One of the best things to do with wine, apart from toasting with it and drinking it, of course, is to cook. Wine is not just another beverage, but it contains a series of nutrients and properties that make it all the more important than wine. a real food. Thus, in wine we can find polyphenols, which help to delay cellular ageing due to their effect on the skin. antioxidantproteins such as melatonin, which helps us to maintain a healthy body. regulate sleep cyclesor resveratrol, which gives us an energy boost when we are tired. extra energy when we are tired; among many other beneficial components. But wine is not only an interesting ingredient to include in our recipes because of its natural and beneficial properties for our health, but it can also help us to enhancing the flavour of our dishesIt can also contribute aromas, flavour intensity or colour.
The simplest way to incorporate wine into our dishes is by means of a sauce based on a wine reduction. In this case, we propose a recipe to make a sauce from a red wine reduction, but we can add or remove ingredients to adapt it to the main product of the dish. we can modify it to our tasteThe recipe is made by adding or removing ingredients to adapt it to the main product of the dish. This red wine sauce is perfect to accompany red meat dishes, like veal, lamb or pork; or white meatslike chicken, turkey or rabbit. By adjusting the cooking times, it can also be a perfect accompaniment to serve with vegetable dishes and even with some fish dishes.
Ingredients
- A glass of red wine. This will be the main ingredient and the basis of the flavour of our sauce.. so it's important that we use a quality wine. As a tip, whenever we cook with wine, it is best to use a glass of . use a wine that we also like to drink.
- Half a glass of sweet wine, such as Pedro Ximénez, muscatel or other wine made from raisined grapes.
- 1 medium onion.
- 1 clove of garlic.
- 250 ml chicken or vegetable stock, to taste depending on the dish to be cooked.
- 2 teaspoons sugar or honey.
- 2 carrots.
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (fine cornflour).
- 150 g of butter. If we wish, we can replace the butter with an equivalent amount of olive oil. It is best to avoid using substitutes such as margarine, as they cook less well and do not have the same flavour.
- Salt.
- Pepper.
- Herbs and spices to taste. This will largely depend on the main ingredient of the dish with which we will serve our red wine sauce, but generally speaking, aromatic herbs such as rosemary, thyme, basil or oregano tend to marry well with the aromas of red wines.
Preparation, step by step
- Finely dice the onion, garlic and carrot and set aside.
- In a medium-sized saucepanHeat about 50 grams of butter over medium heat so that it gradually melts.until it is completely melted.
- Add the onion, garlic and chopped carrots to the pan. Add a pinch of salt and fry over a low heat.
- Add the sugar or honey little by little, so that it melts with the sauce. This will help to correct the acidity that the red wine may give once it has been cooked and will add sweetness to the sauce.
- Add the red wine and sweet wine to the pan and cook over a very low heat for about 20-25 minutes. Keep stirring so that the base of our sauce does not burn. Allow the wine to reduce slowly.
- Once the wine has been reduced by about half,Add the chicken or vegetable stock and season with the herbs and spices of your choice. Add a pinch of pepper to taste. Simmer for a further 15 to 20 minutes, stirring the sauce and watching the heat to prevent it from burning.
- Strain the sauce and set aside.
- In a large frying pan or low saucepan, add the rest of the butter and the strained sauce. Heat over a low heat and stir everything together with a whisk, stirring constantly.
- Set aside some of the sauce in a glass, add the cornflour and stir well until the texture is uniform and there are no lumps. Add the mixture to the rest of the sauce in the pan and mix well.
- Cook over a low heat until the texture is creamy and uniform. If necessary, correct the salt content.
A juicy beef sirloin steak, an Iberian prey, a lamb stew in wine... Any dish will be enhanced in flavour and aroma if accompanied by our red wine sauce. We only have to slightly adapt the recipe according to our tastes to get the best out of each food. And to complete the menu, nothing better than accompany our dishes with the same wine that we have used to make our red wine sauce. You can pair this recipe with any of the wines Vivanco that you will find on sale in the form of exclusive packs (only for online sale) in our Enotienda. You can choose the pack that best suits your tastes and we will deliver them to your door.
