Recipes Using Wine?

[snake eyes]

Anyone got a favorite recipe that they use wine in. I like a
little red wine in any meat(Beef,venison,bear etc) stew I
prepare.
Any thoughts?
snake-eyes

[mike rumping]

My Mom used red wine in bout everything, and man was it great!!!
  She could take an old groundhog, bear, or anything else, old, tough,
etc. and when done, it would just melt in your mouth.

[Three Hawks]

The reason for red wine in a recipe is to tenderize the meat. Dry reds are much better for this than sweet.   Red wine vinegar diluted with two parts water will do the same thing.  My favorite dish with a dry red wine is Coq Au Vin.    Extremely simple, smells heavenly while cooking and any old chicken will come out tender as a boiled potato and tasting wonderful.

A few years ago I got three blue grouse one afternoon, and cooked one for supper.  That sucker was tougher than a boiled owl.  Next day I made Coq Au Vin with the other two.  The last half hour, I put what was left of the previous supper's grouse in along with the veggies.   Wonderful.

This dish works well in any cookpot with a fairly tight lid,  but best in a dutch oven.

Three Hawks

[ridjrunr]

The best recipe I have ever tasted for pickled fresh fish.Ive pickled,northern pike,crappie and sunny and even rainbows all with excellant results.      PICKLED FISH  .........    Clean and filet fish,never worry about bones as they will completely dissolve.Cut into bite size pcs.Into gallon pickling jar,add 1 cup salt to 1/2 gallon of water.Stir well and add fish until jar is full and let sit in frig. for 48 hrs.Then pour off and rinse fish with clean water.Put fish back in jar and pour in white vinigar to cover.Let that sit 24 hrs in frig.Then pour off and discard this vinigar.At this time cook the following solution seperately.3 cups sugar,6 cups white vinigar.Stir well and light boil for 5 minutes,remove from heat and add,4 bay leaves,tsp whole allspice,1/2 tsp whole black pepper,1 tsp whole cloves,3tsp white or yellow mustard seed and (OPTIONAL) 6 or 7 red pepper sticks.Let cool to room temp and add 2 cups white wine,2 med. onions sliced,1 sliced orange or lemon and mix well.Mix this with fish and set in frig for 10 days min. and then enjoy!We used to winter spear alot of pike in MN where I grew up and this is what I prefered to do to them because they are so bony,never a problem. This stuff is REALLY good! ridjrunr

[vermontfreedom]

I've never had much good luck with wine in cooking. I've tried using dry reds in chili, but didn't much care for it. Even restaurant meals with wine (e.g., seafood, especially shrimp or scallops with a dry white) never really appealed to me.

However, I have two notable exceptions...see the thread a few back on "grilled rabbit with home apple wine" - a rather successful use of a sweet wine as a moisture additive when grilling also go to page 3 on this cooking forum and look in the "good venison recipes"  thread (and links therein).

Secondly, one of my favorite venison recipes uses port (I use home-made port from grape wine or wild-processed black raspberries). Here, I substituted raspberries for the gooseberries...


Roasted Venison Backstrap with Gooseberry Sauce Recipe courtesy Emeril Lagasse, 2004

1 1/2 to 2 pounds venison strip loin, about 2 inches in diameter, trimmed
1/2 cup Port wine
3 (3-inch) strips orange peel
1/2 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 bay leaf
1 sprig fresh thyme
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup cold butter, divided
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
1/4 cup sugar
1 (3-inch) cinnamon stick
1/2 cup demi-glace
1 1/2 cups gooseberries

Place venison in a zip-top plastic bag or other sealable, nonreactive container. Combine Port, orange peel, pepper, allspice, bay leaf, and thyme, and pour mixture over the venison. Seal and refrigerate. Allow venison to marinate overnight, turning occasionally.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove venison from the marinade, reserving marinade. Season all sides of the loin with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large, oven-proof skillet over high heat. Sear the loin in the hot oil on all sides (1 to 2 minutes). Place the skillet in the oven and bake for 17 to 20 minutes or until desired degree of doneness. The venison will be medium-rare when it reaches 125 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer. Remove the venison loin from the skillet and allow meat to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Add 1 tablespoon of butter to the skillet used to brown the venison. Heat over medium-high heat until melted. Add shallots and garlic. Cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds or until
softened. Add reserved marinade, sugar, and cinnamon stick to the shallot mixture. Bring mixture to a boil and cook until mixture is reduced by half, about 3 to 4 minutes. The sauce should be thick and syrupy. Add demi-glace and gooseberries, and bring to a low simmer. Cook sauce at a low simmer until berries are softened and the sauce is thickened and coats the back of a spoon, 5 to 7 minutes. Remove the orange peel, bay leaf, thyme, and cinnamon stick from the sauce. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the remaining 3 tablespoons of butter. Serve warm with sliced venison.

[Sir Michael]

Any and all food.  Add a glass or tin cup is you must and fill with any wine of your choice.

[R.M.]

Yup, the wine is for the cook, not the cooking.  

[snake eyes]

Tried a cup of dry red in my spaghetti sauce. Sure did make a difference
in taste from my usual. It was great!! [/color]

[Geezer in NH]

Heavy beers/ales work as well

[EvilTwin]

Check out my thread about grouse raggits and skwerls.

[Kermit]

Old saying: "I love cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food."

[gunmaker]

You like sloooow cooked meats ?  This is my Brisket sauce, but works on any meat.  
2 C orange juice
2 C apple sauce
2 C red wine
1C catsup
1 pack onion soup mix.
cook meat covered until fallin off bone tender 90 min. per 5 lb. about...
Take 2 C cooked sauce thicken with little corn starch & cold water for gravy on your spuds/meat...YUM,

[Loyalist Dave]

The slow cooker idea is great especially for tougher, cheaper cuts of meat.  Red wine is good for red meat brazing (sota half in liquid with upper half of meat browning)

Red wine is of course good for red sauces, but not for chili.  Too many stronger seasonings that overwhelm the flavor of the wine.

White wine is excellent for upland birds, but red is better for waterfowl, rabbits, and squirrel.  Upland birds also do very well in hard cider and mead, though the mead is often pricey.

IF you're going to use wine in your cooking, try to find rather cheap versions of either white and red, and for some dishes, Marsala.  DON'T BUY cooking wine by Holland House, or any other brand for cooking but not drinking.  They are heavily salted so they can be sold without a beer/wine license, and are a waste of money (imho).  Buy the very cheap stuff from a discount store say between $6 and $8 per bottle.  I get mine from Total Wines & More, and I don't pay over $7 including tax.  (Sometimes it's cheaper than $6.)  Cheap "table" wines often do very very well for cooking, and you don't need the sodium from the over-the-counter stuff.  IF your grocery store stocks drinking wines, check the prices, and then if too pricey, suggest it to the manager that he or she get in a cheap cabernet or merlot and a cheap chardonay.  

IF you find a really cheap deal, buy a lot of it, as it's only going to go up in price, and it keeps.  It would be smarter say, to buy 10 bottles of $6 red, table wine, than two at $6, then 2 more of the same, two months later at $7, a couple more of the same next year at $8... you get the idea.

LD