ISO Simple Mushroom sauce for steaks

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graffitici

Assistant Cook
Joined
Oct 7, 2007
Messages
5
Hi everyone,

I have recently gotten interested into cooking. By watching a great deal of good eats, and by trying out many recipes, I have gotten to a point where I actually enjoy what I prepare.
I just got into the art of sauce making. I now know how to prepare the bechamel and the hollandaise sauces. I was told that these are mother sauces in french cuisine, and that the have many derivative "small sauces."
I am looking for such a sauce, deriving from one of the two, that tastes like a creamy mushroom sauce to complement my steaks.
I couldn't find one that fits this description. Can anybody help?

Thanks!
 
Hi everyone,

I have recently gotten interested into cooking. By watching a great deal of good eats, and by trying out many recipes, I have gotten to a point where I actually enjoy what I prepare.
I just got into the art of sauce making. I now know how to prepare the bechamel and the hollandaise sauces. I was told that these are mother sauces in french cuisine, and that the have many derivative "small sauces."
I am looking for such a sauce, deriving from one of the two, that tastes like a creamy mushroom sauce to complement my steaks.
I couldn't find one that fits this description. Can anybody help?

Thanks!
Congratulations, graffitici, on tackling sauces. Look here for a discussion of the mother sauces. There's a lot of good information there.
 
Thanks to both for your answers. I did think about sauteeing mushrooms, and adding that to the sauces (after all, it is a mushroom sauce). What I couldn't figure out is to which sauce to add them. For instance, if I added it to bechamel, would it actually work? Or if I added mushrooms to cream, would that have the thick texture (that will "coat the back of the spoon").

I figured there may be some well-known sauces (with fancy names, like Mornay or Soubise) that would be both easy to prepare once I have the mother sauce, and complement a good pan-seared steak (most of the mushroom recipes I found were for chicken...).
Is there such a sauce?
 

Mushroom sauce
1/4cup onion minced fine
1/2cup green onion tops chopped
2 toes of garlic minced fine
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/4cup tomato pulp diced
1 quart Brown {rich}
1/4cup red wine
2 TBL paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
salt to taste

Sauté onions, garlic, mushrooms. Add tomatoes and wine, simmer five minutes
Add brown gravy and seasonings and simmer 15-20 minutes longer


I have made this mushroom sauce in huge quantities for banquets and general line use. It is the best I have ever come across

Chef
This is made with brown sauce but very very good
 
I have to admit that my favorite mushroom "sauce", such as it is, to accompany steak is simply to saute some nice fresh sliced mushrooms (any type - white button, cremini, shitake, or a mix) in a goodly amount of butter, add several splashes of dry sherry, season to taste with some salt & freshly ground black pepper, & pour over the steak. Sometimes I add some thinly sliced onions to the mushroom saute as well.

Except for the occasional Bearnaise, I've never been much of a fan of cream sauces for steak.
 
I’m going to agree with BreezyCooking here! Too many recipes I see try to over-power the natural flavor of the steak. Make your sauce a COMPLIMNENT and not an envelope. You want your steak to be number one here. A simple mix of some butter, red wine, and shrooms, stirred till the red wine is reduced and you’re good to go….maybe add some onions or garlic! Keep it simple for good beef!
 
Fresh Shiitakke, portabellas, and porcini mushrooms, caramelized eshallots, a good port, a sprig of rosemary, and some demi glace.

Start with a little oil and butter, add eshallots, then mushrooms, then rosemary, add port(enough to cover) reduce, finish with demi, mount with a little butter and even a little dijon mustard(for lamb).

Just my $.02
 
graffitici, you're on the right track with "mother sauces", you just don't have the right one.

There are five Mother Sauces, bechamel, hollandaise, veloute (thickened white/chicken stock), espagnol (thickened brown/beef stock), and tomato.

I would make a little Espagnol (a.k.a. Brown Sauce), and hold that on the side. Slice up some mushrooms (white, portobello, shiitake, and/or others), some shallots, and add a little diced garlic. Saute in clarified butter until they're limp and starting to caramelize slightly. Deglaze with a little red wine, then add the brown sauce. Stir to combine, then season to taste with salt and pepper.

If you really want a treat, look into "demi-glace", and use some demi instead of the brown sauce.
 
Thanks everyone for your inputs! This was my first post to this forum, and I was somewhat worried that I would get a lot of answers urging me to google "mushroom sauce" (which I did)! I am glad that nobody actually did that. What a great community!

As to your answers, I think I am starting to grasp the general idea behind making such mushroom sauces. The key, it seems, is to start by sauteeing mushrooms, along with other aromatics (like shallots, garlic, rosemarry, tarragon etc..), then deglaze using wine/port, and finally thicken it using a brown sauce/espagnole/demi-glace.

It seems like my next stop for me would be to get into making all these brown sauces. I had actually looked into the espagnole, but the recipe on wikipedia was terribly intimidating.
It tells you how to make it using "several gallons of water", "30 pounds of beef bones" and "several pounds of vegetables." I thought the espagnole was a kind of industrial sauce, not meant to be prepared by a home-cook like me...

BreezyCooking and keltin, your point is well-taken. I will try that too next time I make a steak, to keep it more simple so that I wouldn't overwhelm the taste with cream.

Thank you all!
 
2 packs of button or cremini mushrooms
EVOO
3 Sliced Shallots
3 whole fresh thyme sprigs
1 T butter
S & P
1/4c Cognac or Brandy
Beef Stock (or Chicken Stock)
1 T. Butter
1/3 - 1/2c Heavy Cream (you can leave this out and add juice from 1/2 lemon)

Tip: Make sure you really reduce the sauce so it becomes thick enough to coat to the mushrooms and not spread all over the plate.

You can make this as a side dish as well as change the stock for flavor.

Heat oil and sautee the mushrooms until golden, add the shallots and a good pour of liquor, flambe to remove the alcohol (and impress your guests), reduce. Add 3/4 to 1 cup stock, thyme, butter S & P and reduce to half. Finish with 1/3 cup cream and reduce to half again. Plate.
 
Just reduced the quantities of all the ingredients from the Espagnol recipe you found.

Also, if you run a search on this board, using my handle and "Beef Stock 101" as the search topics, you should find my thread about making homemade beef stock from earlier this year.
 
if you want something really quick and simply sautee some mushrooms and carmalize some onions while cooking the steak... when the steaks are done remove them and add 1/4 cup of beef stock and a tablespoon of cornstarch to the left over juices in the pan. makes a quick tasty sauce.
 

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