On wine, cream, and capers

As hard as it is, I'm not going to make a pun on the word "capers." Shenanigans. Ok, but that was it.

This entry is the one that inspired me to create this blog. You see, when a couple of buddies were coming by and I felt like cooking, I created a recipe more or less from scratch. Granted, it was inspired by existing recipes, but the final product was my own. The result was far from perfect, but it was tasty. My friends wanted the recipe for even that preliminary version. Since then the recipe has been refined and improved to the product you see before you.

On Wine

It only makes since, really, that my first real entry would be about wine. And not because I'm a drunk--I mean, I like a good drink. Not gonna lie. But because wine is one of those mysterious elements of cooking and, especially, completing a meal that baffles many people. I find it hard to believe at this point, but there are many people that are actually afraid of cooking with wine and haven't the foggiest idea about pairing besides white with chicken, red with beef. But a little reason will illuminate this mystery and give any nerd a passing knowledge that will, at least, help them to fake it. More importantly, it will provide a baseline upon which the inquiring mind can build a real knowledge.

Let's start with pairing, mostly because this entry will be short. It will not be short because it's simple--there are people who make their livelihoods on pairing wine with food. It will be short because I've got a few tips for acquiring your own knowledge.

There are literally thousands of websites devoted to wine and pairing. If in doubt, google. A search string like "wine with XXXX" (where XXXX is the food, obviously), will return myriad suggestions. People have been doing this ever since they figured out that getting drunk is better when you go about it the right way, so you'll have no shortage of sources. When it comes down to it, anyone with a smart phone can find the right wine on the spot.

The other thing I'll say about wine is this: More expensive is not necessarily better. Be willing to try some experiments and find what you like. A great resource is a place like Total Wine or BevMo. These places are my holy land, lands of milk and honey. All made by drunken cows and bees. You'll see countless varieties that you've never heard of, and most of the time you'll even save money over the grocery store. Even better, they often include suggestions and detailed descriptions. At first, many of the words will seem like nonsense. But invest a little time and have maybe a bottle or two a week, and you'll start to learn.

I'll also usually suggest things in the recipes, but you are encouraged to call me an idiot and make your own decisions.

Next, cooking. Cooking with wine is the easiest thing in the world, as long as you remember a few crucial things: Never use cooking wine, it's all about when it's added, and use the right wine for the right food. The third is pretty much pairing, with some exceptions. Some wines (like Marsala) are great for cooking, but you probably won't want to drink them straight. Others are great with a food, but won't be great IN the food. I'll try to point those out in the recipes.

Next, never use cooking wine. Let me say that again: NEVER USE COOKING WINE. So called "cooking wine" is not intended for drinking, just cooking. It's cheap, and there's a reason. It's almost universally sub-par wine that the makers figure will pass when surrounded by other flavors. It won't. Think of it this way: If you're painting a masterpiece, the white bits should not be off-white. Or cream. Or, god help you, ecru. In the same way, sub-par wine will tend to impart sub-par flavor. It's likely to result in a funny aftertaste or a strange interaction with other ingredients. More importantly, so it can be sold with regular ingredients rather than requiring proof of age like proper wine, cooking wine is rendered undrinkable with a SHITLOAD of salt. It will throw off the salt content of your food, which is absolutely vital in itself. It's also another entry yet to come.

Finally, the point at which you add wine is crucial. You'll learn a bit of this following recipes, but the science is important to know. Almost always you'll add wine to food in a critical step that fancy Frenchmen call "deglazing." Deglazing is, simply put, when you pour wine onto a hot cooking surface before other liquid ingredients are added. This accomplishes three important things.

