Nick and I had the pleasure of spending the holiday weekend at his dad’s house on Table Rock Lake in Missouri. We were in good company with not only his dad & his wife Kelly, but also Nick’s college buddy (and future best man) Andrew and his wife Melinda, who now live in St. Louis.
On Saturday morning, the boys went fishing and caught a whole bunch of bass. While they were gone, the girls the went berry picking! Lots of blueberries and blackberries were picked.
Though Kelly did most of the cooking throughout the weekend (Thanks, Kelly!!), on Sunday night, we had a surf and turf meal (fresh caught bass included), and everyone chipped in to help.
Andrew sliced up zucchinis to throw on the grill.
Nick chopped up pistachios and crackers to coat the fish.
And they both attempted to fry the fish. Unfortunately, it was impossible on a non-nonstick pan, so they went to plan B: put the fish in the oven and drink more wine.
We had lots of berries from our picking trip that we wanted to use somehow. Remembering a blackberry steak sauce Aunt Diane made for us at Christmas, I got to Googling. I found one that sounded good and got to work!
Grilled Steaks with Blackberry Merlot Sauce
(adapted from Dr. Gourmet)
- 2 cups merlot
- 1 pint fresh blackberries
- 1 cup low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp fresh cracked black pepper
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 2-4 tbsp brown sugar (optional, if berries aren’t super sweet)
- 4 steaks
- s&p or your favorite seasoning
In a medium sauce pan, combine merlot, blackberries, stock, s&p, thyme and maple syrup. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for 30 minutes. I swear these are blackberries, I don’t know why they turned red!
Use a potato masher to gently mash the berries. Taste the sauce. If it seems too sour, add the sugar. Continue to simmer another 30 minutes.
The original recipe strained the seeds and pulp out, but we wanted to keep the texture. The sauce is done when it’s thick and coats the back of a spoon.
Season and grill your steaks, then top with sauce and serve!
Along with everything else, the sauce was really great! I loved the unstrained texture, but Nick complained about getting seeds in his teeth… so if you’re a seedless jam kind of person, you might want to strain it. Either way, the flavor was awesome.
Thanks to everyone for making it a great weekend!
Jess, the blackbery sauce looks great! So glad you all had a great weekend together
Wow, great pics! We had a great time with you guys as well. Hope you can come see us again soon!