— Hilda P J

So, for a curry, or I'm going to approach this more broadly as a simmered preparation, so it could be a stew, you can call it a curry, it might be a soup. But this sort of a one-pot creation that requires some simmering time often will benefit as far as building layers of flavor and depth of flavor from the addition of a wine or even some other liquid. And sometimes it's apple juice, but keep in mind the sweetness that accompanies that. Sometimes it's beer. Sometimes it's a distilled variety of liquor. It could be a vermouth, it could be port, or something else. But most often, if you're adding alcohol to a preparation like this that's going to simmer for a while, you'll add it very early in the cooking process. And so, in other words, you're going to get your base of aromatics, which is very often mirepoix. It could be a variation of mirepoix, or it could be something else, depending on specifically what you're making. But let's stick with mirepoix now for the discussion, since I think all of you can probably envision that, the combination of carrot, celery, and half of that being made up of onions. And you get that in your pot, usually with some fat to sweat or to caramelize. But of course, you have the option of doing a no-oil sweating or sauteing as well, in which case you want to add a little bit of a liquid to lift up those pieces from the bottom of the pan, because they have a tendency to stick, just to avoid burning. And once you get the sweating underway or impart some browning to that base layer of aromatics, then you can do a final deglaze with the alcohol. And it could be red or white. Think about the color of the finished item and then the color that's going to be imparted by the wine that you add. So, if it's going to be a dark item, the gravy or the sauce that's in the finished item, if it's going to be a medium or dark brown, use either one. If it is going to be a lighter color, medium or a lighter colored finished product, then go toward the white wine, just so you can stick with the sort of color groupings associated with those two wines without sullying your light-colored curry or soup or stew with a dark-colored wine. Okay? Then we add this early and give it some time to reduce first before we start adding other ingredients. So, if you have other chunky things you want to add, whether it's meats or vegetables, we would add that next after reducing the wine, and then we would top that off with the base liquid that will finish the simmering process for your creation. Okay? And avoid generally adding wines later in the cooking process because they won't have the opportunity to reduce and to cook off that winey flavorAnd you'll end up with sometimes soury, but usually just these little winey notes that remain in the finished product if the wine is added late in the cooking process. So we want to add it early, we want to reduce it, concentrate those flavors, and then build that curry, soup, or stew with the other ingredients that you have in mind. Okay? I hope that helps you out, Hilda. Give that a try, and let us know what you think. Thank you very much.