Merlot Butter (Reduction)

Does anyone have any recipies they'd like to share? I recently had this at Mon Ami Gabi and have been craving it since then.

I haven't had this at Mon Ami Gabi, but making any type of compound butter is fairly straightforward. The basic idea is to mix raw butter with other ingredients and then rechill (though this is optional). If it is a merlot reduction, I presume they reduce merlot to a desired consistency, add salt and maybe pepper or herbs (if desired), let it cool, and then mix with butter. The two variables are how long to reduce the merlot and what is the desired ratio of merlot to butter.

You can also make this using pan drippings. For example, you roast some meat. After it is done, remove it from the pan. Add the merlot to the pan, heat, and scrape up the browned bits from the bottom. Reduce the merlot. Then add butter, salt, pepper and herbs. Then strain. This will be more of a sauce than a hard compound butter.

James Peterson, in Sauces, gives a recipe for the classic French "Marchand de Vin Butter" (Wine merchant butter): Basically, reduce a cup of wine with a minced shallot and 5 cracked peppercorns. He then adds salt and meat glace, and reduces until you get a few tablespoons of syrup. Mix this with 5 oz of butter, chopped parsely, and 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. I'm sure you can find other versions on the web.

yes, the title is misleading, it is a merlot and butter sauce, not solid butter... thanks for the tips

Put 3/4 of a bottle of merlot in a saucepan with some chopped shallots, reduce it down to almost nothing, then - off the heat - whisk in butter one tablespoon at a time until the taste and texture are what you want. Season. Strain through a chinois if you feel like it.

The classic name for this sauce is beurre rouge (which can be made with any red wine, nut just merlot.) A quick google shows there are lots of recipes out there, but Kennyz's reply above is a solid basic beurre rouge recipe.

eli wrote:The classic name for this sauce is beurre rouge (which can be made with any red wine, nut just merlot.) A quick google shows there are lots of recipes out there, but Kennyz's reply above is a solid basic beurre rouge recipe.

Not that it really matters that much, but there is a difference between a beurre rouge (which is a variation on the classic beurre blanc) and a compound butter, which I described above. Compound butter generally means that you mix flavorful ingredients into cold butter and then rechill. Then you can put a slice on top of the meat. In a beurre blanc (or beurre rouge), you whisk butter into a liquid base and serve warm. I suspect that eli an Kennyz are correct to infer that Mon Ami Gabi is making a beurre rouge.