Bourbon Peppercorn Cream Sauce

One way to turn a good steak into a great steak is with an awesome sauce!  Bearnaise and Hollandaise sauces grace many a table at fine steak houses to complement Filet Mignon and Ribeye, Prime Rib is always a little better with an excellent horseradish sauce, and for my money, a hearty New York Strip is heavenly amazing with a fine Cabernet Sauvignon and a velvety Peppercorn Cream sauce!  Let's get started...

You Will Need:

• 1/4 Stick butter
• 1/4 Cup finely diced shallots
• 8oz Good Bourbon
• 3 Cups low sodium chicken stock
• 4 Sprigs FRESH thyme
• 2 Cups heavy cream
• 2 tsp. freshly cracked black peppercorns
• 2 tsp. whole peppercorns
• 1/2 oz. Grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 tsp. Dijon mustard
• 2 tsp. fresh lemon juice
• 2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce

Ok, melt your butter in a large non-stick sauce pan and sweat your Shallots.  Remember, when sweating, you want to see little bubbles but you don't want to hear a loud "sizzle!"  Sweat the Shallots for 5 minutes.

Take your 8oz of Bourbon and pour half of it into a good glass with a few ice cubes.  This is for you to sip on while you stand there stirring the sauce.  Turn up the heat to Medium High, and take the remaining 4oz of Bourbon, and pour it over your Shallots, stirring until the mixture reduces by about 1/2.  This should take about 3 mins.  Shallots, Garlic, and Onions are all packed with alcohol soluble flavors, so do not skip this step unless you have a deadly allergy to booze!

Now pour in the Chicken Stock and add the Thyme.  Stir until it has a nice boil, and then leave it alone, glancing over at it every now and again to make sure it's not boiling over, and let it reduce by half.  This should take 20-30 minutes! 

While the sauce reduces, turn your attention to your peppercorns.  Take 2tsp of peppercorns and place them into a plastic sandwich bag.  Give the bag a few sturdy WHACKS with a mallet to crack them up.  You don't want pulverized pepper powder here, you're going for a "rough chop" of sorts.

Once your sauce has reduced, use some tongs to remove the Thyme sprigs, and add the cream and the crushed peppercorns.  Reduce the heat until you get what I like to call a "firm simmer" (obvious bubbling, but not a rolling boil, see photo on left).  Let it simmer, stirring often, until the mixture reduces to about 2 cups and is slightly thicker than cream.

While you're waiting/stirring the sauce as it thickens, have another sip of your Bourbon and prepare the final mix for the sauce.  Whisk together the mustard, Worcestershire, lemon juice and the remaining 2tsp of whole peppercorns.  Set it aside and grate your cheese. 

Here's what 1/2oz of ungrated Parm looks like.  Grate it into a little pile and sprinkle the pile over the sauce as it thickens.  Stir it in, and continue to reduce the sauce.

Near the very end, when the sauce is juuuust about as thick as you want it, add the whisked ingredients and stir them in.  The sauce should certainly coat and stick to the back of a spoon!

If you make this sauce ahead of time (I highly encourage it because when you're grilling steaks, your focus should be on the steak and not the sauce), you can store it for hours in a clean stainless steel thermos.  Don't use a cheap plastic one because plastic holds onto flavors like "coffee" and you don't want that in your sauce!  Ignore the empty Bourbon decanter in this picture... that was a personal tragedy that required an entirely different effort to solve.  Just remember to pour the sauce into a gravy boat or something before you serve it.  Pouring sauce out of a thermos bottle at a well set table is not exactly, "Fancy!"