Special touches

Using wine

• You don’t need anything grand, just an inexpensive wine that you would be happy to drink. Wine boxes are especially handy for cooks.
• Wine that’s cooked loses its alcohol content, but leaves behind a subtle flavour that makes all the difference; you’ll find wine goes naturally with fresh fruits too.
• In general, fish and white meats are cooked in white wines and meat and game are usually reserved for reds, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
• Try the most straightforward way when cooking steaks or escalopes: deglaze the hot frying pan with a few tablespoons of wine and let it bubble up while you stir and scrape up coagulated pan juices. Then pour the juice over the meat before you serve it.
• Use wine for baking fish in the oven, then use the liquid to make a sauce.
• A little red wine and fresh herbs makes an excellent and simple marinade for meat. Leave meat to marinate for at least 1 hour. Then use the meat to make a casserole with the wine as part of the stock.
• Dry vermouth, which has a delicate herb flavour, can deputize for wine in a recipe; it’s more concentrated so dilute it with an equal quantity of water. It’s especially good when used to make fish and chicken dishes.
• For a macédoine of fruits, slice peeled fresh peaches and arrange in layers with sliced strawberries, using 4oz (100g) sugar per 1lb (450g) fruit. Add a glass of wine to get the juices flowing and marinate for 1–2 hours, then add a dash of cognac for the finishing touch. Choose a pretty glass dish and arrange fruit in layers to show contrasting colours.
• Soak dried fruits in sherry or sweet white wine, then use in traditional puddings such as bread and butter pudding; wine-plumped fruit is great for fruit cakes, especially at Christmas.
• Decant unfinished wine into smaller bottles, then tightly cork and it will keep for several days. Or freeze wine in ice cube trays and you can drop a cube into a casserole any time.