eatingThinking

I’ve recently cooked up a storm in the kitchen, attempting my first beef bourguignon.  I cheated; I used a ready-made Gourmet Burgundy Sauce.  (I don’t start with the hardcore stuff; I need the easy stuff to lure me in)  And I am not ashamed of it, because it still took me a good 3 hours to prepare.  My husband loved it, and raved about it to his friends, and I was a proud cook.   Since a cook has to grow into a chef some day (and the supermarket seems to have discontinued the sauce) and my confidence level is at its peak, I felt now is the right time to kick it up a notch.  I am going to make a real boeuf bourguignon by using a bottle or 2 of the real stuff – red wine!   And in comes the big question -  which wine do I buy? This, of course, leads to 10,000 other equally valid questions.  Which type of grape?  What is burgundy wine?  Does it have to be wine from that region?  What did Julia Child say? Is this wine too cheap?  or am I spending too much on this wine?

I went all out researching.  And thank goodness I found the following article.  It confirmed my sneaking suspicion all along – that cooking is a great equalizer!  Cooking levels the playing field between the cheap and the expensive.  What does this mean for you?  It means this:   Drink up the expensive wine while you knock yourself out with cooking the cheap bottles! 

It Boils Down To This: Cheap Wine Works Fine

by JULIA MOSKIN

In the beginning, there was cooking wine.

And Americans cooked with it, and said it was good.

Then, out of the darkness, came a voice.

Said Julia Child: ”If you do not have a good wine to use, it is far better to omit it, for a poor one can spoil a simple dish and utterly debase a noble one.”

And so we came to a new gospel: Never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink.

For my generation of home cooks, this line now has the unshakable ring of a commandment. It was the first thing out of the mouth of every expert I interviewed on the subject.

But it is not always helpful in the kitchen. For one thing, short of a wine that is spoiled by age, heat or a compromised cork, there are few that I categorically would not drink. (Although a cooking wine, which is spiked with salt and sometimes preservatives, has never touched my braising pot.)

And once a drinkable wine has been procured, trying to figure out whether it is the best one for a particular recipe can seem impossible. How much of the wine’s subtler qualities will linger in the finished dish? How much of the fruit flavor? Does it matter whether the wine is old or young, inexpensive or pricey, tannic or soft?

Two weeks ago I set out to cook with some particularly unappealing wines and promised to taste the results with an open mind. Then I went to the other extreme, cooking with wines that I love (and that are not necessarily cheap) to see how they would hold up in the saucepan.

After cooking four dishes with at least three different wines, I can say that cooking is a great equalizer.

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Ingredients

3 cups cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp + 1 tsp oregano
1 1/4  tsp crushed red peppers
5 cloves of garlic, pressed
4 tbsp olive oil

4 halves chicken breast

Preheat oven to 450F.

1. Toss the first 5 ingredients in a bowl.
2. Place chicken in a rimmed baking sheet.
3. Pour the tomato mixture over the chicken, arranging tomatoes around the chicken.
4. Sprinkle everything generously with salt and pepper.
5. Roast for about 20-25 min.  Cut and check that the chicken is cooked through.  Spoon juice over chicken and serve.

My notes:

• Modified from its original version in Epicurious, this recipe is fast, healthy and savory!
• Marjoram was the original spice of choice but since I did not have that and I wasn’t about to buy something that I rarely use, I just substitute it with oregano in a 3:2 ratio, which is what you see above
• With no cherry tomatoes on hand, I sliced regular tomatoes into cherry tomatoes size.  If you use cherry tomatoes, make sure you roast until they are blistered.
• I find that the recipe still works great with 3 tbsp of oil instead of 4.
• I doubled the amount of garlic from 5 to 10 cloves because we are garlic freaks!
• Since there was plenty of juices from the tomatoes, we mixed it with whole-wheat spaghetti and serve the chicken over that.

Ingredients
1 half-lbs salmon fillet, skin on
1 tbsp wasabi
3 tbsp mayonnaise

Preheat oven to 450F.

1. Using tweezers, remove any little bones from fish. Season with salt and black pepper.
2. Mix wasabi and mayonnaise thoroughly, and add on a pinch of salt and black pepper.
3. Spread mixture on top of fillet to cover completely.
4. Place fish in baking sheet and bake on bottom rack for 20 min. Could be 15 min, it depends on thickness of fish. But do not overcook; the center should be moist and the top of the fish should be lightly golden. Serve immediately.

Source: Cooking 123 by Rozanne Gold

Ingredients

1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp crushed red peppers
5 cloves of garlic, pressed
4 tbsp olive oil

4 halves chicken breast
2 cups cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1 can of chickpeas (15 oz), drained
1/2 cup of plain yogurt or greek yogurt

Preheat oven to 450F.

1. Combine the first 5 ingredients in a bowl.
2. Place chicken in a rimmed baking sheet and rub 2 tbsp of spiced oil mixture over chicken.
3. Mix 1 tsp of spiced oil mixture with yogurt and set aside for sauce
4. Toss tomatoes, chickpeas, 1/2 cup cilantro with remaining spiced oil mixture in a bowl.
5. Pour the bean mixture around the chicken.
6. Sprinkle everything generously with salt and pepper.  Roast for 20-25 min. Cut and check that the chicken is cooked through. Spoon juice over chicken and sprinkle with remaining cilantro.   Serve with yogurt sauce

My notes:

• Modified from its original version in Epicurious, this recipe is incredibly simple and delicious!
• Smoked paprika was the original spice of choice, but since I did not have that and I am not particularly crazy about the smoked flavor, I just used regular paprika.
• With no cherry tomatoes on hand, I sliced regular tomatoes into cherry tomatoes size.  If you use cherry tomatoes, make sure you roast until they are blistered.
• The sauce complements the chicken beautifully.  I used plain low-fat yogurt, but you can also use Greek yogurt.
• I find that the recipe still works great with 3 tbsp of oil instead of 4.
• I doubled the amount of garlic from 5 to 10 cloves because we are garlic freaks!
• After pouring the bean mixture over the chicken, I like to toss the remaining 1/2 cup of cilantro in that same bowl to absorb the spiced oil mixture that clings onto the inside of the bowl.  I then set the spiced cilantro aside for garnishing right before serving.
• I made this dish at other times substituting chickpeas with kidney beans and it turned out just as wonderful!

Ingredients
4 (1 1/4-inch-thick) pieces white-fleshed skinless fish fillets, such as halibut (6 oz each)
4 very thin lemon slices
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup pitted brine-cured green olives such as picholine, halved lengthwise (2 oz)
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh oregano or 3/4 teaspoon dried oregano, crumbled

Put oven rack in upper third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.

1. Pat fish dry and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over moderately high heat until hot but not smoking, then sear fillets, skinned sides down, until browned well, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer, seared sides up, to baking dish or baking pan (reserve skillet), then top each fillet with a slice of lemon.
2. Add wine to skillet and bring to a boil, scraping up any brown bits. Boil 30 seconds, then pour around fish. Scatter olives around fish and bake, uncovered, until fish is just cooked through, 8 to 12 minutes.
3. Transfer fish to a platter, then whisk lemon juice, oregano, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil into cooking liquid in baking dish. Season sauce with salt and pepper and spoon over fish.

Note: Olives can be replaced with capers.

Source: Gourmet Magazine