11-28 It Must be Drinkable

The first rule of cooking with wine is that you can't cook with wine you can't drink. If it tastes terrible in the bottle, it will taste even more terrible once you've have heated it, reduced it, and poured it on your food. Its unfortunate, I know, but the best use for bad wine is staining your sink pink as you pour it down the drain (if the wine was red that is).

That said, here's a few recipes for either your leftover, drinkable wine or a good reason to open a bottle even though you probably won't finish it (you had to...the recipe called for it!):

Sweet Meat or poultry glaze:
Once you have finished pan-frying meat on the stove, there should be a little bit of oil and some little bits from the meat left in the pan. Over medium high heat add about 1/4 cup of wine (red for red meat and white for poultry) and scrape up any bits that charred to the pan. Next add 1/4 - 1/2c of diced fruit (something chunky) and 1 tablespoon of jam or preserves (something sweet). Reduce 5-7 minutes are until it looks thick enough to hold up as a sauce on your dish. Add salt or pepper to taste. This is also a great use for that strange jam you thought sounded so interesting at the farmer's market.

Yummy Combinations
For pork:
White wine, diced persimmon, and yuzu preserves (this is a japanese citrus fruit)
White wine, mango, and jalapeno preserves (also good on chicken)

For beef or lamb:
Red wine, chopped figs, and fig preserves (if you just have fresh figs try combining with a little honey or brown sugar to sweeten)
Red wine, cherries, and molasses (also good on pork)

Its also nice to sprinkle a little of a chopped herb on top once you have added the sauce to the meat. This could be cilantro, chives, basil, etc. Get creative. Its hard to go wrong as long as all of your ingredients are tasty on their own and you can imagine them all tasting good toghether. If something does go wrong, make sure you have a frozen pizza handy. I always do!