Port Wine Sauce
Makes a very large amount. Freezes well..5 lb. cheap cut of beef
1 x 750 ml bottles of dry red wine (e.g., Cabernet Sauvignon)
1 1/2 cups tawny port
4 cups beef broth
Oil
Salt
.75 lbs. onions, coarsely chopped
.5 lb. mushrooms cleaned, stemmed and sliced
2 tablespoons Thyme, fresh, minced
Salt & pepper to taste
Put meat in a large dutch oven and all to cook for a few minutes to render out fat and create some crust on the meat and fond on the pan. Add red wine, port, and beef broth. Bring to a boil and reduce to about 4 cups.
Meanwhile, put a heavy skillet on high heat and add a few tablespoons of oil, just to coat the bottom. Add onions and a dash of salt and cook until they turn a deep brown and set aside.
In the same pan put another tablespoon of oil and add mushrooms. Cook until tender. Add fresh thyme and cook another few minutes.
Put a few ladles of the wine mixture in with the mushrooms and add the onions. Put onion and mushroom mixture through a food processor or blender untiul smooth. You will need to do this in batches. If the vegetables are not wet enough they will not chop easily so add more of the wine mixture. Put pureed veg-wine mix into big pot with the rest of the wine mixture. Boil the sauce until the sauce is thickened to the desired consistency. Add salt and pepper to taste.
For extra-smoothness, the already-pureed sauce can be passed through a sieve, a chinois sieve will make for an extremely wonderful and velvety end result.
If you do not have a food processor or blender you can push the veg through a sieve or ricer but it will be a lot of work. Some people prefer to leave the mushrooms and onions un-pureed.