Cooking with Wine

How to use wine to enhance the flavors of your favorite dishes.

There are many meals that I prepare that I feel would be compromised if not paired with a great wine. A nice filet mignon just wouldn’t be the same without a deep oaky cabernet! The beauty of it is that wine can be so much more than just a beverage served with dinner. Those same delicious flavors that your palate experiences when enjoying a glass of wine can also be infused into a variety of dishes. As a chef I get great pleasure in experimenting with the various flavors wine can impart on the food itself during the cooking process. Various wines can add so much diversity and flavor to your cooking, whether you are using it as a marinade, a compliment to a stew, deglazing a pan or simply using it to poach or steam fish and shellfish. Luckily wine, unlike beer, is something that Celiac’s can enjoy with their meals with great peace of mind.

Wine as a flavor enhancer versus an intoxicant

When you cook with wine you are using it to concentrate the flavor or essence of the wine not impart a harsh alcohol taste into your food. During the cooking process most of the alcohol is evaporated off, hence the longer the cooking time, the more alcohol gets evaporated. However, research shows that even after 2 1/2 hours of cooking time some alcohol does remain in the food. Unless you are cooking something like Coq au Vin, where copius quantities of wine are required, you should feel fairly confident that your guests will not walk away tipsy, since most recipes using wine only call for small measurements.

How to choose appropriate wines

The golden rule among great cooks is "if you wouldn’t drink it, don’t cook with it!". The cooking process will not improve the undesirable qualities of bad wine — it will only accentuate them. Choose wines that will tie in with the wine you are drinking with the meal. Avoid the "Cooking Wines" available in the grocery stores — they contain a lot of salt and taste terrible. Affordable drinking wines are much better and really will only cost you a few dollars more. A great way to have good wine on-hand is to use any left-overs (stuff that is too good to waste but no longer suitable to drink). Conversely, heat tends to kill the subtle nuances in complex wines, so save those special, expensive wines for drinking.

A well-stocked pantry will include several different types of wine on hand to cook with. I tend to always have a nice, inexpensive dry white wine always stocked in my refrigerator. White wines that have higher acidity levels are especially good because of their bright citrus and green apple notes. Chardonnay’s don’t work as well in cooking due to their oaky, buttery flavor. When reduced during the cooking process the oaky flavors tend to turn bitter and don’t really add anything to the finished dish. Good whites to have on hand include Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Blanc, Chenin Blanc and Sémillon. Choose red wines that have moderate tannins like a Merlot, a lighter Cabernet or a Pinot Noir. These are great to cook with because the acidity will boost the other flavors in the dish. Be careful of very full-bodied reds like big Cabernets or Syrahs — these contain big tannins which can leave a chalky taste when the wine is reduced.

In addition to your standard red and white table wines, there are other wonderful wines that can impart incredible flavor as well as bring out other flavors hidden within the ingredients of the dish you are preparing. Examples of these wines include Japanese Sake, Madeira, Marsala, Port and Sherry. These wines have very unique flavors and can do wonderful things to a fairly common dish.

Beef Tenderloin with Shiitakes & Madeira

Madeira and Marsala are fortified wines that are usually not reduced. Unlike red and white table wines they will become unpalatable if overcooked — to prevent this from happening reduce your sauce before adding Marsala or Madeira, then add the fortified wine and simmer being careful not to boil. I invite you to experiment with these delicious wines by trying our Beef Tenderloin with Shiitakes & Madeira (one of Glutenfreeda’s Favorites). This recipe happens to be an exception to the rule of not reducing your fortified wines. Like Sherry, Madeira tends to enhance the flavors of mushrooms creating an explosion of flavor particularly when paired with a tender beef filet.

Sweet wines like Port and Rieslings should rarely be cooked. During the cooking process the sugars will intensify and the lovely perfumy nuances will be lost. These wines can be wonderful as a flavoring for custard sauces, sorbets and fruit salads. If you do choose to cook with sweet wines, add it toward the end of the cooking process to preserve the wine’s subtleties.

When to Add Wine:

Chicken with Cherry Sauce & Caramelized Onions

To get the best flavor and to make sure most of the alcohol is cooked off, here’s some guidelines on when to add wine to your food:

Simmering Sauces with Wine

For stews and long simmering sauces, particularly with tomato sauces, add your wine after you have browned your meats and vegetables. Simmer the wine and let it reduce a bit before adding your other liquids. By slowly simmering the wine over a long period of time it will bring out other flavors in the food that you may not otherwise taste. To see how this is done try this month’s delicious Chicken with Cherry Sauce & Caramelized Onions.

Pecan Crusted Chicken with Pears & Cherries

Deglazing for Pan Sauces

One of the greatest ways to infuse the essence of wine into your food is to deglaze your pan after you have seared or pan-fried your meats. Once the meat is done, remove it from the pan and add the wine. Reduce the wine to a syrupy consistency, scraping up the browned bits that have accumulated on the bottom of the pan. To achieve a rich flavor, reduce it down to au sec, or almost dry, then add your other liquids like cream or stock and reduce the mixture down again. To finish your pan sauce, whisk in a tablespoon or two of butter — this will add a nice richness to the sauce. Glutenfreeda.com has several examples of this technique on the site. This month try one of our favorites, Pecan Crusted Chicken with Pears & Cherries.

Teriyaki Salmon

Wine Marinades

Wines can add a great dimension to marinades. Not only can it add flavor to the meat, before cooking, not to mention tenderize it, but it can be used to make a wonderful base for a sauce. Add the wine with all the other marinade ingredients. In our wonderful Teriyaki Salmon we use Sake or Sherry mixed with other aromatics like ginger and garlic to create an incredible marinade for a fresh salmon fillet.

Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto

Using Wine with Risotto

Risotto can be made without wine, however adding a little wine will add a touch of acidity and enhance this wonderful rice dish. As in our Mushroom & Asparagus Risotto, you want to add the wine after the onions or shallots are soft and the rice has been added to the pan and lightly toasted in butter. Make sure the wine is almost completely cooked off before you add your stock.

Steaming Shellfish

One of my favorite shellfish meals is Steamed Clams or Mussels. The shallots and garlic are sautéed in the pan until soft and then the wine is added and brought to a boil. At this point the clams or mussels are added and steamed until the shells open.

Once you get a feel for how to use wine in your cooking, I’m sure you’ll find yourself reaching for a little wine to flavor your meal quite often.

Bon Appetit!

- Glutenfreeda