This one comes from my garlic period. All of the sauces in my cookbooks used a lot of butter and I was trying to find an alternative. If you are trying to cut down on butter, baked garlic made into a paste is a great low cal flavoring. It is much more mild than you might suspect.

2 bulbs garlic

1 shallot, sliced thin

1/2 tspn butter

1 pinch thyme

1 pinch rosemary

3 shakes ground white pepper

3 tblspns brown stock glaze

3 shots red wine

2 shots cognac

2 tenderloin steaks (1 inch thick), edges wrapped in bacon

Bake the garlic for 1 hour at 350 °F wrapped in aluminum foil. Press the pulp of the garlic through a strainer to make a garlic paste.

Sauté the shallot in butter.

Broil the steaks about five minutes per side (or grill or fry. Clean the grease off if fried). Transfer to a small, warmed, frying pan and flambé with cognac. Set the steaks aside on a warm platter.

Add the garlic paste, shallot, brown stock glaze, thyme, rosemary, white pepper, and red wine to the frying pan with the remains of the cognac. Mix together and quickly reduce by half.

Plate the steaks and cover with sauce.