Sick of the ol’ red wine in the spag bol stitcheroo? Yeah, me too. Don’t get me wrong, it absolutely does the job when you’ve had a long day and just want to stuff your mouth. But it’s nice to shake things up once in a while, y’know?
This can be hard when you (me) aren’t very skilled with a knife, so I’ve pulled together four very doable recipes for your viewing pleasure, if you’re keen to put the red wine in spag bol aside.
I promise these recipes are genuinely doable. Mum sent me these when I moved out of home and tailored them to my skill level (zero).
Salmon with Rosemary Glaze
This glaze – lord, it’s good, especially if you like tangy bites. Plus, it’s so easy to make!
Basically, just combine 1/2 cup of whatever white wine you’ve got in the pantry, 3 tablespoons of honey, 1 teaspoon of good mustard, 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, a couple of rosemary leaves, 1 tablespoon of brown sugar, 3 cloves of minced garlic, and a pinch of salt.
Truth be told, I sort of just chuck in the ingredients until I’m happy with the taste, so you do you. Then reduce it ’til it thickens a bit.
You don’t even have to serve it with salmon either, so go nuts. It does taste phenomenal over some roast potatoes though.
Macerated Peaches
This is neither here nor there, but macerated is such a gruesome word. Anyway! I bloody love some of this stuff in the summer, especially served up with vanilla ice cream on the side. CHEF’S KISS.
All you have to do is dump a good bottle of red wine – 750ml – into a large bowl with 3 tablespoons of sugar, and a whole bunch of peeled and diced peaches. Around a kilo’s worth, I reckon. Then pop a cinnamon stick in there and let it chill in the fridge for at least four hours.
Chocolate cake
Okay, so variations of this recipe are everywhere on the internet and they’re all inspired by the OG in Anne Willan‘s 2001 Cooking with Wine. It’s perf for people (me) who don’t like super sweet chocolate cakes. Very specific, I know.
You can find the recipe and all the ingredients, including red wine, right HERE. The end result is a super fluffy, kinda boozy choccie cake.
I also just like using a bundt tin too, makes me feel like a fancy person living in peak suburbia.
Korean Fried Chicken
I was making Korean fried chicken the other night, but ran out of Mirin (rice wine). The difference? Mirin is kinda sweeter, but wine is wine to me. So I just used a splash of red instead and tada, I copped the same result.
Anything cheapo will do, try this Wolf Blass Cabernet Merlot – it’s literally $7.
For the sauce, I usually combine the below:
- 1 tbs of Kikkoman soy sauce
- 1 tsp of sesame oil
- 1 tbs Korean chilli paste
- 1 tbs bulgogi sauce (optional) – I had leftover sauce I needed to use
- 1/2 glass of mirin (or red wine in this case)
- 1 tbs of honey
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp mince garlic
Reduce that ’til it thickens, then pour it over your fried chicken and throw a bunch of cashews on top if you want. Goooooood stuff.
Bone apple teeth, my friends!
