What are you cooking the week of March 31, 2019?

[chocomouse]

Egg salad sandwich with bread and butter pickles.

[Italiancook]

I have tomorrow's dinner in the oven. Beef Merlot. That's Boeuf Bourguignon gone wrong. It's impossible to buy burgundy wine in this area, except in giant bottles. So I use Pinot Noir, which is readily available. When I was planning out my day last night, I discovered that my husband had purchased Bordeaux instead of Pinot Noir. I Googled and found out Bordeaux has red and white wine. So, I Googled to find out what substitutes for Pinot Noir. Merlot is one substitute, and we had a bottle of Merlot. So today I'm making Beef Merlot. I hope the finished product tastes alright.

[Mike Nolan]

I've used Merlot for Boeuf Bourguinon, you should be fine. The key to good Boeuf Bourguinon is to not let the wine dominate the flavor profile, I find it works well to balance the wine with beef stock, if I use 2 cups of wine I use 2 cups of a good beef stock. (I make my own stocks.)

I keep several bottles of Lindermans Shiraz and Shiraz-Cabernet wine on hand, these are Australian wines that IMHO makes a very good Boeuf Bourguignon. (I've had it at several French restaurants, I think mine is better.)

The shiraz grape got a bad reputation a while back, but the wine writer for the Wall Street Journal recently reviewed several reasonably priced Shiraz wines quite favorably.

I've also used Merlot for coq au vin. Remember that both Boeuf Bourguinon and coq au vin originated as peasant dishes where the wine and extended cooking time were needed to tenderize a tougher cut of meat. (Coq au vin was traditionally made with an old rooster, but good luck finding one of those for sale, a capon is probably as close as you'll get.)

They say you shouldn't use a wine in cooking that you wouldn't drink. Well, I don't drink much wine at all, and I'm certainly not about to buy a $50 bottle of wine for cooking, but both Shiraz and Merlot would be similar to the house red wines you're likely to get by the glass at a restaurant.

For cooking with white wine, I will use a reasonably priced white Zinfandel or chenin blanc.

[Italiancook]

Mike, the recipe I used, from Cook-Ahead Cookery, calls for a cup of wine & a cup of beef stock. I don't make my own beef stock -- I use it rarely. Like you, I use Merlot for cog-au-vin.

Glad to hear I didn't waste my time or ingredients with the Merlot.

I don't drink alcohol, so I'm happy you mentioned white wines. When I need one for a recipe, I never know what to buy. Usually, I use Sauvignon Blanc, because I heard it used on a cooking show. But I know nothing about what type of wine it is -- dry or not.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by Italiancook.

[Mike Nolan]

I bought some vegetable stock at Trader Joe's to use in a soup last year, the soup was OK, but the stock tasted awful by itself. Zoup sells its stocks, I've even seen them in grocery stores, their advertising says "Why would you use a stock in a soup if you wouldn't drink it?" Unfortunately most of their stocks have garlic in them, and they're a bit expensive compared with the Swanson or Trader Joe's stocks. I'm never sure how to cost out home made stocks, because when I make beef or chicken stock I also get several meals out of the left over meat.

I bought Rachael Mamane's "Mastering Stocks and Broths" book, she won't use celery in her stock recipes because she thinks it makes the stocks too bitter.

I haven't made my own vegetable stock yet, because it is not something I use a lot of, when I make beef stock I make it in a 24 quart pot, chicken stock I usually make in a 12 quart pot unless I'm making a really big batch, in which case I'll use the 16 or 24 quart pot.

[RiversideLen]

A sloppy Joe and chicken veg soup. I used a low sodium broth from a box to which I added a little penne pasta, carrot, bok choy and cauliflower. About 10 minutes on the heat and it's done. It's really not bad and it's easy.

[Joan Simpson]

I had chili cheese hot dogs.My husband had a sandwich and soup.

[Joan Simpson]

Turkey sandwiches and chips.

[BakerAunt]

Thanks for the discussion of cooking wines. It gives me an idea of what I should buy for recipes when I finish up what I have on hand. I have some wines around that I bought for when people come over, but usually they bring wine. On rare occasions, I have some wine with dinner. I managed to sneak some red wine by my husband in the stew I made this week. I put it in early in the process when I deglazed the pan after browning the stew meat.

I make my own chicken/turkey stock. I've not tried making beef stock, and I'm not sure how easy it would be to find what I need locally. I buy the Penzey's concentrated beef stock and use it when I need beef taste, as for my stew. It has less salt than the store brands, but it has enough that I do not add any salt when I use it.

[Mike Nolan]

I'm fortunate that I can get shank bones and knuckle bones from several stores here, neck bones are a little harder to find. You might have to go to South Bend for bones for stock unless there's a full-service butcher closer than that. (They're something of a vanishing breed these days.)

One of the vendors at the summer farmers market sells bones that have had nearly all the meat stripped off for ground beef, I use 2-3 pounds of those in each batch of beef stock.

[Italiancook]

BakerAunt, does "concentrated" beef stock mean it has to be diluted with water?

[BakerAunt]

Italian Cook--It is a beef base, and yes, it needs water added. I've tried the chicken base, but it is so easy to do my own chicken broth, that I do not buy it. They also have a pork and a vegetarian.

[Joan Simpson]

Tonight we had baked potatoes topped with sloppy joe meat sauce,sour cream and butter,Was good!

[Mike Nolan]

I'm making a meat loaf with black beans in it.

[chocomouse]

I roasted a turkey, and with it we had baked potatoes, candied carrots, winter squash, and green salad.

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