05/10/07 Food & Wine

Welcome to Vine to Wine this is your host Linda Moran. Today is food and wine day and we are going to discuss a few cooking techniques that employ wine in very successful ways. It may sound easy but there are so many misconceptions that surround cooking with wine. The first one that I repeatedly remind you of is not to cook with any wine that you would not drink! So if the wine doesn't taste good  why in the world would you want to put it into something that you plan to eat? It won't miraculously get better. In fact it will probably make your food taste terrible. Next misconception - no you won't get drunk from eating food that's been cooked in wine the alcohol disappears as you cook it. Most of all wine is versatile and it can be used in many areas of cooking. You can marinade a piece of meat overnight and then use the marinade to make a sauce for the dish. You can also slow cook and use wine with stock or water as the liquid in your stews. And don't forget some of the fabulous sauces that you can make when you deglaze a pan with wine after you have seared and cooked a piece of meat or fish in it. If you are poaching salmon or pears wine should be the liquid of choice to poach it in. The same for steaming mussels or clams, just add seasonings to your wine and sauté or steam them. A good rule of thumb is to use white wine when cooking shellfish. So enjoy cooking with wine  drinkable wine  and thanks for joining me Linda Moran on today's Vine to Wine.