CaLDRON February 2014 - Valentine's Day Special | Page 32

COVER FEATURE
Muddled Seasonal Fruits
Ingredients:
• 1 cup Rose wine (Seagram’s Nine Hills
Shiraz Rose used in this recipe)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1-inch cinnamon stick
• 2-3 cloves
• 1 stick of vanilla
• 1 cup of seasonal fruits (raspberries,
strawberries, figs, melon, pears)
Garnish:
• Baby mint leave s
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• Whipped cream
• Biscotti or sponge
Method:
1. In a pan, heat the wine and sugar with
the spices and let the flavours infuse.
2. Do not bring the liquid to a boil.
3. Remove from the flame and pour
into a clean bowl. Add the prepared
fruit and let the fruit soak for a few
minutes.
4. Plate the fruit into a soup plate.
5. Garnish with a quenelle of cream and
mint and a dash of pepper.
6. Place the sponge or biscotti triangle
down the centre

is that you first find the right wine
shop, discuss the wine with the people at the shop and buy one bottle
to test it,” suggests Chef Michael.
“Once you know what you like and
dislike, you can start using the wine
in your cooking more regularly.”
Does Premium make
a Difference?
Your better half might not be as excited about you using the cherished
bottle of Penfolds Grange Hermitage
1951 wine for your cooking purposes. So which wine should you use?
Cooking wine is economical, because it often has a shorter maturing
period and is therefore less complex.
Not all chefs, however, contend to
using cooking wine. Chef Deepak
Ballaney of International Chicken
Wings Factory in New York puts it
bluntly, “If you won’t drink it, then
32

don’t cook with it. Cooking wines
often have high quantities of salt and
food coloring and can wreck havoc
if you are cooking a delicate meat
like shellfish. Instead, invest in a
better quality, though not necessarily expensive, wine for your cooking
purposes.”
So tread the middle path here and
invest in a good-quality wine, which
is likely to give the same flavor to a
dish as an expensive one. Better still,
buy two bottles of the wine – use
one for cooking and the second for
serving with the meal!

vignon Blanc. The results will differ
depending on the type of wine you
use, and always pleasantly at that.
Using leftover wine is another nono. Having an opened bottle of wine
lying in your pantry is no excuse to
use while cooking lamb shanks. Refrigerate the wine and use it within
a couple of days. Any older than this
and you had best toss it in the trash.

Ultimately, there is no rulebook
about cooking with wine. It is all
about experimenting, inventing and
arriving at your own recipe. Don’t
let the fear of failure stop you from
dabbling with wine in your dishes.
The other alternative is to read the
Just use your imagination and cook
recipe of a dish carefully to see what like no one is watching – that is the
the kind of wine mentioned. For
right attitude to creating magic in
example, if a recipe asks for a crisp the kitchen. ■
dry white wine or Pinot Grigio, then
Vinita Bhatia
stick to this than opting for a SauCaLDRON February 2014