Vintage Meals Cooking With Wine Can Create Mouth-Watering Sauces To Complement Your Kitchen Masterpieces

Sure, I love to drink wine, but I love to cook with it, too.

Food and wine form a luscious partnership at the stove. When wine meets heat, the alcohol burns off and delectable flavors concentrate. Once it’s cooked, it adds a subtle acidity that lends dimension to the finished dish.

Often, we think of cooking with wine as an ever-so-slow simmering process - time-consuming dishes such as the classic French stews coq au vin or boeuf bourguignon, or a pot roast with a burgundy, or an onion soup with vermouth.

But wine can be used in quickcooking dishes as well.

Use small amounts to deglaze a pan and it becomes the tasty base for a 3-minute sauce. A splash of wine added to a skillet after sauteing or roasting fish, chicken or beef dissolves the luscious brown residue left in the bottom. Add some chopped shallots and fresh herbs, if you like, and let the mixture sizzle and steam for about 2 minutes to form the flavor base. Add a little broth and boil 1 more minute, then enrich it with cream or butter, if you like.

Use the resulting sauce to poach, steam or braise fish, fruit, chicken or vegetables. Or cook it down, reducing it by half; a tablespoon or two becomes an instant flavor enhancer for quick soups, stews or pasta sauces. But before adding it, stir in a little sugar to balance the acidity.

Or leave the sugar out and use the reduced wine sauce in place of vinegar in a low-fat vinaigrette.

Because the reduced wine is less acidic than vinegar, it can be used in equal proportion to oil in a salad dressing (rather than the traditional 3-to-1 oil-to-vinegar ratio). And using condensed wine in the vinaigrette makes the salad a better wine-drinking partner.

When a savory dish tastes flat, add a drop or two of wine. It’s similar to adding a little squeeze of lemon juice or a drop of balsamic vinegar.

Pour red wine over berries, or white wine over peaches. Chill and enjoy.

Here are some tips for taking the mystery out of cooking with wine:

Choosing the wine: It’s the alcohol in wine that evaporates with cooking, not the flavor. If the wine has a nasty taste to begin with, it gets nastier with reduction.

The rule is, never cook with wine you wouldn’t drink. That doesn’t mean it has to be expensive; it just has to taste good. Don’t use wines labeled “cooking wine.” Often they have salt added.

Wines differ in body and flavor; some are rich and fruity, others are light and flowery. Use the style of wine you plan to drink with the dish - a full-bodied, dry red wine such as burgundy or bordeaux for a hearty stew or red-meat dish, or a light, dry white for poached fish. If you’re unsure about which wine to use, ask your wine merchant for advice.

When cooking with red wine, make sure that it has an alcohol content of at least 12 percent. Otherwise it will turn an unappealing gray-tinged color when it cooks.

Keeping a balance: Use wine in moderation; too much of it can give a dish too much acidity. As wine cooks, the alcohol boils away and the flavors, especially the natural acids, concentrate.

Recipes often balance the acidity with sweetness by adding ingredients such as carrots, fruit, honey or caramelized onions. Sometimes cream or butter are added for richness.

Burning it off: If you don’t cook wine long enough to burn off the alcohol, the dish will have a raw, boozy taste.

When using a small amount (no more than 1/2 cup) of wine to deglaze a pan at high heat, two minutes is usually enough time to boil away the alcohol.

On the other hand, simmered sauces containing 1/2 to 1 cup of wine need about 20 to 30 minutes. Gentle-cooking stews with a high volume of wine often need 1 to 2 hours.

Boiling it down: When reducing a wine sauce by boiling, always use a nonaluminum saucepan. Once it has been reduced, cool, refrigerate and use within two days. Or, freeze it in ice cube trays and once it’s frozen, store cubes in a heavy, zipper-style plastic bag. This is a great way to use leftover wine from a party.

Marinades and bastes: Combined with oil, aromatic vegetables and herbs, wine makes a delicious marinade for poultry and meat (but not fish). Cover and refrigerate for several hours. Later, if you want to use the marinade as a sauce, it will need to be vigorously boiled for 5 minutes.

Or combine wine with oil or melted butter and use it to baste meat, fish, vegetables or chicken as it cooks.

Dessert, too: Red and white wines are delicious for poaching fresh fruit or flavoring a dessert sauce. Wine can also be used to deglaze the skillet after fruit slices are sauteed in a little butter and sugar.

Chicken With Wine-Mushroom Sauce

1 tablespoon butter

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided use

8 ounces sliced mushrooms (regular or wild)

1 tablespoon minced fresh parsley or basil

4 medium boned chicken breasts, skin on

Salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy whipping cream, optional

Sprigs of fresh basil or Italian parsley for garnish

Melt butter in a large, deep, nonstick skillet. Add 2 teaspoons of the olive oil. When the oil and butter are hot, add mushrooms. Saute on high heat until mushrooms are lightly browned and softened, and all liquid has evaporated. Remove mushrooms from skillet and set aside. Season mushrooms with salt, pepper, and parsley or basil.

