A Guide to Cooking with Wine
by Lee Dobbins
Don't just sip it, eat it!
Want to enhance and improve
the taste of your favorite dish? Think that adding wine to your recipe
will make it more scrumptious and mouth watering? Well then, you're
absolutely right!
Wines are widely used in the
cooking world because they intensify taste and zest. They are also capable
of releasing flavors from food that are not possible by regular means of
cooking.
The main question you must
have now is this: What type of wine goes with what type of food?
You have red wines, white
wine, sparkly champagne, sherry etc. You have grape vine types like
merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, zinfandel, syrah, and Riesling. With the wide
variety of them available, picking a wine is pretty tricky. The secret
here is to know what combinations are used by professionals.
1. Red Wine
There used to be a rule in
cooking that "red wine goes with red meat, white wine with white meat".
Although it's not really true anymore, most chefs still go with that.
- For red meat, young and full
bodied red wines are recommended. Try going for Zinfandel Red or Merlot. -
For red sauces, robust, full bodied wines are best. Make pasta, pizza or
other tomato-sauce based dishes with it. - Using root veggies with beef
stock? You might want to look for an earth red, full bodied wine. The
color it imparts to the meat makes it all the more wonderful.
2. White Wine
Cream based sauces, butter and
herbs. Yum. White wine is usually used with white meat and best for light
colored dishes.
- If you fancy a zesty dish,
add some sparkling champagne. - For chicken, pork or veal, try cooking
with white wine. Spice up your grilled chicken by mixing dry, white wine
with butter as the sauce. - Crisp, dry white wines are ideal for seafood
soup and shellfish dishes. Bouillabaisse, anyone? - Leftover sweet white
wine in your fridge? Why make delicious, delectable desserts? Whip up some
Bavarian cream.
3. Fortified wine
Fortified wines are what they
are: fortified. Additional neutral alcohol is added to them. Then they are
aged for a long time. Examples are sherry, port and vermouth.
- Sherry is great for poultry
meat and vegetables soups. - For sweet, fruity dishes or desserts, splash
some port or vermouth. Your dry vermouth can also be a good substitute for
white wine.
4. Cooking wine
Cooking wines are relatively
less pricey wines that use salt as a preservative. They can be found in
supermarkets and groceries. Most professional chefs disdain the use of
cooking wines because the salt content is hard to work with. You may need
to adjust your recipe to work with the saltiness.
5. Exotic wines
Cooking is an experiment. If
you're feeling bold and daring, you could try cooking with exotic wines.
Asian wines are popular choices for an all together different meal. There
is the sake, bekseju and seol joong mae.
- Sake is a rice based wine
from Japan. Although it's mainly a beverage, it is popular as an additive
to many Japanese dishes.
- Beksuju is a Korean wine
made from raw rice and herbs. It can be used in vegetable dishes to
increase the 'herbal' feel. Seol Joong Mae, a fruit wine made from plum,
can be used for desserts and fruity dishes.
I hope that clears up some of
your confusion. With that said, here are some few reminders for the novice
cook:
- Cook only with wine that you
would drink. There is no sense in cooking something that you wouldn't want
to taste. - There are a lot of good, quality yet inexpensive wines out
there. Don't get too carried away and buy something that's way off your
budget. - Don't cook using aluminum or cast iron cookware. Alcohol is
reactive with these materials and could cause harm to your dish. - After
adding your wine, try to wait for 5-10 minutes before tasting it. Wine
needs to simmer for a while before it can impart flavor to your food. -
Got some left over wine? Put them in your ice cube tray and freeze them.
This makes them good for future use.
Get your favorite recipe, pick
a wine and start cooking!
About the Author
Lee Dobbins, an avid wine drinker, writes
for
http://wine.leisure-webzone.com
where you can learn more about
wine
and when to use it properly.
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