The joys of 'Cooking With Wine'

By Debra Hale-Shelton
Associated Press

Artichokes with herbs and white wine take a little time to trim, but cooking the dish is simple, says cookbook author Anne Willan. Associated Press

But Willan is every bit the celebrity among her food-professional peers. "She perpetuates, keeps alive, the great tradition of French cooking," says Jacques Pepin.

Willan is founder of the La Varenne culinary schools in Burgundy, France, and at The Greenbrier, the hotel and resort in West Virginia. Along with that achievement, she is the author of more than 30 cookbooks, including the 17-volume "Look-and-Cook" series.

Now there's another: a delicious tome titled "Cooking With Wine" (Harry N. Abrams, $49.50).

Willan said she had been surprised to find so little written on the subject recently especially with wine now being grown in 43 states. With this explosion of winemaking in the states, "It is astonishing that more of it doesn't find its way into the kitchen," she said.

She hopes the book will "herald a return to wine in the kitchen, so that a splash of red or white wine in the gravy or in the soup, as an addition to a dressing or a quick lift to a sauce, becomes as commonplace as salt and pepper."

The book is packed with good things: 220 wine-based recipes, color photography, and a full complement of tips on techniques.

Among other details, Willan offers wine-pairing selections, quick-fix suggestions, and personal recipes and stories from 24 vintners across the United States.

Recipes range from classic coq au vin to such down-to-earth dishes as "drunken chicken" from an old South African cookbook.

The book pays tribute to Thomas Jefferson, "America's first wine authority." Willan includes the third president's recipe for wine jelly but updates it, since cooks today might have trouble finding four calves' feet, washed well "without taking off the hoofs."

Her adaptation substitutes veal stock or milk, and powdered gelatin. Research turned up the recipe, in Jefferson's own handwriting, in the Jefferson Papers at the Library of Congress.

Willan, who was born in England, says the jelly is "very British" and recalls eating calf's-foot jelly as a child when she was sick.

In her research, Willan dispelled some myths, made a few culinary discoveries and stuck by the time-honored rule that you should never cook with a wine not fit to drink.

However, Willan says that doesn't mean you have to use an expensive vintage. "All of those lovely, complex flavors" will get lost in the cooking, she explains. "It's simply not worth it."

Willan says she had "great fun with wine, pushing it to the limit" and urges home cooks, too, to experiment. It led her to the discovery that you'll get a firm, pliable pasta dough if you replace some of the eggs with white wine.

"I found that a tablespoon or two of wine added to pasta dough makes a most wonderful, velvety pasta dough," she says.

As for misconceptions, Willan says one is that a high-tannin, or Bordeaux-style, wine is not good for cooking. "On the contrary," she says, "the tannin seems to age and you get an even better result," providing you cook it a long time.

For home cooks who may keep only a minimal amount of wine, Willan suggests these basics: a Merlot, something fruity with lots of body; something fairly dry, a chardonnay or a sauvignon blanc, but not an oaky one; a medium sherry; a Madeira; and red Port. Once the bottles are opened store them in the refrigerator, tightly corked, and use them within a few days.

Willan spends six months of the year in her 16-bedroom, 17th-century Chateau du Fey, which is both her headquarters in Burgundy and that of her cooking school.

Living in France, she says, it has become natural for her to cook with wine. "There wouldn't be a meal without wine in some way, often in the gravy," she says.

At 64, Willan, who has taught in nine countries and whose books are printed in 18 languages, believes her greatest influence on the cooking profession has been in food writing. Most of the best known food magazines have a La Varenne graduate on their masthead.

Pepin describes Willan as "extremely thorough and precise" in the French technique and a good model for younger chefs writing recipes.

Willan calls the "New Age" chardonnay and cornmeal cake from her latest cookbook an easy, quick recipe to prepare. "It's made in the food processor," she says. "You can't go wrong."

She suggests using a punchy, concentrated chardonnay from Australia or California, a white wine with tropical fruit flavors, to make the cake, which she says becomes moister the longer it's kept. She says it would go well paired with berries in the summer, or with a spicy dried fruit compote in the winter.

Chardonnay and Cornmeal Cake

• 9-inch springform pan
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2/3 cup coarse yellow cornmeal
• 2/3 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup butter, diced
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup full-flavored white wine

Heat the oven to 350 F. Butter the cake pan, line the base with a round of parchment paper, and brush again with butter. Sprinkle the pan with flour, discarding the excess.

