Mrs. P wanted me to grill up steaks last night. It's getting toward the end of the grilling season around here and I wanted to make the dinner memorable. That's when I thought it might be fun to have a nice demi-glace to serve with the steaks and for a sauce when sauteing mushrooms. The only problem was i didn't have 10 hours to spare nor the requisite veal bones and trimmings or for that matter beef bones. So I kinda winged it with pretty damned good results, if I do say so myself.
First a made a roux of clarified butter, mirepoix and flour that I cooked until it was toasty brown. I whisked in 3 cups of unsalted beef stock (store bought), brought it to a boil, lowered the heat, threw in a cheesecloth spice bag (with thyme, peppercorns, parsley and a bay leaf) and let it reduce for a half-hour or so. Then I strained the concoction through cheese cloth, returned it to the pot with the spice bag and an additional 2 cups of beef stock and again simmered it until it was reduced by half.
No salt.
It worked fantastic and tasted perfect, but didn't have the body and texture of true demi-glace. Still, it only took about 3 hours total which is a great time saver.
Just thought I'd share in case anyone could use the tip.