The Secret to Making a Quick Green Peppercorn Sauce Recipe
Demi-Glace
The big difference between this shorter version of the Green Peppercorn Sauce recipe and the longer version is the use of Demi-Glace.
Demi glace is a brown sauce reduction made from beef and veal stock that has been reduced for hours and hours down to a glaze. There are some other ingredients in a classic demi glace and if interested you can read about making your own demi glace at home here.
I have made classic demi glace a couple of times from scratch because it is essential for preparing classic sauces like the ones you get in gourmet restaurants but it is a lot of work. Once I found all these great commercial brands that are being used in professional kitchens everywhere, I now make a lot more classic and everyday sauces when cooking beef, chicken, lamb and even fish.
So here is a shorter version of the Green Peppercorn Sauce using the Demi Glace.
Green Peppercorn Sauce – 20 minute version
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 medium shallots
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 2 tablespoons sherry wine vinegar
- ½ cup brandy I used a Cognac because I didn't have any brandy in the house
- ¼ cup red wine
- ¼ cup port
- 1 cup of demi glace
- ½ cup heavy cream half and half if you are counting calories
- 2 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 2 tablespoons green peppercorns in brine
Instructions
- Mince the shallots.
- Heat your saucepan over medium-high heat, add the oil and let it get hot but not smoking.
- Add the shallots and cook until they are a golden brown but pay attention and keep stirring so they don't burn and you have to start all over again. Should take about 4 to 5 minutes.
- Add the mustard and sherry vinegar.
- Reduce this combination by half, which takes only about 1 minute.
- Add the brandy or Cognac and cook to burn off all the alcohol. About 3 minutes. I like to remove the pan from the flame on the stove top before adding any liquid that contains alcohol and can potentially blow up in my face. It shouldn't happen if you remove the pan, but be careful.
- Next, add the red wine and port and reduce again by half. This should only take about 5 to 10 minutes since you are reducing a lot less liquid. You want the sauce to be simmering so if starts to boil, reduce the heat to medium or medium-low.
- Add the demi glace and continue reducing until the sauce is the consistency you like.I use a spoon to check for the right consistency. When it is thick enough to coat the back of the spoon, I'm there.
- When the sauce is reduced to your liking, remove it from the heat and add the cream, butter and crushed peppercorns.
- Taste and season for salt. It should be a good consistency at this point but you can always reduce it a little more if you like.
- The whole process should take about 20 minutes or 30 minutes less than the "longer" version and in my opinion will have a lot more flavor by using a real demi.
Notes
To prep the green peppercorns, I removed them from the jar, drained any of the brine and placed them into a Ziploc bag. I then proceeded to smash them with a meat mallet I use for pounding chicken breasts or veal into scaloppini. You could also try using your heavy bottomed saucepan or even a can of soup.
This recipe is very similar to the longer version except there isn't as much time spent making reductions because you are already using a stock reduction with the demi glace.
My Top Choices for Demi Glace
Online Sources: Demi Glace
For those of you who do not want to make demi glace at home.
Demi glace is the most important ingredient for making classic "restaurant quality" brown sauces. All the great French brown sauces use demi glace. But it can also be used in soups, stews and braises. It's something you can make at home but it takes a long, long time to do it right and if you make one mistake, it can easily be ruined. Lucky for us, there are now some great sources for commercial grade demi glace and I want to share a few with you now. Everyone has their preferences so I suggest you give each a try to find out which product you like best. The links below are affiliate links.Savory Choice's Demi Glace
More Than Gourmet's Demi Glace Gold
One of my first commercial demi glace products and still one of my favorites. For almost 25 years, More Than Gourmet has been the gold standard for flavor and quality when it comes to sauces, stock, and soup. This product comes in 1 pound tubs and 1.5 ounce pucks and even bigger sizes if you are a commercial establishment. I like buying 6 of the pucks at a time unless I'm doing a big party and need the pounder.
What MTG says, "Our Classic French Demi-Glace made in the old world tradition of Escoffier from brown stock and Sauce Espagnole. Demi-Glace Gold is reduced four times from the classic and allows you to make elegant finished French sauces quickly and easily. Our low-heat cooking techniques and 30-hour reduction process give the demi-glace a beautiful shine, flavor, and texture, which make finished sauces that are glossy to the eye and decided in taste."
Buy Demi-Glace Gold at Amazon
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