Filet Mignon with Merlot Reduction

Holy stink! Boiling the wine made my house smell SOOOOOO bad! But the end result was delicious, so I won't complain too much. I made this for a friend's birthday dinner and it was really good. I've slightly adjusted the recipe below as I found the original to be way too salty. Another problem was that the steaks got cold after cooking them and setting them aside to use the pan again...so i added the "cover with foil" part. Next time I may grill the steaks and make the sauce seperately, that way everything is ready at the same time.

1 750-ml bottle Merlot
3 (14.5 oz) cans low-salt beef broth

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 6-ounce filet mignon steaks (each about 1 inch thick)
Freshly cracked pepper
1/4 cup chopped shallots
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Boil wine and beef broth in heavy large saucepan over high heat until mixture is reduced to 2 cups, about 1 hour. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

Mix butter and flour in small bowl. Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in heavy large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle steaks with salt and cracked pepper. Sauté steaks until medium-rare, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer to plate and cover with foil.

Add shallots, garlic and thyme to skillet; stir 30 seconds. Add 1 1/2 cups reduced wine mixture to skillet (reserve remainder for another use). Bring mixture to boil, scraping up any browned bits. Add butter mixture and whisk until smooth. Boil sauce until thick enough to coat spoon, about 2 minutes. Serve steaks with sauce.

Yields 6 servings.