Peppercorn Sauce for Steak

Now I don't know about you but I absolutely love peppercorn sauce. If it's on the menu, there are high chances I will order it. However, I have never tried to make it at home. Since D was coming for dinner and I was tutoring before hand I wanted something quick and easy, and delicious.

I am really happy with how the sauce turned out and will make it again. I won't tell you how to cook your steak..because mine was only so-so. I think it was a bit overdone. I think the best way to cook steak is on the BBQ.

Two things I don't usually have on hand that are needed: brandy and whipping or heavy cream. I adapted the recipe from simplyrecipes.com

Ingredients:

- 3 Tbsp black peppercorns, cracked

- 1/4 cup finely chopped shallots or onions

- 1/4 cup cognac or other brandy

- 1 cup beef broth or stock (for gluten-free version use gluten-free stock)

- 1/4 cup heavy cream

- 1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

Once the steaks are cooked, generally sprinkle with 2 T of cracked pepper (to crack pepper just put in a mortel and smash).

Directions:

Add the shallots and sauté for 2 minutes. Add the brandy and as it boils, deglaze the pan by scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon (helps to have one with a straight edge) to dislodge all the browned bits. Once the brandy is almost cooked away, add the beef stock and turn the heat to high. Boil the sauce down until there's a noticeable trail when you drag a wooden spoon through the center of it (4-5 minutes). 

Pour in the heavy cream and resume boiling. Again, boil down until you can make that telltale trail from the wooden spoon. Turn off the heat and add the parsley and any remaining black pepper (no more than 1 Tbsp, the rest should have already been used to pepper the steaks). Taste for salt and add if needed.

Pour the sauce over the steaks right when you serve.

Enjoy!! Should be enough sauce for 2-4 steaks depending how much sauce you like.