Ingredients
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Veal Stock
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1/2 that amount in red wine
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2 French shallotspeeled and halved
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4 sprigs rosemary
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3 Bay Leaves
Directions
Make that next meal otherworldly by adding red wine jus, a deep dark flavorful sauce. A Chef I used to work with once said “a red wine jus prepared correctly and served with a crusty bread roll is a 5 star meal to me.” In fact, I have seen many Chefs call that dinner. Usually when the Head Chef wasn’t looking of course.
Jus’ are like liquid gold in restaurant kitchens. Most kitchens have one stove and sometimes even entire kitchens designated to the slow process of making these decadent sauces.
First the veal bones are roasted golden brown in high temperature ovens, then the vegetables are chopped, herbs are selected and then it’s all put in a pot and covered with water and simmered for days on end.
The resulting stock is then strained numerous times, red wine is reduced, herbs are infused and the whole thing is reduced further.
Hundreds of litres of initial product will produce just a few litres of red wine jus. So as you can imagine the Chef does not want to see his staff soaking up bowl after bowl with restaurant bread.
In this recipe, I’ll walk you through the processes of making red wine jus in a little more detail. But please, once you learn how to make your own Jus, please do keep coming to restaurants as we still need jobs. 🙂
How to Make Red Wine Jus
- Place all the ingredients except for the veal stock in a sauce pan over a low flame and reduce by half. I usually make a little pen mark on the outside of the pot, so I know when it is half.
- Add the veal stock and reduce that amount by half again.
- Strain, portion and freeze and use as required for your next dinner party.
- A little more than a tablespoon is all that is needed per serving of duck, beef, lamb, venison etc; so you should have enough here for a few dinner parties.
- Bon Appetit!!
