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Alcohol, especially wine is very handy to have around in the kitchen, even if you don't drink. With a bit of red wine you can easily "deglaze" your saucepans. Have you ever cooked some meat in a frypan? There is always some nasty caked-on meat in the bottom of the pan. The easiest way to remove this (and get a decent base for a sauce) is to "deglaze" the pan by adding a 1/2 cup of red wine. Once the alcohol boils it will remove any baked on fat; and cleaning the pan at the same time. Typically you would then strain this "jus" and add some flour and water or broth to create your gravy. |
You can also use an open flame and alcohol to create "flambes" Some of the more popular ones we did at the Banff Springs were: Strawberries, ground pepper and Pernod over white ice cream Cherries Jubilee; whole cherries, butter, sugar, Flamed in Kirsh over white ice cream Bananas flambé - brown sugar, butter, Kailua, flamed in Dark Rum Steak Diane: Onions, butter, garlic, pre-cooked tenderized steak, red wine, mushrooms, demi-glace, flamed in Cognac. |
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