Occasion cooking from a bottle of red and a bit of patience
This is occasion cooking, but be clear about what that means: the sauce is red wine, eschalots and stock reduced patiently in a small saucepan, finished with cold butter until it turns glossy. Half an hour, most of it unattended. Meanwhile the sirloin gets a proper sear and a proper rest, and the two meet on a warm plate over mash. It's the kind of dinner restaurants charge dearly for, made from one steak and the open half of a bottle you were drinking anyway.
Ingredients
- 1 Your Farmer grass-fed sirloin steak (about 420g), halved into two steaks
- 80g cold butter, cubed (20g for the eschalots, 60g to finish)
- 3 eschalots, finely diced
- 250ml dry red wine
- 1 sprig thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 250ml good beef stock
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Salt and pepper to season
Instructions
For the bordelaise-style sauce
Melt 20g of the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat and sweat the eschalots for 3–4 minutes until soft but not coloured.
20g butter3 eschalotsAdd the wine, thyme and bay leaf and boil steadily for 12–15 minutes, until reduced to a few syrupy tablespoons.
250ml red wine1 sprig thyme1 bay leafPour in the stock and reduce by half again, about 10 minutes, until it just coats a spoon. Fish out the thyme and bay, and set the pan aside off the heat.
250ml beef stockFor the steak
Pat the steaks very dry and season generously. Heat the oil in a grill pan or heavy pan over high heat until just smoking. Stand the steaks fat-edges down for 1–2 minutes to render, then sear 2.5–3 minutes per side for medium-rare.
2 sirloin steaks1 tbsp olive oilRest the steaks on a warm plate, loosely covered, for 8–10 minutes.
Bring the sauce back to a bare simmer, then take it off the heat and whisk in the remaining cold butter a cube at a time until the sauce is glossy and thick enough to hold a line. Season, and stir in the steaks' resting juices.
60g cold butterServe the steaks whole or sliced with the sauce spooned generously over, mash and green beans alongside, and the rest of the bottle with dinner.
Appears in
From $159.00$176.67SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
A Sauce Worth the Half Hour
Bordelaise is Bordeaux's gift to steak — red wine reduced with shallots down to its essence, classically enriched with bone marrow. This is the home version, which is why we say "-style": the finishing swirl of cold butter does the enriching instead, the French trick called monter au beurre that turns a thin reduction glossy and rich in about ninety seconds. Two rules carry the whole sauce. First, reduction is concentration — whatever the wine tastes like, the sauce will taste like more of it, so cook with something you'd happily drink; it needn't cost much. Second, the butter goes in off the heat, or it splits. Sirloin is the right steak underneath: its clean, assertive flavour meets the wine as an equal. It's the Pack C steak in the grass-fed beef CSA share — and Your Farmer® sirloin comes from smaller-framed grass-fed cattle, which is a story worth reading in why smaller cattle make better steaks. Feeding four? A second sirloin slots straight in; the sauce stretches without doubling.
Swaps and Variations
Scotch fillet, eye fillet or rump all sit happily under this sauce — it's the great equaliser of steak cuts. No wine in the house? Use all stock with a splash of balsamic vinegar; different sauce, still a good one. A handful of finely sliced mushrooms sweated with the eschalots deepens everything, and if you're a sauce-heavy household, double the reduction quantities — the limiting factor is always how much sauce, never how much steak. One caution whichever way you go: hold the salt until the very end, because reduction concentrates it along with everything else, and the stock brings its own.
Storage and Leftovers
Make-ahead works beautifully up to the end of the reduction: the base keeps 3 days in the fridge or freezes for 2 months. Reheat to a bare simmer and mount the cold butter fresh — never reheat a finished butter-mounted sauce hard, or it separates. Cooked steak keeps airtight for up to 3 days; sliced cold with leftover sauce gently rewarmed and spooned over, it makes Monday feel considerably better than Monday deserves.
Frequently asked questions
What red wine should I use?
Can I make the sauce ahead?
Why did my sauce split?
Doesn't real bordelaise need bone marrow?
Three Simple Steps
A whole table of real food.
Your Farmers grow grass-fed beef and lamb, pastured eggs and the best eco-grown veggies and produce — every item grown to the same ecological standard, every farmer one you can know by name. One subscription, your whole real-food shop.
01
Reserve your share — or try a pack
Subscribe to a share of the harvest, or start with a one-off fixed pack.
02
Make it your own
Pick your delivery rhythm and what's in the box. Skip or cancel anytime — no lock-in.
03
Cook, savour, know your farmer
We deliver in a reusable esky we collect next time. No couriers, no waste.
Price$176.67
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$159.00
Price$183.33
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$165.00
Price$158.89
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$143.00
Grass-Fed Mince, Sausage and Diced Beef Pack
Price$264.44
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$238.00
Grass-Fed Beef and Lamb BBQ Box
Price$286.67
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$258.00
Pastured Lamb Roast and Slow-Cook Box
Price$155.56
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 10%
$140.00
More Recipes
Sirloin with Green Peppercorn Sauce
The steak-restaurant order you can make in one pan
There's a reason the green peppercorn sauce has never left the steak-restaurant menu: it's magnificent, and it takes about ten minutes. The little peppercorns come in a jar of brine, sitting near the capers at the supermarket, and they bring a gentle heat that cream rounds off beautifully. You'll sear the sirloin in a heavy pan, rest it, and build the whole sauce on the browned bits left behind. Two steaks, one pan, and a dinner that feels like a night out.
Warm Eye Fillet and Roast Pumpkin Salad
Two small steaks, three full plates
Here's a quiet bit of kitchen maths. Two 140g medallions doesn't sound like dinner for three — until you roast a tray of pumpkin, sear the fillet medium-rare, rest it properly and slice it thin across the grain. Suddenly every plate gets sweet golden pumpkin, creamy feta, toasted pepitas and a generous fan of the tenderest beef there is. It's the kind of dinner that feels abundant without being heavy, and it makes the smallest pack in the share go further than you'd believe.
Sirloin with Bordelaise-Style Red Wine and Shallot Sauce
Occasion cooking from a bottle of red and a bit of patience
This is occasion cooking, but be clear about what that means: the sauce is red wine, eschalots and stock reduced patiently in a small saucepan, finished with cold butter until it turns glossy. Half an hour, most of it unattended. Meanwhile the sirloin gets a proper sear and a proper rest, and the two meet on a warm plate over mash. It's the kind of dinner restaurants charge dearly for, made from one steak and the open half of a bottle you were drinking anyway.
Read moreabout Sirloin with Bordelaise-Style Red Wine and Shallot Sauce
Share:
Warm Eye Fillet and Roast Pumpkin Salad
Surf and Turf: Eye Fillet with Garlic Prawns