Cooking With Wine: And Adding It To The Food Too!
Posted by: Cherith / Category: Cooking Tips, Dinner, Drinks, RecipesWine is a perfect way to make any meal a little gourmet and add some sass and perk up a regularly boring meal. The best part about it is you can enjoy…I mean “sample” the wine while you are doing the cooking. If your worried about feeding your children alcohol, don’t! The process of heating the wine when you are cooking with it burns off most of the alcohol, leaving a subtle taste of wine without a high alcohol content. In fact, if you boil it in a liquid, it loses 85% of its original alcohol content. Here are the top five rules to remember when you are cooking with wine.
1. Never, ever cook with a wine that you would not drink! If it’s not fit for human consumption, its not fit for cooking with either.
2. It is important to use the right wine with each different kind of food, so here is a basic guide to help you out. Red meat dishes, soups with root veggies and beef stock should all be paired with a full bodied red wine. Seafood, poultry, pork and veal, veggie and chicken soups and white sauces should be paired with a dry white wine. Desserts should be mixed with a sweet white wine.
3. When adding it to cooking, here are the suggested amounts to add.
Soups - 2 tablespoons per cup
Sauces - 1 tablespoon per cup
Gravies - 2 tablespoons per cup
Stews and Meats - 1/4 cup per pound
Poaching liquid for fish - 1/2 cup per quart
4. Cooking is a great way to use leftover wine! If you want to store leftover wine properly, pour it into smaller bottles, cork it tightly and store it in the fridge.
5. Use whatever wine you like to drink rather than getting cooking sherry. It usually has salt or chemicals added to it and is generally more expensive than regular sherry.
Beef and Cabbage Soup
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time:3 hours, 30 minutes (I know it seems like a long time but its well worth it and you only have to stir it occasionally.)
Ingredients
1-1/4 pounds beef top round roast
2 slices bacon, finely chopped
1 medium onion diced
1 medium carrot diced
2 medium ribs celery diced
1 medium green bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced
1/2 cup red wine (try a Cabernet sauvignon)
1/4 cup A-1 sauce
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon chopped garlic
1/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crushed
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
1/2 teaspoon whole caraway seeds
8 to 9 cups water
2 beef bouillon cubes, crumbled
1/2 large head green cabbage cut into 1-inch large dice
1 (3-ounce) jar roasted red peppers, drained and diced
Preparation
Trim beef, saving fat. Cut beef into 1/2-inch cubes and fat into 1/4-inch cubes.
In a large pot (6 quarts), add bacon and beef fat. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until all fat has been rendered and remaining pieces of fat and bacon are brown but not burned. Remove browned fat and bacon pieces and set aside. Leave liquefied fat in pot.
Saute onions, carrots, celery, and green peppers about 4 minutes. Add beef, raise heat to medium high and saute meat about 3 minutes. Return browned pieces of fat and bacon to the pot.
Stir in wine, A-1 sauce, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper,garlic, oregano, thyme and caraway seeds. Stir about 1 minute. Pour in 8 cups water and add crumbled beef bouillon cubes (or base). Stir until cubes or base have dissolved completely.
Add cabage and roasted red peppers; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer several minutes, or until scum stops accumulating on top. Partially cover and continue to simmer 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Skim again, if needed. Taste for seasonings and if too thick, add more water. (May need up to 1 cup.)
Tags: cooking sherry, red meat, red wine, sherry, veggies, white wine, wine
