To Wine or not...

[neotoma]

Well, I'm planning a rather nifty meal for the movie-watching thing on Sunday, but I've gotten to making the stock -- which calls for white wine.

The problem -- I don't have any in the house, and since I don't drink, I would use it only for the cooking, and not very often at that.

Should I even bother with getting wine to cook with? Or should I just skip it?

If I do decide to get wine, what should I look for -- pricewise and label? And should I bother getting an orange-flavored liquor for the orange-scented rice? Cointreau? Something else?

Comments

[onci-dium.livejournal.com]

You could always get what they call a half bottle of wine, it's approximately 350mL and usually about what you'd need for a recipe.

And for the rice, you can get at most bakeshops the flavouring for liqueurs. Use sparingly, like you would vanilla extract. Or use a little zest

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

When cooking, I go for heap cheap wine of whatever type (i.e. dry/sweet/red/white, etc.) that the recipe calls for. As in the $5.00 a bottle variety. Esp. since if I'm not going to consume it with the meal anyway. All liquor stores will have some form of el cheapo vino, just ask the store manager if you can't find something on the shelves. You can skip the wine if need be, depending on the recipe, but I do find that, esp. with sauces, that I prefer the flavor of a wine reduction to a substitute.

Cointreau is quite expensive if you're only going to use it to cook with. I'd substitute with orange extract instead.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I can find a $5 bottle of wine at the local store -- it's just that the county has wierd laws, so it's not like I can buy liquor at the grocery, which is what I would do because then I could *ask* about cooking with it and be sure to get a good answer.

Well, Cointreau is the example the cookbook gave, but there must be cheaper orange-flavored liquors. But orange extract is a good idea.

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

Since the laws are wonky, I'd just go for the cheapo bottle!

There are substitutes for Cointreau, like Patron (http://www.drinkon.com/Details/SP165621/Detail/Spirit) for instance, however again, they tend to be quite expensive and you can't easily buy just a small bottle. And if you don't drink, it kind of doesn't make sense to buy a bottle just to use a couple ounces. I mean, I have the stuff on hand, but then I use it for cocktails as well as cooking, so it doesn't go to waste.

On the other hand, if you do go to a liquor store, you *might* find an orange-flavored "nip"--which is a very small bottle of booze (usually an ounce or two), the size of the bottles you get on airplanes, that sell for about $1.00 each. But not all liquor stores carry them because some citites believe that they encourage alcoholism and because they're cheap/easy for teens to get access to.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

That's *exactly* what I want, but I didn't think you could get them off airplanes. I'll look for that!

[kaiz.livejournal.com]

Oh good, glad to help!

[twistedchick]

Unless the recipe specifies Cointreau, use an orange flavoring (like maple or rum or peppermint flavoring, those little French's bottles) because Cointreau has a high sugar content and may be too sweet and sticky for what you want with rice.

As for cooking wine -- I'm glad you don't use "cooking wine" which has salt added, because that's hideous. We cook with wine a lot. The best general-purpose white wine for cooking that I've found is chablis, which is dryish (not a lot of sugar) and has a light flavor (not overwhelming.) You should be able to get Gallo or Widmer or other bulk-type chablis very inexpensively. Once it's opened, make sure it is resealed tightly (screw top is best, or a new rubber-type top) and it will keep for a long time. And if you have at least a cup left over I will give you the recipe for Soused Rice, which requires a cup of something alcoholic (wine or scotch), a cup of chicken broth, long-grain rice, onion and celery.

[leni-jess.livejournal.com]

The wine cookbooks tend to say that the dish tastes better if one uses good wine (some encourage the cook to test it - extensively. Heh). However, if you don't drink wine you're probably not going to notice, and a $5 bottle of a dry white should do the job. The rest (corked up firmly again) can be used in a few days for another recipe, or will serve as a substitute for vinegar perfectly well. You don't have to toss it out.

If you can find one of those tiny nip bottles of Cointreau, try it. But all decent liqueurs are horrendously expensive. Orange flavouring essence, used with discretion, is probably the go.

Another thing you can do is cook orange zest in whatever liquid you're using on the rice, cook it down, perhaps with the orange juice too if that's not required elsewhere, so it concentrates the flavour. Strain if preferred. Maybe keep a few tiny speckles of zest to pretty the rice. Taste before committing the rice to it. But that's a job that takes a while, starting with finding a fresh orange with nice-looking peel. Orange zest freezes, BTW, though when you take it out you can only cook with it; it's not decorative any more because the colour dulls. Also, slices of orange poached for a while, or pan-roasted (with care to make sure they don't dry out) add the pretty and some flavour to some dishes. If you like oranges with the peel on, though cooking softens it.

[jeddy83.livejournal.com]

I sometimes use verjuice (unfermented grape juice) as a substitute for white wine. The main advantages are that it keeps a little longer on the shelf and then in the fridge and that, unlike white wine, you can use it in a number of ways. It works well as a substitute for vinegar or lemon juice in vinaigrettes and marinades, and as a substitute for wine in sauce or gravy.

[neotoma.livejournal.com]

Huh... the cookbook I'm using says verjuice is "a light vinear made from unripened grapes".

Not that I've actually *seen* any around here anyway...