The post Avoid These Mistakes When Cooking With Wine appeared first on Cooking 4 All.
]]>One common mistake people tend to make is using low-quality wine in cooking, which can poorly impact the flavor of dishes (as the wine’s taste will be intensified during cooking). Another common error is using a wine with flavors that don’t complement your dish. So, how do you make sure you get optimal results when cooking with wine? Here are a few handy tips.
Follow Your Drinking Taste
Choose a wine that you would also enjoy drinking. If you wouldn’t enjoy drinking it, it’s likely not suitable for cooking, either.
Dry for Savory, Sweet for Dessert
Generally, dry wines are better for savory dishes and sweet wines are better for desserts. It’s not a total must-follow rule and there are exceptions, but it can help avoid strange taste combinations.
Cooking Wine – Out
As counterintuitive as it may sound, try not to use wine that’s labeled as “cooking wine”. These wines often contain additives and preservatives that can change the taste of your dish in unexpected ways, and that’s not always a fun surprise.
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]]>Chocolate Red Wine Chiffon Cake
For elegant events and special occasions, you can’t go wrong serving this chocolate cake from Sprinkle Bakes. With a light-as-air texture and a wine-infused chocolate glaze on top, it tastes like something from a high-end bakery while still being relatively simple to prepare. We recommend going with a medium-bodied wine to add depth without overpowering the chocolate.
Red Wine Brownies
You didn’t think we’d mention brownies and not put our money where our mouth is, did you? A fudgy treat gets a fun upgrade in this recipe by Broma Bakery. Like most of her recipes, she swaps white sugar for brown to give them a warm, caramelly flavor that perfectly complements the fruitiness of the wine. For extra gooey brownies, take them out of the oven a few minutes before they’re completely cooked.
Red Wine Chocolate Pudding Pie
We weren’t sure how we felt about the idea of wine and pudding at first, but after one bite of this recipe by Show Me the Yummy, we were hooked. Like most pudding pies, it’s super rich and creamy. Unlike other pies, however, it contains a healthy dose of Barefoot Merlot. She prepares hers with a classic graham cracker crust, but Oreo crumbs would work nicely as well.
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]]>Wine Vinegar
Wine vinegar is a staple ingredient for preparing delicious salad dressings, sauces, stews, and many other dishes, and the best thing is that you can easily make homemade wine vinegar that’s even better than store-bought.
Poached Pears
Pears poached in red wine make for a decadent and delicious dessert that will steal the show at any party. This is the perfect dessert to make with leftover red or rose wine, and you can serve it with a scoop of mascarpone cheese or ice cream.
Butter
Flavored butter is a tasty and decadent addition to meat recipes such as steak and it makes your dishes super-rich and creamy. You can easily make delicious red wine butter at home with either red or white wine.
Wine Ice Cubes
Most people don’t know that wine can also be frozen for a while, so use ice trays to make wine ice cubes that you can later add to dishes and beverages.
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]]>Although oxidation does serve a purpose — we allow wine to breathe once opened, after all — too much can cause your wine to turn bad. Here’s what you should know.
How Should You Store Wine That Has Been Opened?
Once you’ve poured yourself a few glasses, or used the wine in a sauce or stew, you want to prevent the rest being exposed to air. Seal the bottle as tightly as you can, either with the cork or a wine stopper. You then want to keep the wine somewhere cool and dark like the fridge.
How Long Does Wine Last Once It’s Been Opened?
Oxidation behind the minute that air is introduced to the wine, so you have about 3-5 days to enjoy it before it becomes too affected. The time period depends on how much sulfur is in the wine, but sadly, anything sparkling will start to fizzle out after a day (pardon the pun).
When is it Time to Throw it Out?
Wine that has soured is no one’s idea of a good time. Any change in color, clarity, or smell should be taken as a red flag. While you can totally use that leftover booze to make vinegar, don’t drink it if it starts exhibiting any of those signs.
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]]>Tuscany, Italy
Grape vineyards sprawl in lavish fields across northern Italy, making it the optimal place to drink wine , and eat cheese! There are many delicious wineries to visit that also have restaurants and charcuterie to enjoy! We recommend Cantina Tera di Seta for a delicious culinary and wine tasting experience. However, you truly cannot go wrong with any winery you visit as they are almost all exceptional!
(@winerist)Malaga, Spain
Southern Spain has some beautiful landscapes and views making it an incredible place to sip Sangria Wine on the beach, or sample cheese and meat plates at many of the local eateries. We recommend Bodega Garcia Hidalgo in Malaga for a beautiful experience.
Bordeaux, France
Bordeaux, France is the quintessential wine tasting experience, offering some of the world’s finest wine varieties and charcuterie. We recommend Château Balestard La Tonnelle for some of the riches and well bodied wines in the region, and enahnce the experience with some brie, pears, and figs!
