Cooking with wine and liquor

In the corporate world and in law offices, bottles of wine and liquor are not unusual Christmas gifts. Sometimes, one gets very good (and very expensive) stuff; sometimes, well, clients have budgets too.

It is not uncommon either for the recipient to recycle the bottled gifts by giving them away as gifts to some other people. This is especially true for people who don’t drink and think that the wine or liquor will just be wasted in their own homes. The thing is, wine and liquor are great for cooking. So, even if you don’t drink or if you have more wine and liquor than you care to drink, pause and think before you give those bottles away. There are so many things that you can do with them.

Some recipes that use red wine:

1. Fettuccine Bolognese
2. Roast pork with baked potatoes
3. Sweet and Sour Pork Stew (Spezzatino In Agrodolce)
4. Beef stewed in Cabernet Sauvignon
5. Chicken and chick peas in red wine
6. Beef and apricots stewed in red wine
7. Beef bourguignon (bœuf bourguignon / bœuf à la bourguignonne / beef Burgundy)

What about recipes with white wine? Here are some:

1. Shrimps in wine
2. Braised duck with mashed potatoes and gravy
3. Braised duck with pineapple, orange and ginger sauce
4. Risotto with grilled oyster and shiitake mushrooms
5. Tomato and basil risotto
6. Spicy shrimps and chayote in white wine
7. Slow cooked ox tripe with wine and raisins
8. Spanish-style orange chicken (pollo a la naranja)
9. Chicken and pasta with white wine and Edam cheese
10. Spaghetti and mussels in white wine
11. Fish fillets in white wine and cream–and–cheese sauce
12. Chicken cacciatore (pollo alla cacciatora)

And liquors? Do they go into recipes too? Sure they do.

1. Braised chicken with rosemary, grenadine and lime juice
2. Tequila Pork Loin
3. Rum cake with limoncello
4. Mango–rum sorbet
5. Fruity, nutty blondies
6. Butterscoth brownies with 3 nuts and drunken raisins
7. Drunken pork with mango salsa
8. Soy gin pork
9. Baby back ribs and mushrooms a la teriyaki