Cooking with booze

[missroserose]

Background: Brian and I both like good food and drinks. Brian likes to cook. I like to make drinks. Generally, this works out pretty well. Every once in a while I'll cook too, and usually find someplace to put booze in the recipe -- ever tried bourbon French toast? Or apple pie with brandy? Amazing.

This morning, I made oatmeal, and decided to try something new by putting preserves and cinnamon on top.

Brian: "This looks good!"

Me: "Thanks! It's a bit of an experiment."

Brian: "Great! So how much booze is in it?"

Me, mock offended: "It's for breakfast! I wouldn't put booze in it!"

Brian: "Uh-huh. And what kind of preserves are these?"

Me: "It's the stuff Janae sent us. The Colorado...Whiskey...Peach..."

*pause*

Me: "I'm incapable of making anything without booze by now, aren't I?"

Comments

[vatine]

One very (very) tasty pasta sauce I made was "cut champignons into quarters, fry in plenty of butter, with a hint of salt and black pepper. add a healthy slug of whisky, reduce a bit". I was camping and basically using up the fresh veg and starting-to-be-very-soft butter, with the only readily available falvoured liquid at hand. Who would've known that Bruichladdich 18yo goes well with buttery mushrooms?

[missroserose]

That sounds delicious, although my inner accountant and booze snob both cringe at using 18-year Scotch to cook with. :)

[vatine]

It was the only scotch I had at hand, so...
Besides, I refuse to cook with booze or wine, that I wouldn't be delighted to drink (so my inner food and booze snobbery drives up the price of alcohol in food...).

[missroserose]

*laughs* Fair enough. I wouldn't cook with anything I consider undrinkable, but IME there are plenty of middle-of-the-road options that might be lackluster for drinking but are excellent for cooking with. Exhibit A: Kirkland Signature Bourbon. A little too sour and harsh to be pleasant to drink straight, but those very qualities make it an excellent flavoring in eggnog or cakes.