The first is that it allows you to impart the flavor of the wine without all of the effects of alcohol on how the food cooks. Firstly, alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water (or primarily water ingredients) and will cause the food to cook at a lower temperature. Secondly, the alcohol itself is generally not what you want--it's all the bonus flavors. It's a myth that food cooked with alcohol such as wine will "cook off" all the sweet, sweet booze. But it's also a myth that all of the alcohol will remain. You'll never get drunk on a white wine sauce, but if you are absolutely opposed to consuming alcohol you're better off using something else. Adding the wine to deglaze the pan will flash boil a lot of the alcohol off without over or under cooking everything, and will leave the flavor you want.

Secondly, that flash boil business will quickly cool the cooking surface (by causing a rapid phase change to absorb energy, for the sciency). If you're moving from frying or sauteing ingredients and adding liquid, as you often will with a sauce, you don't want the sauce pan to be too hot or the liquid will cook unevenly and burn in parts.

Finally, deglazing with wine, by rapidly cooling the cooking surface, causes the metal to contract rapidly. This causes the bits that are stuck to the pan to release and become part of your sauce. Those bits, far from being burned dross (unless you've overcooked) are transformed into a cornucopia of flavors as a result of the Maillard reaction, a collection of chemical reactions (often mistakenly called caramelizing, which only happens with sugar) that vastly increase the complexity of flavor.

Learning to properly use wine with cooking, along with learning to pick the right wine for the food, is your first step on the way to being a faux gourmet. That's French.

Chicken and farfalle in a white wine cream sauce with spinach and capers

Now for the money shot. The recipe. And it will delight. Serve this with a spinach salad with a light, sweet vinaigrette. Raspberry vinaigrette is perfect.

For a good dinner for two, you'll need:

1. One very large chicken breast, about 0.5 lbs. (Two smaller ones will do)
2. Half a pound of Farfalle (bow tie) pasta
3. Half a cup of heavy cream (That's right, heavy cream)
4. Two tablespoons of butter (REAL butter, unsalted)
5. Extra virgin olive oil. This is the one place where I will tell you, without reservation, that imported is better. Olive oil in Italy is subject to stringent standards, and extra virgin olive oil is the best oil from the first pressing of the olives. The same standards are not applied in the U.S. So extra virgin olive oil from the U.S. might be the same stuff, but it might not. Why take chances? Buy Italian olive oil.
5. About a cup of dry white wine. I've been all about Tuscan whites lately. The last time I made this recipe I used Villa Antinori 2006, about $10. A Sauvignon Blanc or Chenin Blanc would be good as well, and available at any grocery store. Avoid Chardonnay--It's technically "dry," but I find most too fruity.
6. A small to medium shallot (Not an onion. Anyone that tells you onion and extra garlic will work is a god damned liar. Shallots are widely available now and not much more than onion)
7. One or two cloves of garlic, depending on how you roll. Avoid pre-chopped or bottled garlic. It's usually pickled or soaked in oil, and doesn't have the right flavor.
8. Two tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese. Fresh grated is best, and good quality pre-grated Parmigiano-Reggiano is also good. The artificially preserved crap in a green can will work, but only as a last resort.
9. A few capers; about a tablespoon. I prefer the ones packed in sea salt, but it's your call. Capers are a funny little creature--the right amount of these salty little bastards add a wonderful, unique flavor and enhance the other flavors. Too many make the dish taste like old fruit and ass.
10. Spinach. Frozen, you want about a cup, run under hot tap water until thawed. Fresh chopped you want about a cup and a half to two cups, rinsed and dipped in boiling water for no more than 30 seconds (this is called blanching)
11. As with most food, kosher salt and fresh ground black pepper, to make things magical.

Instruments:
A decent sized pot suitable for pasta
A large, deep sauce pan or saute pan. Generally, if it comes with a lid it's suitable. Stainless steel is best, and non-stick will work fine.
A small frying pan, non-stick is perfect here.
Spoons or spatulas. I like bamboo or wood. Avoid plastic that will melt and metal that will scrape up your cookware something awful.

Once you have your ingredients assembled, begin your prep work.

