Stock, sauce, and two steaming rice bowls

Occasionally, Paul will bring home a lovely bottle of wine from Trader Joe's that reminds us of a trip we took or a meal we had. The bordeaux he last brought conjured up memories of Paris, picnicking near the Eiffel Tower with a bottle of Le Canotier bordeaux and stinky Camembert d'Isigny. We didn't quite finish the bottle, and rather than let such good wine go to waste, I decided to use up some of the mushrooms that were starting to deteriorate and make sauce.

A freezer filled with stock greatly simplifies sauce-making. As long as you have flour, butter, and some sort of liquid (stock, milk, cream), you can make sauce. The basic thickening agent of many sauces is roux--white, blond, and brown--which is a combination of equal parts flour and fat by weight. Cooking the roux for longer toasts the flour for longer, creating a deeper, nuttier flavor in the final sauce.

My mushroom red wine sauce uses a blond roux, though it could just as easily use a brown one. I usually cook the roux until it becomes a healthy shade of golden brown (as opposed to chocolate brown) before I stir in the wine.

1 T butter
1 shallot, minced
6-10 mushrooms, sliced
Roux: 2 T butter, 3 T flour
1 c red wine, at room temperature
Stock as needed, at room temperature
Herbs, salt, and pepper

Heat 1 T butter in a pan over medium heat. Saute shallots until fragrant, then add mushrooms and saute until a brown crust forms on the mushrooms. Remove from pan. Melt 2 T butter over medium to medium-high heat in same pan, then gradually shake in 3 T flour, stirring constantly, until fully incorporated. Cook until the roux reaches a healthy golden brown. Add the wine in a steady stream, stirring constantly. Don't add it all at once unless you want lumps in your sauce. Add sauteed mushrooms and shallots, and cook until sauce thickens, about 5 minutes. Add stock if necessary to increase volume or decrease thickness. Season as desired and serve. The finished sauce should be velvety smooth and slightly shiny. I like to eat it over roasted vegetables and brown rice.

Making stock

One benefit of joining a CSA is that I am awash in vegetables, fresh from the farm. Lately I've been inundated with carrots and celery, which make a fabulous mirepoix along with onions. This combination also happens to be the soul of a great vegetable stock.

My basic stock recipe stems from the one in Deborah Madison's cooking bible Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, which teaches you everything you could want to know about vegetables.

1 T olive oil
4-6 carrots, coarsely chopped
1-3 celery stalks, coarsely chopped
1 large or 2 small onions, coarsely chopped
6 cups water (at least enough to cover vegetables)
seasonings to taste (herbs, garlic, etc.)
strainer
stock pot

In a large stock pot, heat 1 T olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onions and saute until nearly transparent. Add carrots and celery, and saute until a brown crust forms on most of the pieces. The brown crust imparts flavor to the stock. Add enough water to cover the vegetables. Cover the pot and bring to a boil. Season lightly (the prolonged cooking time will concentrate the flavors), then lower to a simmer and cook for 45 minutes to an hour. Strain and season. To concentrate the flavor, reduce stock after straining.

This recipe lends itself to several variations. I've added mushrooms for mushroom stock, tomatoes for tomato stock, and beet trimmings to the simmering stock for borscht. I've even added lettuce, which adds a fresh, lightly earthy flavor. I don't recommend adding cruciferous vegetables (e.g. kale, broccoli stalks) as they become bitter when boiled too long.