The Gourmet's Guide to Cooking With Wine - Softcover

Alison Boteler

*Boteler, Alison. The Gourmet’s Guide to Cooking with Wine: How To Use Wine To Take Simple Recipes from Ordinary to Extraordinary. Quarry: Quayside. 2008. c.232p. photogs. index. ISBN 978-1-59253-470-8. $20. BEVERAGES
Boteler (The Great American Bake Sale) has produced a winner with this collection of classic recipes and innovative renditions. She gives a brief description of wine varietals and the wine regions of France and Italy as well as other parts of the world. Also included is a table for determining the percentage of alcohol that burns off during various cooking methods. Ten chapters are replete with appetizers and soups, salads and salad dressings, great European classics, main dishes, side dishes, brunch dishes, and desserts. The recipes for European classics, including beef bourguignon, coquilles Saint Jacques, and veal marsala, evoke memories of past elegance. Many recipes put a new twist on old favorites, such as adding mirin, Japanese rice wine, to green beans with slivered almonds and shiitake mushrooms. Food traditions from Europe, Asia, the American South, and other corners of the world are integrated. Both aspiring new nesters and seasoned cooks will appreciate the book’s elegant simplicity. All instructions are easy to follow, and the ingredients are readily available. Highly recommended.—Library Journal, October 2008