Almondine - a nice addition to a dish

Been away a while dealing with the Taxman and other things.  Among other things, I took a week and visited my brother and his family recently and did a little cooking for them.  Dinner was a London broil with a nice au jus, new potatoes and green beans almondine.

My sister in-law has a nicely stocked kitchen, but it is stocked differently than mine.  Scrounging through her spice rack, came up with the following:

Marinade for London Broil

1/4 cup of red wine (local sweet)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1    tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1/2 package of onion soup mix
1 teaspoon of basil
1/4 tablespoon of vinegar

Popped the steak in a 1 qt Ziploc bag and poured in the marinade.  Placed in a large bowl in case of leaks and then left it in the fridge overnight.  The next morning, took it out around noon and left it on the counter until 3:30 to get the steak nearer to room temperature (important).


Au jus
Drained the marinade into a pot.  Added:

1/4 cup of red wine (same as before)
1/4 cup of water
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 bouillon cubes (as we didn't have drippings)
3 bay leaves
1/8 cup of minced dried onions
2 tablespoons of butter (again, because of no drippings)
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce

Heated to a boil and let simmer, reducing for about 45 minutes until thorough cooked. 

Went over very well, even with the kids.

Almondine
Not quite the standard, but again, came out quite well.

1 6oz package of almond chips/slices
1/4 teaspoon salt (to taste)
1/4 cup of wine (red or white, depending on which you are using for the main course)
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of butter

Place all components into a saucepan, brought to a boil and then simmered for about 30 minutes (until a syrup forms).

Note that these measurements are for what I had at hand.  You can plan with the minor adjustments in the last 10 minutes of cooking until things taste the way you want.

We had some almondine left over, so we used it for dessert (pound cake with berries and whip cream).  It also goes well in a green salad with berries and mandarin oranges.

And back to the grindstone...

Been away from the blog for a while now.  Apologies for that, but Uncle Sam and taxes come first.  For those of you interested on both the IT comments and the other stuff, be aware that I am moving all the IT related postings to a new site which will focus strictly on IT.  That site can be found at http://jlovonit.blogspot.com/.  Over the next few days, I will move all of the existing IT posts to that site.  The rest will remain here.

John