Return skillet to medium-high heat. Add remaining olive oil. Season chicken on both sides with salt and pepper. Add chicken to skillet in a single layer, skin side down. Cook until well-browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Lower heat to medium, cover and cook until opaque and cooked through, about 8 to 14 minutes. Transfer chicken to a large plate and cover. Pour off fat from skillet.

Add wine to skillet and boil on high heat until reduced in volume by half, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add broth and boil until reduced in volume by half, about 1 minute. Add cream, if using, and boil 1 minute. Stir in mushrooms. Taste; add salt and pepper, if needed.

Spoon sauce over chicken. Garnish with sprigs of fresh herbs and serve.

Yield: 4 servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 315 calories, 18.5 grams fat (53 percent fat calories), 7.1 grams saturated fat, 101 milligrams cholesterol, 213 milligrams sodium.

Roast Tenderloin of Beef With Wine-Mustard Sauce

Adapted from “The Best of Food and Wine 1992 Collection” (American Express).

2 teaspoons soy sauce

1 (2-1/2-pound) beef tenderloin

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 large clove garlic, minced

3 medium shallots, minced

1/3 cup dry red wine

1-1/2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard

1 cup canned beef broth, preferably low-sodium

1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy whipping cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Rub beef with soy sauce. Allow to sit for 30 minutes. Season with pepper.

Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a large, heavy, ovenproof skillet, heat oil on high heat. Add beef and cook until well-browned all over, about 6 minutes.

Transfer pan to the oven and roast for about 25 minutes, turning once, until internal temperature reaches 125 degrees (very rare) on meat thermometer, or 30 to 35 minutes for medium rare (135 degrees). Transfer meat to a cutting board and cover loosely with aluminum foil.

Pour off any fat from skillet. Add garlic and shallots and cook over medium-low heat until lightly browned, about 2 minutes, stirring frequently.

Pour in wine, increase heat to high and boil 1 minute. Stir to scrape brown bits from bottom of roasting pan. Stir in mustard, broth and cream; boil until reduced to 1 cup and thick enough to lightly coat a spoon, about 6 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in butter.

Cut meat into about 12 slices. Arrange, slightly overlapping, on platter or place on individual plates. Spoon sauce on top. Garnish and serve immediately.

Yield: About 8 (1-1/2-slice) servings.

Nutrition information per serving: 297 calories, 20.3 grams fat (62 percent fat calories), 9 grams saturated fat, 89 milligrams cholesterol, 206 milligrams sodium.

Vineyard Vinaigrette

1 cup dry white wine, such as sauvignon blanc

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Garlic salt to taste

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 shallot, minced

Place wine in a medium saucepan. Over medium-high heat, reduce in volume to 1/2 cup. Cool.

Combine all ingredients. Use as a dressing for mixed greens, tossing with just enough of the vinaigrette to lightly coat the leaves. If you like, garnish salad with toasted pecans and crumbled blue cheese.

Yield: 1 cup (about 12 servings).

Nutrition information (per serving): 95 calories, 9 grams fat (85 percent fat calories), 1.2 grams saturated fat, no cholesterol, 15 milligrams sodium.

Pears Poached in Red Wine and Raspberry Sauce

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

4 fairly firm, ripe pears

1 (750-milliliter) bottle red wine, such as cabernet sauvignon (see note)

2 (10-ounce) packages frozen raspberries (with sugar)

1 cup sugar

Whipped cream, ice cream or frozen yogurt, optional

Sprigs of fresh mint for garnish, optional

Add lemon juice to a bowl of cold water. Peel pears, leaving stems intact. Use a melon baller to remove core from the bottom end. Place pears in lemon water.

In a large pot or Dutch oven, combine wine, raspberries and sugar. Boil on high heat; strain and return to pot. Drain pears and add to wine mixture. Using medium to medium-low heat, simmer pears until tender, about 10 to 20 minutes, rotating frequently with a slotted spoon. (Simmering time will vary, depending on degree of ripeness and size of pears.)

Remove pears using a slotted spoon and cook liquid until reduced in volume to about 1-1/2 to 1-3/4 cups. Return pears to liquid; serve cold, room temperature or warm. (If sauce thickens too much, reheat it with a little water.)

To serve, stand pears in shallow bowls and spoon sauce over top. You can add a dollop of whipped cream, or a scoop of ice cream or frozen yogurt if you like. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint.

Yield: 4 servings

Nutrition information per serving: 574 calories, 0.9 grams fat (1 percent fat calories), no saturated fat, no cholesterol, 14 milligrams sodium.

Note: Two red wines that would be appropriate for this recipe are Rosemont Shiraz or Cotes-du-Rhone.