Cooking with wine adds a new dimension of flavours to food

There are lots of classic recipes available using wine - including liver with onions in red wine, pears cooked in red wine, pheasant with bacon and red wine, rosemary pudding with shallots and maderia, red wine jus (gravy) to serve with roasts and many more delicious dishes.

Red wine and onion gravy

Liver and onions in red wine

Chicken stew

What wine to use? The main thing is don't use an expensive wine - although you get flavours from the wines in the food it's best not to put your most expensive wines in. Save those for drinking. If you're stuck for ideas then tesco have some great inexpensive wines.

Great value wines at Tesco

 

If you've got a favourite then send us the recipe and a picture of the dish - or you cooking it and you'll get to appear on this page!

At a very simple level red wine can be used to replace part of the stock when you make a gravy from roast meat juices. This is a simple but delicious addition and although it's commonly done more with red meats there's nothing to stop you making it for turkey or other white meats.

You can make a red wine chicken stew - and the only thing to mention is that the chicken meat will be somewhat coloured by the wine. If you've happy with that then enjoy!

Red wine is substantial enough to be used to cook with strong meat flavour like liver, bacon, beef and game. It's robust enough to be used in stews where long slow cooking allows the flavours from the wine to infuse with the meat and vegetables.

Wine wines can be used in stews too, a chicken stew is enhanced by a glass or two of wine.

Liver and onions in red wine

Fry onions until approaching brown in colour and they're soft. Add a little garlic. Add in thinly sliced floured pieces of liver. Cook gently until done, stirring often. Add a glass or two of wine and a bay leaf or two. Some people like using mixed italian herbs too.
Simmer gently until done. Serve with mashed potatoes or crusty warm bread.

Red wine and onion gravy

Great served with sausages and mash, or beef. Or probably lots of other things

Chop and fry onions until lovely and brown. The browner the better. If you're impatient then you don't have to wait until they're all soft and brown. but you should!

Add some red wine. According to end volume 1/4 - 1/2 volume can come from wine. But try different amounts. It's down to personal taste after all! The wine should sizzle and bubble!

Let this bubble away for a little while. Breathe in those lovely vapours. Yummy.

You'll need some beef stock ideally, or the scrapings out of the beef roasting tin if you've just cooked beef. You can use a stock cube if you want, or even gravy granules. They'll do the thickening bit for you too - otherwise thicken the gravy after adding the stock.

When it's done you should get a thick delicious gravy with well cooked soft tasty onion and a rich deep flavour.

It's very easy to cook this and if you've got some wine left open, or need an excuse to open another bottle then it's great! Serve it hot with whatever you'd planned with. It's really good with mash though! If you love onion gravy then this just makes it that extra bit special.

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Chicken Stew

The aim of this is to be a little bit sweet and sour. I've used some onions, chopped very roughly and fried. Chicken added and fried - (I've used cooked chicken legs, but just adjust frying time to brown meat). Add in some red wine - about a glass or two.
Add one can of pineapple crush, about half a jar of homemade tomato chutney, a chicken stock cube (Or some stock if you have some)
Bring to boil and then simmer gently for an hour or two until delightfully cooked through.

The red wine will make the chicken look red or pink in colour - it'll look different from if it's raw though. Cook thoroughly so there's no possible raw chicken though.

Serve with rice, potatoes or crusty bread.

Photo to follow.