Espagnole Sauce

Directions

1. Heat a medium saucepan under moderate heat and add your butter.
2. Let the butter warm up in the pan for just a minute, then add your flour.
3. Stir the flour until it's incorporated with the butter. You'll want to heat your roux until it's almost the color of peanut butter.
4. Then you'll want to add your onions, carrots, and celery.
5. Give it a good stir to incorporate the vegetables in with the roux.
6. Cook the mixture until your vegetables start to caramelize, about 3-5 minutes. Then add your tomato puree, aka ketchup.
7. Give it a good stir to incorporate the ketchup into the vegetable/roux mixture.
8. Then slowly add in your cold beef stock, while stirring. You want to do it slowly so that you don't get any lumps.
9. Once you have all your stock in the saucepan, bring mixture to a boil for about 3-5 minutes. This is to ensure that you cook out your starch in your flour.
10. Let simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until mixture is thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.
11. Then you'll want to strain your mixture.
12. And season it to taste with salt and pepper.