Wine animates, it brings the dullest of moments to life. But good wine?oh good wine not just animates; it can create the mental equivalent of a full-length feature with the creativity of Shrek and the slickness of The Matrix!
The thing is, we all have seen impressionist canvasses of Europeans enjoying with wine: picnic baskets, lavish foods, flowing wines?FUN! Since we didn?t know any better but to imitate, we were always too stressed concentrating on trying to have the afore-mentioned ?fun? that we never truly enjoyed it. Don?t enjoy wine because someone decrees it, enjoyment should come naturally, the kind that cheap rum and warm beer brought us during our college days!
Wine is a good ingredient to many home occasions: anniversaries, parties, gatherings?if the idea is to enjoy a casual cool drink, wine can be pretty pleasant. Serve any colour (white, red or ros?), any style (still or sparkling) and at any temperature (hey! if you want, serve the red cooler than dictated by the ?fun people?) as long as it goes down easy and is pleasurable. Get some cheese from the market: cheddar, edam, camembert, gouda; even the flavoured peppery stuff will do or, at worst, the aluminum-wrapped cube-shaped commercial spreads: dice ?em up neatly and let it accompany any wine you are serving. Flanders Diary offers a decent variety and are rather well-made (and priced) for Indian-made cheese. Otherwise, there is a host of imported varieties to choose from. A company called Nature?s Basket stocks some really good stuff. Most cheese we find in the market are the high-acid variety, which would be easier with red wines.
Reserve the white wines for creamier cheese or cheese with a greasy mouthfeel.
And then there is the more skilled thing to do with wine: cook! I love cooking with wine, I do it often; sometimes I even add it to food! Well, jokes apart, that is exactly what I was talking about (no I am not a raging alcoholic as you had me pictured.) Wine is a beautiful ingredient to cook with, it adds flavour and finesse (even to Indian dishes) and is a good way to utilise wine that has been open for some time.
A basic rule, no, two basic rules of cooking with wine are, (a) never cook with wine which you normally wouldn?t drink; in other words plonks are definitely a no-no, and (b) when cooking with a particular wine, try and serve the same wine (or a similar style/grape wine) with the dish.
How does one use it? Do we add the whole bottle? Not if you want to ruin your meal. Let?s say you have finished cooking your bhindi masala (okra) and have transferred it to a serving bowl. The pan is now hot and empty except for the small bits of the masala stuck all around which couldn?t be scraped off with the spoon. Return the pan to a full flame and a few seconds later add say half a tumbler of wine. It will steam and spume and evaporate simultaneously, let it. Use this liquid to clean off the pan, remaining masala et al, and then add it like a delicate garnish to the dish. The flavours will definitely be enhanced as will be the discussion of the same at your soir?e. And, to boot, voil?, you have arrived as another desi-fusion chef on the block!
Funnily enough, I still haven?t told you what this ?fun? is; the only way to find out is to experience it! I wish there were red and blue pills, the kind I could give to you: take the blue one and you will never be bothered with wine ever; take the red one and you will be perplexed with wine for eternity. If you have read this so far, I think we know which tribe you wish to belong to? Welcome to the Wine Matrix.
?The writer is a sommelier