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]]>Follow a Recipe
When you first start cooking with wine, it’s best to use it as part of a recipe instead of improvising on your own. Once you’ve done it a few times with guidance, you’ll get a better sense of how to use wine in cooking so you can be more flexible with it.
Know the Purpose
There are actually a lot of reasons why you might use wine in cooking, and it’s important to understand what you’re trying to achieve when you use wine. Here are some possible purposes:
- Increase acidity in marinades
- Replace water or broth as a liquid to cook in
- Add flavor
- Add moisture
- Add aromatic scents
Choose the Right Wine
There are a few things to consider when choosing a wine to cook with. First, it’s important to avoid using “cooking wine,” which can have added salt, but rather use normal wine that you would possibly drink. And you’ll also want to choose a wine that makes sense with the dish you’re cooking. For example, white wine makes more sense in lighter dishes while red wine pairs well with richer, heavier dishes.
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]]>A Happy Accident
In 2010, some Veuve Clicquot Champagne from 1825-1930 was found in the Åland archipelago in Finland. It accidentally spent almost 200 years underwater, and the wine turned out to be excellent. Not only it tasted great, but it was fresh, sweet, and had an amazing color.
It didn’t take long for the winemakers to start doing this on purpose. The wine-making industry didn’t have any innovations for a very long time, so people around France, Spain, and Croatia promptly started storing wine underwater.
Since not enough time has passed for underwater wine aging to show legit results, it’s still mostly seen as a marketing ploy to get people to pay premium prices for novelty.
While the process of underwater wine aging sounds pretty easy and straightforward, that’s not exactly the case. It takes a lot of money and a will to risk ruining a perfectly good batch. The goal is to store wine in the dark, which means beyond 650 feet underwater. A standard wine bottle, however, typically implodes under pressure after the first 80 feet.
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]]>Oak is the most common wood used to do this by far, and the flavors imparted upon wines vary by the variety of oak that is used. Check out this guide to the two most common oaks and the effects that they have on wines.
American Oak
One of the two main types of oak used for winemaking is American oak, which is sourced from east of the Mississippi River, primarily in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin. Aging in American oak barrels gives sweet flavors like vanilla, coconut, and even chocolate and is good for bold reds whose flavors aren’t easily overwhelmed.
(@kesleavictoria)French Oak
French oak, on the other hand, is better for use in milder reds that are wonderfully enhanced by this wood of European origin. Spiciness along with nuttiness and some faint vanilla sweetness are the best ways to describe the flavor that the aging process gives wines that spend time in these popular, but expensive, casks.
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]]>Hummus and Pita Bread
Eating pita bread with some hummus is a tasty and healthy snack that you can also pair with wine because they make a perfect combination.
Fruit
Eating fresh fruit while enjoying your favorite wine is the best way to improve its flavor on hot summer days. Fruits like apples, grapes, berries, or pears are just some that you can pair with a glass of wine.
Seafood
From salmon and tuna to sea bass or branzino, it’s a well-known fact that seafood is best when served with a glass of wine such as Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc.
Dark Chocolate
Both chocolate and wine are filled with rich and luxurious flavors, and that’s exactly why they taste perfect together.
Apple Pie
In case you’re looking for delicious desserts to pair with wine, the classic apple pie is a simple but rich treat that you must try eating with a glass of wine this fall.
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]]>The post Drink Up! Your Next Vacation Should Include Wine Tasting appeared first on Cooking 4 All.
]]>While food and travel are a marriage made in heaven, you shouldn’t overlook the drinks that accompany your favorite dish. With travel restriction easing, we recommend adding wine tasting to your next vacation.
Penny Sadler’s travel and wine blog Adventures of a Carry-On, is a great resource to look into, in this regard. The blog includes Sadler’s first-hand accounts of her travels (anything from picking grapes in Barolo to exploring the Grand Cru vineyards of Alsace), alongside intimate details of tours, wineries, restaurants, and hotels.
A professional makeup artist in her day-to-day, Sadler is a student of the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (an internationally recognized certification) and continually hosts wine tastings for both private and retail customers.
Having traveled to some of the world’s most interesting wine regions, Sadler’s advice is worth your attention. Recent posts include a dive-in into different sorts of wine (in one, Sadler notes that while most people think Prosecco is like champagne, it actually isn’t. “First of all it’s made in Italy, not France,” she notes. “Second, the fermentation method which creates the bubbles is completely different. And those are just a couple of differences.”)
But of course, a good glass of wine is often paired with good company. “The best part of being a travel writer is the people I meet,” Sadler noted in a piece published on Wander With Wonder. “My biggest challenge is staying focused on the task at hand; I’m very curious and easily distracted by sparkly things.”
Visit her blog for more tips and tricks, and show her some love on Instagram.
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