What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

[kkat55]

What did you learn on the wine rung?

I think I'm going to skip this rung since we only drink a glass of wine about once a year. However, I am interested in what you learned during this phase of OWL.

[2big4mysize]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

nothing as I don't drink.

However one thing many of the stix junkies learned is that alcohol will metabolize with a by product chemically similar to ketones and will be mistakenly picked up on stix as deep ketosis.

[ttdriver]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

That 2 glasses is my limit!


Betty

[ghelen]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

I don't know if you are just referring to wine only- but when i lost 75 pounds a couple of years ago, I learned that as long as i drank hard liquor- most specifically vodka, It didn't affect my weight loss at all. Wine was another story-I stopped losing until I switched over to hard liquor.

[not2late]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

I learned that you can make low carb Chinese food that rivals ANYTHING you'd get in a carry out with this simple formula. For 1 pound of any kind of meat, sautee 1 tablespoon chopped ginger, 1 garlic clove chopped, and 1 tablespoon chopped onion in 1 tablespoon oil. Let it cook until nice and fragrant. Then add 1 tablespoon dry sherry. Cook until the sherry has evaporated. From there you can remove the mixture and marinate your meat in it. Or cool the mixture and add it to ground meat---form into balls for a terrific wonton-less soup or just meatballs. Or for the stirfry add raw meat to the pan, sautee until almost cooked, then add veggies and 1/4 cup water, cover and let the veggies steam.

I learned that rubbing 2 tablespoons of Madeira on a roast before cooking it will give the pan drippings (and the resulting gravy) a terrific flavor.

I learned that if you sautee shrimp or scallops, only sautee them until they are partially cooked. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of vermouth to the pan. Immediately cover, and let the seafood steam in the vermouth.

I learned that using a tablespoon or two of port to deglaze a pan in which you have just cooked pork chops or chicken, makes a wonderful pan sauce, especially if you swirl some cold butter in it to thicken the sauce!

I think you've guessed by now that I did my alcohol rung by using it to flavor and enhance my food.

[2big4mysize]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

oh I may have to go back to OWL now Megs your recipes look great!

[not2late]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

Oh yeah, and there are 2 kinds of vermouth. Noilly Prat has a herby taste. While the Gallo brand has a more fruity taste. So if you can adjust your herbs/seasonings to suit the vermouth.

Just adding, the sherry is so important to good tasting chinese food. It's what gives the food 'that special flavor'.

[kkat55]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

I learned that you can make low carb Chinese food that rivals ANYTHING you'd get in a carry out with this simple formula. For 1 pound of any kind of meat, sautee 1 tablespoon chopped ginger, 1 garlic clove chopped, and 1 tablespoon chopped onion in 1 tablespoon oil. Let it cook until nice and fragrant. Then add 1 tablespoon dry sherry. Cook until the sherry has evaporated. From there you can remove the mixture and marinate your meat in it. Or cool the mixture and add it to ground meat---form into balls for a terrific wonton-less soup or just meatballs. Or for the stirfry add raw meat to the pan, sautee until almost cooked, then add veggies and 1/4 cup water, cover and let the veggies steam.

I learned that rubbing 2 tablespoons of Madeira on a roast before cooking it will give the pan drippings (and the resulting gravy) a terrific flavor.

I learned that if you sautee shrimp or scallops, only sautee them until they are partially cooked. Then add 1-2 tablespoons of vermouth to the pan. Immediately cover, and let the seafood steam in the vermouth.

I learned that using a tablespoon or two of port to deglaze a pan in which you have just cooked pork chops or chicken, makes a wonderful pan sauce, especially if you swirl some cold butter in it to thicken the sauce!

I think you've guessed by now that I did my alcohol rung by using it to flavor and enhance my food.

Wow! All this sounds fantastic! Maybe I won't skip the Wine/Spirits Rung...hum...

[boonie stomper]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

As soon as I hit the rung, it was similar to Meg's handling, except I used the cheap stuff with fantastic results.

I used combinations of lite beer, homemade friut wines and vinegars in my cooking, with concurrent sipping to compliment the pleasure of cooking with a good appetite for the finished dish.

I've never used vermouth, but 2 days ago I did scallops, and for lack of any finished homemade berry wine on hand, I used Beast light and 1/3 cup fresh blackberries in the pa, along with other seasonings. The only problem I encountered was that of the 4 packs of scallops I cooked in the pan, I only remember eating a fourth of them, and the others mysteriously dissapeared overnight along with several more beers ...ummm....
The alcohol rung should be attempted only with proper warning:
MAY BE HABIT FORMING!!

[not2late]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

Beer is good to cook with. There's a Flemish beef stew that uses beer as the cooking liquid.

The wines I use for cooking. I've found that using the fortified wines give me more consistant results. They tend to be higher in carbs, but 1-2 tablespoons for 4-6 servings is manageable.

I have used hard liquors for cooking savory foods too, like gin and rum.

[boonie stomper]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

Ahhh, that reminds me of the lovely taste of (forbidden) RUM CAKE!!

to self: OOOPS... don't EVEN think about it, Boonie!!!

[kacey1]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

Uh oh... All these wonderful recipes! I was planning on skipping this rung until January (and hopefully 20 kilos gone) when hubby and I are going to see our daughter in China. We want to try all the different things they have there including the wine/alcohol.

But now I might have to buy some to cook with.... wonder if I can control myself???? a little nip here / a little nip there.... AWK - I think I better wait. Berries are WONDERFUL for me right now!

[not2late]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

Coincidental or karma? I received a travel ad yesterday in the mail. The ad included a recipe for raspberry soup (a dessert soup) and a recipe for "lager and cheese dip". I'll try to post the recipe tomorrow because I don't think I tossed the ad in the trash last night. It used something like 2/3 cup of lager, 3 cups of cheddar cheese and some other stuff.

Anyhow, that's how I did my "alcohol" rung---I cooked with it.

[boonie stomper]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

AKA Fondue??? That's one thing I do enjoy making with beer and wine both. It always comes out delicious no matter what cheeses I've put into it (even dried up slices, ancient port wine cheddar from the back of the fridge, and old bleu cheese handed down from my Mom when she cleaned out my late Grandmother's freezer can be stirred into a hefty cheddar base with no trouble). The best part of making it is taste testing and adjusting it along the way.

[soappedaler]

Re: What Did You Learn on the Wine Rung?

I don't drink much but had some wine these weekend while we had guest, ate a couple of other things I shouldn't have and my jeans feel snug today. Also I feel goofy the next day after a couple of glasses of wine the night before.