The Coffee Sauce - for STEAK

This is a bold sauce reserved for coffee lovers only.

You are about to embark on a long winded and at times tedious instructable. But let me assure you, if you get over the idea of coffee and meat as an alien concept and except the many time consuming steps you will definitely be impressed by the outcome.

You are about to make an extremely delightful coffee meat/poultry jus (technically its a cross between a jus and a stock but we are not going to get in to that now)

When I saw the coffee challenge I was inspired. I have no choice in the quality of the steaks I receive ( i guess its a budget thing) So my steak night revolves around new and interesting ways to make low quality meat taste awesome. Here is my latest attempt. Good job all my guests love coffee!!

Ingredients

Meat or Poultry trimmings (legs, wings, thighs, bones, skin or breast)
3 Shallots or 1 Large Onions
2 Garlic Cloves
Butter
Black Peppercorns
Parsley
Thyme
Rosemary
Celery
Celery leaves
1 Leek
1 Carrot
2 Bay Leaf
Port, Sherry or Red Wine
Water
(other veg to serve the steak with)

Equipment

Large stock pot
Sieve
Wooden spoon
Smaller pot
Frying pan
Stove
Tea Strainer
Muslin or CLEAN square of cloth or material
Regular spoon
Plate
String
Aluminium foil
Knife 
Plate

Bouquet Garni

You will be making a Bouquet Garni - dont get scared by fancy french terms its just a package to keep all the herbs together

Put the parsley, thyme, bay leaves, celery leaves side by side 

Cut a peice off of one of the green sections on the leek ( look at the picture )

Open the leaf

Place the bundle of herbs on the leaf  and wrap with string.

Cut all veg, remove skin from garlic. Put aside

Place the butter in your stock pot.

Wait for it to melt and heat.

Put the chicken and garlic in the pot

Cook until ...................................

Cook until the bottom of the pot looks all gross and dirty like this.
This is what chef's call 'the good stuff'

Take your sieve/strainer and tip all the chicken out

Get rid of the fat ( or re-use it, its full of chicken flavor)

GENTLY wipe the bottom of the pot with a paper towel,
you are doing this to get rid of some of the excess fat
NOT to clean the 'good stuff' off the bottom of the pot

Keep the chicken - get rid of the garlic

Pour about an inch of Red wine/Port/Sherry in to the pot

Put the pot back on the burner

Take your wooden spoon and start to scrape the 'good stuff' off the bottom of the pot  as the liquid heats it will not only burn off the alcohol but also help loosen the 'good stuff'

Tilt the pot on an angle to see if you have managed to get it all

Bring to a simmer and allow the contents of the pot to reduce by at least a half


Note *
Unless you really hate the bottom of your pots and pans, make sure you use a wooden spoon and not anything metal

Put the chicken, bouquet garni (herb package you made earlier) and veg in the pot and cover with water.

Bring to a simmer and allow the liquid to reduce by half. This takes a few hours

Don't be lazy and boil it. let all the flavour seep out slow

After the liquid in the pot has reduced by half, strain the liquid in to a smaller pot

Get rid of the meat and veg. My fiancee likes to eat this stuff but its really
not re-usable - take a deep breath, visualise how awesome your sauce is gonna be
and THROW IT IN THE TRASH

Put the smaller pot back on the stove.

Let the liquid simmer down until its a thick syrup like consistency that will coat the back of a spoon.

Before I go through this step I need to do some explaining

YOU REALLY NEED TO USE A PIECE OF CLOTH or MUSLIN
Take a square of the muslin, put a teaspoon of the ground filter coffee in the middle
bring the corners in and tie it up like an old fashioned purse then put it in the pot and simmer.
This way you can just remove the little coffee package when you are done with it.

At this stage you will need to be careful that you do not burn all your hard work, you can simmer
the liquid until it has the consistency of treacle or molasses

IF YOU CHOOSE TO DUMP THE COFFEE STRAIGHT IN THE SAUCE THEN YOU WILL HAVE TO 
STRAIN IT NO LESS THAN 8 TIMES AND YOUR SAUCE MAY STILL FEEL LIKE IT HAS SAND IN 

I am a little ashamed to say that I had no muslin or spare clean cloth around so I dumped the coffee straight in the sauce. The picture above shows me on my 6th or 7th staining session (very very dull)

Please cut me some slack. I work on a boat so when your in the middle of the ocean its not that easy to 'pop' out and fetch something

SO let this be a lesson - go the long way round, USE THE MUSLIN

If you don't want to make the sauce right now you can put your liquid in a ramekin or an ice cube tray and freeze it . 

Its time to cook the steak

This is not an instructable about cooking a steak but ..................

- Make sure its fully defrosted

- If you have a horrible quality steak like me then take off the bacon, take a deep breath and continue

- Try not to move it too much

- Definatly DO NOT squeeze or push down on it

- Follow these guide lines for cooking times

Very Rare 4-5 minutes
Rare 5-6 minutes
Medium Rare 6-8 minutes
Medium 7-10 minutes
Well Done Not Recommended

If the sauce has congealed then heat it a little
If you froze it, defrost and heat until you can work with it.

Use a brush to paint the sauce on the top of the steak to create a glazed effect.

Take the steak out of the pan and loosely wrap it with aluminium foil. Do this gently so you don't mess up the glaze but you do retain the heat. It's really important to resist the temptation to gobble down the steak as soon as it comes out of the pan. Resting the steak tenderises it and lets all those yummy juices get even more awesome than they were before.

The other reason you need to rest the steak is so you give yourself time to dress the plate and make this meal look like your eating at a 5 star establishment!!!

I this steak with boiled potatoes, steamed carrots and broccoli