Red Wine & Cherry Sauce for Lamb or Venison
Monday, March 29th, 2010Since I seem to be on a sauces kick lately, I thought I’d stay on the same theme and recount a fantastic red wine and cherry sauce I recently made. I served it with roast lamb, but it would go just as well with venison
- 3 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
- 1 red pepper, cut to small dice
- 6-8 ounces mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 cup oil or butter
- approximately 2 tablespoons flour
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 cup red wine
- 1 1/2 cups 100% cherry juice
Add the oil or butter to a hot, large saute pan with a healthy pinch of pepper. Saute the garlic and red pepper in the seasoned oil with a small pinch (~1/4 tsp) salt. As the pepper softens and the garlic starts to brown, add the mushrooms with another, similarly sized pinch of salt. Stirring constantly, saute until the mushrooms have cooked down and released the oil that they absorbed when they began cooking. If necessary, cook the mushrooms in batches to avoid overcrowding the pan.
Returning all vegetables to the pan, stir flour into the cooked vegetables. Once the flour has formed a roux with the cooking oil, stir in red wine, gradually. Once the red wine has been fully absorbed into the roux, stir the cherry juice in, again gradually. Let simmer approximately 20 minutes, stirring regularly and adjusting the consistency of the sauce, if necessary, by adding a small amount of cherry juice as the sauce gets too thick.
Serve atop grilled or roasted lamb or venison.