It makes the perfect side for any steak and is made using half beef or veal stock and half Espagnole which is then reduced by half. Demi-glace on its own makes a rich, albeit neutral sauce. It’s a quick way to retain that intense beef flavor that you’d expect from a steak sauce while still maintaining the ability for the flavor of the steak to come through without having the sauce overpower it. However most chefs prefer to alter their demi-glace, and many have their own recipe to create their own version, and once you begin changing and adding to the demi-glace sauce, you begin to enter the world of the derivative sauces. Almost all Espagnole derative sauces (children of the mother sauce) use demi-glace. Demi-glace is an amazing sauce to serve with red meats, like roasts and grilled steaks. The only difficult thing about it is that making it from scratch can be quite time-consuming. Purists might raise their eyebrows at using store-bought beef stock or beef broth. But the reality is that if something's too hard to make, you're probably not going to make it. Which is a shame, because everyone should be able to enjoy the deep, rich, flavor of demi-glace, which is pretty much the ultimate sauce. In this shortcut recipe, instead of making the stock from scratch, store-bought stock or broth is used. It won't have the same body as a homemade demi-glace, but it'll save you about eight hours. Use the best quality stock or broth you can find and stick to the low-sodium, reduced-salt (or even no-salt) varieties. Reducing concentrates the saltiness, and you don't want your finished sauce to taste like a salt-lick. You'll need some cheesecloth for straining the sauce and also for making the sachet d'épices, as well as some cooking twine for tying it up.

Mirepoix (2:1:1 onions, celery, carrots):
½ cup onions, diced
¼ cup carrots, diced
¼ cup celery, diced

Sachet d'Épices (Spice Pouch):
1 bay leaf
2-3 sprigs fresh thyme
6-7 stems parsley
8-9 whole black peppercorns

Brown Sauce:
1 oz (2 Tbsp.) butter (30 g)
¼ cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
5 cups brown stock (beef, veal or venison)

Make the Sachet:
Place the bay leaf, thyme, parsley stems, and peppercorns onto a square of cheesecloth. Tie it up into a bundle with cooking twine.

Sauté the Mire Poix:
Heat the butter in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat and add the onions, celery, and carrots. Sauté them for a couple of minutes, until the onion is partially translucent.

Make the Roux:
Sprinkle in the flour and stir to form a paste. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring frequently until the flour is lightly browned, but by no means burned.

Make the Brown Sauce:
Now, whisk in 3 cups of the beef stock. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Then lower heat to a simmer, add the sachet, and reduce for about 20 minutes or until the total volume has reduced by about one-third.

Remove pan from heat and retrieve the sachet (and set it aside). Carefully pour the sauce through a wire mesh strainer lined with a piece of cheesecloth.

Now, return the sauce to the pan, stir in the remaining 2 cups of stock, and return the sachet to the pot. Bring the pot back to a boil and then lower the heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 50 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by half. Discard the sachet. Strain the sauce through a fresh piece of cheesecloth.

Season to taste with kosher salt. (But if you're using the demi-glace to make another sauce, season at the very end.)

Demi-glace will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks, and in the freezer for months.

Makes about 2½ cups.