Sift the flour with the baking powder and salt into a food processor. Add the cornmeal, almonds, butter and sugar. Work the mixture, using the pulse button, until it forms crumbs that start to clump together, about 30 seconds.

Add the eggs and wine and pulse just until smooth. Pour the batter into the cake pan, and bake until the cake starts to shrink from the sides of the pan and springs back when lightly pressed with a fingertip, 45 to 55 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan about 10 minutes, then turn it onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Willan says the chapter on vegetables was the hardest to write in her new book.

"Wine tends to toughen vegetables," she says. Vegetables also are quite often acidic themselves, she notes, and so don't need wine for flavor.

Of course, there are exceptions. The globe artichoke, for example, works well with wine. For the following recipe, Willan says it is important to find young artichokes, which will be slimmer in shape with relatively soft leaves.

Verdicchio, a light, dry white wine from Italy, is widely distributed in the United States and works well with artichokes, Willan says.

The artichokes do fine if you prepare them ahead and refrigerate them, Willan says. However, they may lose some of their fresh fragrance, so revive them with a squeeze of lemon juice just before serving.

Artichokes With Herbs and White Wine

• 6 young artichokes (about 3/4 pound each)
• 1 lemon, cut in half
• Large bunch flat-leaf parsley
• Large bunch mint
• 6 garlic cloves, chopped
• Salt and pepper
• 1 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• Juice of half a lemon

Trim the ends of the artichoke stems, leaving about 2 inches on the artichoke. Snap off the large bottom leaves with your fingers, breaking off about three-quarters of each leaf so the edible white part remains. Continue until you reach the soft cone of leaves toward the center of the artichoke. With a serrated knife, trim this flush, removing all the firm top as far down as the cup forming the artichoke bottom.

With a small sharp knife, trim the green parts left near the base of the artichoke, removing tough fibers so only the tender white meat is left. Peel the artichoke stem also down to the white edible center.

Finally, scoop out the hairy choke from the center; Willan finds a melon baller is the best tool, but a sharp teaspoon can be used, too. As you work, rub the cut edges of the artichokes with the lemon halves to stop the artichokes from discoloring.

For the filling: Strip the parsley and mint leaves from the stems, reserving a half-dozen mint sprigs for decoration. Chop the herb leaves and mix with the garlic and a little salt. Press this filling into the hollows in the artichokes, keeping a little for sprinkling.

Set the artichokes, tops down and stems up, in a pan just large enough for them all to sit on the base. Sprinkle with the remaining herb-garlic filling, pour over the white wine and olive oil, and add salt and pepper.

Bring the liquid to a boil and simmer 1 minute. Add enough water to come halfway up the sides of the artichokes, not including the stems. Cover and simmer until the artichokes are tender when pierced with a two-pronged fork, 25 to 35 minutes depending on their size and age. Add more water to the pan during cooking if you need it to keep the artichokes half covered.

Remove the artichokes and set them, stems up, in a deep platter or individual bowls. Boil the liquid until it is reduced to about 1 cup, then add the lemon juice; taste, and adjust the seasoning.

Drizzle this sauce over the artichokes as a dressing or pass it separately at the table. Serve the artichokes at room temperature, decorated with the reserved herb sprigs.

Makes 6 servings.

Recipes from "Cooking With Wine," Harry N. Abrams, $49.50. Royalties from "Cooking With Wine" will benefit the not-for-profit COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food & The Arts, which opened in Napa, Calif., last year.

An expert's guideline

Anne Willan's "Ten Commandments" of cooking with wine:

1. If a wine is good to drink it's good for cooking, too.
2. The rule of white wine with fish and white meats, red wine with red meats and game holds good, but can be broken when you feel like it.
3. What you taste in the glass — acidity, fruit or sugar — will be reflected in the pan.
4. High-tannin wines taste harsh unless they are cooked for a long time.
5. Boil wine thoroughly to mellow the flavor. In a braise or sauce, the wine must be reduced by at least half.
6. Just a few spoonfuls of wine will make a difference to many dishes. Large amounts are not always needed.
7. Use local wines to give your cooking a regional, personal touch.
8. Substitute as you need to. Use sherry instead of Madeira, for instance, or dry vermouth for white wine.
9. Let taste be your guide. Add more wine if flavor fades or a last-minute pick-me-up seems appropriate.
10. Use nonreactive pans and dishes that are not sensitive to the acid in wine.