Put a pot of water on to boil, and make sure you add a good pinch of kosher salt. This will add a bit of flavor to the pasta as it cooks, and cause the water to boil at a higher temperature, resulting in better cooking. When it's boiling like mad, add the pasta and stir it immediately, but leave the heat up. Stir it a couple times as you go. If it begins to boil over lift it off of the heat for a moment and allow it to simmer down. You'll want to cook it for about 8 minutes at sea level (a bit longer at higher elevations). It will not be quite done at this point--you want it to finish cooking in the sauce to absorb the flavor and thicken the sauce with the starch. That's called multitasking, and an iPhone can't do it.

Cook the chicken any way you like to cook chicken. You could fry it in a bit of olive oil (if you take this route use the same pan in which you intend to make the sauce). I like to rub the chicken with a tiny bit of olive oil and sprinkle it with kosher salt and black pepper and grill it. Either way, cook it until the outside is browned but the inside is not quite done, and place it on a dish or cutting board for now. This will also finish cooking in the sauce.

Finely dice the shallot. Use the same technique as you would for an onion--cut off the ends and remove the papery bit, cut it in half, and dice it like an onion. This makes me think I'll need an entry on knife techniques--they're important. For now just try your best to cut the shallot into about 1/8 inch bits.

Chop the garlic. Pro tip (learned from an Italian girl, no less): lay the garlic clove, paper in all, on a counter top. Place the flat of a good chef's knife on the clove, and give the top (other flat of the knife) a good whack. The clove will be slightly crushed, and the paper will peel right off really easily. Now chop it finely.

Put your big pan on the burner on medium, add a tablespoon of olive oil, and a tablespoon of butter. While the pan is heating move it around so it's coated evenly. When the butter has just stopped foaming (but before it starts to turn brown) add the shallots and garlic, and a little pinch of salt. Saute until the shallots are starting to turn a bit translucent, but don't let the garlic start to brown.

While this is all going on, put the small skillet on another burner on medium-low heat and add the other tablespoon of butter. Make sure not to let the butter burn.

Once the shallots and garlic are good to go, pour in the cup of the wine on the hot pan (deglazing, remember?). The wine should immediately boil. Stir well, making sure to scrape up the brown bits of awesome that stubbornly stick to the pan. Reduce the heat to low and let some of the alcohol cook off. Do not stick your head over the pan and inhale the fumes. They are largely vaporized ethanol. This is not as pleasant as it sounds.

After about two minutes, add the cream and stir. If it boils too quickly, lift the pan off of the heat for a moment and reduce the heat a bit. You don't want cream to burn--you want it to be lightly simmering. Stir frequently while it cooks down. It should lose about a quarter of its volume.

While this is going on, toss the spinach into the little skillet with the butter and spread it out. Let the spinach fry in the butter until it just starts to brown on the edges, then remove it from the heat. Also, take that chicken breast and cut it up to your liking. Either 1/2 inch strips, or cubes of about 1 inch.

Once the sauce has cooked down a bit throw the chicken and pasta in. Stir well and let them cook together for about four minutes. If the sauce gets too thick add just a little bit--just of few tablespoons--of chicken stock (ideal) or water (it will work).

Once the chicken and pasta are looking good in that sexy cream sauce, add the capers, spinach, and a pinch of salt. Stir, then taste the sauce. Need more salt? Add a bit more salt. Remember, there's still Parmesan, which is salty, so don't go nuts.

Remove from heat and add the cheese, then stir until everything is mixed well and you don't have chunks of Parmesan.

While all this sounds complicated, you can actually make this whole recipe in about a half hour, maybe a little more if you want to be particular. I included a lot of detail so there are no surprises. For best results read this recipe and make it without reference to the source. It's OK if you check the ingredients list during prep, preferably on a smart phone or similar gadget. If you're making it for a date I recommend a dry run, maybe for a friend or a roommate. Finally, the best part, eating...

1. Put on dishes and top with freshly ground black pepper
2. Drink the same wine as you used for the sauce
3. ???
4. Profit!