i love to cook with wine.

[jewel]

i have always been such a major fan of cooking with wine which has always seen my supermarket bills absolutely rocket, i don't even get to drink any of the stuff!!
i cant even follow a recipe right, even my fave spag bol recipemy fave spag bol recipe calls for 2 glasses of wine, i have to double this as a rule. its not a drinking problem cos the alcohol gets cooked off! its just a taste problem! hahaha. this has got even worse with the addition to my kitchen of my russel hobbs slow cooker into which i just throw everything and copious amounts of wine and hey presto, 4 hours later its a gorgeous meal!
anyway i digress, distracted by wine and food. my point is that when i get to a stage of brewing my own wine this can save me shed loads of money! i can brew my own cooking wine! is this a different process to brewing 'wine' or is it all much of a muchness?

[mysterio]

Try using a sweet balsamic vinegar, it adds a wine-like richness to food. I use it all the time in spag bol or chilli, usually just a tablespoon is all you need. Marks & Spencer do a good one. Tomato based dishes always do better with a bit of acid and a bit extra sugar.

One of the mods here as a website which guides you through the wine making process. Never bothered myself as I don't drink wine but it's a good guide:

http://uk-homebrew.tripod.com/id27.html

Totally different to brewing beer. Beer you can make from scratch, wine making you are buying concentrated wine grape juice, adding water and fermenting it.

[floydmeddler]

I'm just about to knock up a batch of cooking wine actually. ALDI's own brand 100% white grape juice will make you a decent cooking wine and table wine too if you're not fancy I suppose. I make 5L batches in a demijohn then store in a 5L wine barrel I bought in France.

REALLY cheap way to keep yourself stocked up on cooking wine!

[danbrew]

Are you after red or white? Or both? You can make both from fruit juice cartons bought from the supermarket along with a few bits bought from LHBS. Both red and white are essentially fruit wines (i.e. grape juice and AN Other fruit juice) which can add a further interesting twist to cooking...

[jewel]

sweet balsamic is divine isnt it!! i love balsamic glaze, so sticky and yummy. i use it loads on startes etc. never thought ot if in foods, i see what you mean about the richness, will give that a go.
and 5 litres?? amazing, i need to get on that now!! right i am all over this guide of the mod's, thanks for the link,let you know how it goes!! what a great weekend activity to fill out my otherwise quiet afternoons!!