Make a dish pop with wines and spirits

For savoury foods, how do I know what type of spirit or wine to use?

Generally when it comes to savoury foods, there is the pairing that you need to understand first. Like fish, everyone believes it must work with white wine— that is the traditional pairing.

There is also the alcohol content and acidity of the wine that will pair with certain fish. A tilapia would do with a mild acid wine.

Salmon would go well with a rose, pink with pink.

When it comes to red meats, go with red wine. You cannot start reinventing the wheel but you can modernise the dish like a beef fillet with a red wine mushroom sauce.

It is about understanding the flavour of the dish and the wine and how they blend because if you do not get the correct wine, the flavour can overpower it.

We did the duck dish with an orange liqueur because duck goes well with orange, how do you find such combinations for the rest?

Duck goes well with orange flavoured brandy, while chicken is perfect with a white wine or a whisky.
Pork goes with brandy. You can do pork with brandy and mustard.

This dish is always served with sweet sauces and fruit compotes. When using brandy, you need to cook the alcohol out which is why we do the flambé.

You want the fine taste but not the roughness of the alcohol.

Can one use sweet wines?

You can cook with any wine but sweet wine is mainly in desserts like Tiramisu which use sweet Italian wine while savoury dishes take dry white or red wines.

How do I incorporate alcohol into creamy desserts?

It depends on the dessert because we have cream liqueurs like Baileys, Amarula and Magnum which go well with mousses and toffee desserts. They contribute to the sweetness and the alcohol flavour.

How is it then that in desserts you taste the sharpness of the alcohol?

Because in most desserts, we do not burn the alcohol out, you just need to balance. Most of the desserts we use for the alcohol are mildly flavoured and we do not put too much in it. For creamy desserts, you cannot cook out the alcohol because it will just curdle in the pot.

Can children eat meals cooked with alcohol as opposed to alcohol flavoured desserts?

No. I don’t believe kids should take alcohol even if it is cooked out.

We label all our meals that are flavoured in alcohol, especially the desserts which have a strong taste of the alcohol which will introduce the taste to the children.

What is the use of the alcohol in desserts like Christmas pudding or fruit cake?

It acts as a preservative. You can keep that cake from one Christmas to the next. It cannot go bad. They use the same in wedding cakes as a preservative.

This works best for cakes that you do not want to store in the fridge for one reason or the other and it tastes better as the cake matures.