Demi-glace at home??!
Demi-glace at home??
I am a chef....i make demi-glace at work....i know the process...but as for at home...can i buy demi somewhere?....is there an easy way to make it at home??.....i cant afford the materials like veal bones....and especially the time.....any suggestions?.....i have been racking my brain and can't figure it out....i want something that is very close to actual demi-glace....not just reduced thickened bordelaise or something like that....Thanks in advance for any help
Answers:
I am a former chef in Canada, and have made it at home, with the advent of the larger cartons of stock, to make the espanole sauce like at a hotel/restaurant kitchen, I have used pork bones, here in Canada we had something refered to as button bones, a small bone actually of the back.
I buy them, roast them with a mirepoix, tomato paste and get it reallt brown, then add the stock, wine and water, cook it for 1-2 hours, strain it and them reduce it to a glaze, if your looking to make Glaze de Viande, it can be done except you have to add more stock to your reduced stock and bring it done to about 1 1/2 cup.
Try to find a store that will sell beef bones, we have a soup bone sold at our supermarkets, a bit big and can be combined with pork bones, I will admit a real veal based stock with a few knuckles in it , does make a better sauce, but as you said they are to dear for some budgets.
Mock Demi-Glace
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup good beef broth
Directions:
Make a beurre manie by mixing the butter and flour together well. Heat beef broth over medium heat just to a simmer.
Stir in beurre manie by the heaping teaspoon. Let mixture simmer slowly about 3 minutes to cook flour and thicken.
I know that if you go to a specialty grocery store ie: Wholefoods, Sunflower, Trader Joe's etc. they have a prepackaged demi available that's pretty damn good. I can't remember the name of the brand but it comes in a short squat package and the plastic lid is made to look like a toque. It is kind of pricey, but a little bit goes a long way. All that being said, there's just no substitute for the real thing.
try using beef back rib bones when you do have time