I love cooking with wine and sometimes I even add it to the dish that I am making. While many recipes call for wine, most of us don’t use wines of the same quality.
The first choice to make is what varietal to use to enhance your recipe. Available in most stores, is “cooking wine” many of which contain 190 milligrams of sodium in only a couple of tablespoons. Compared that to red and white table wines, which contain approximately 8 milligrams of sodium in a six-ounce serving.
Sauvignon Blanc is a varietal that I like to use for cooking purposes. Scallops and other shellfish provides for a good opportunity to use this varietal. In cooking scallops, I like to start by melting some butter in a skillet and then I sauté some finely chopped onions or shallots until they are translucent. Next, I add a cup of the wine and simmer until at least half of it evaporates. Then add heavy cream and once it begins to thicken, add 1 pound of sea scallops. When the scallops are done, season with salt and pepper and serve.
On a cold winter day, there is nothing better than a beef stew made in a slow cooker. I prefer to use a sirloin tip roast and chop it myself. Then I will add onions, celery, garlic, mushrooms and red potatoes -- along with a whole bottle of Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon and let it cook on low for eight hours.
Chicken Marsala is a dish that is named after a fortified wine produced in the Sicily region of Italy, and this dish is quite easy to make. Start by dredging chicken breasts that have been pounded very thin in flour that has been seasoned with garlic powder and oregano. Then heat oil and butter in a skillet and cook the chicken breasts on medium to high heat until brown on both sides. Remove the chicken and add sliced mushrooms, cooking until they begin to release their liquids. The next step is to add Marsala wine and boil until the wine is reduced almost in half. I then add chicken broth and let it cook for a couple of minutes before returning the chicken breasts to the skillet and allow them to cook until done. Serve with the Marsala sauce spooned over the chicken.
In cooking with wine, you should only choose one that you are willing to drink. A wine that is poor in quality can impart flavors into the finished dish that makes it distasteful. In addition to the flavors that wine adds to the recipes, my favorite benefit is the aroma that it creates throughout the kitchen as well as the entire house.
Jim Rawe, a family attorney in Bradenton, is an avid collector of fine wines. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at jimrawe@gmail.com.
