life & style // no. 12 theotherpress.ca Four ways to cook with alcohol > Spike your winter with these saucy suggestions! Sophie Isbister Columnist t seems like the months of January and February cause people to slow down on their drinking. Whether youre detoxing from the holidays, following through on a New Year’s resolution, or taking part in the BC Cancer Foundation’s “Lose the Booze” challenge, taking a break from alcohol is never a bad thing... but that doesn’t mean you can’t experiment with the hard stuff in other ways. I’ve been cooking a lot more lately, and as I upgrade my skills I’ve been tackling more complex and difficult recipes. A lot of these involve alcohol. Using beer, wine, or liquor in your dishes is a great way to add depth and flavour to your meal, and if you're trying to stay sober, don’t worry; the heat of cooking burns off most of the alcohol, leaving behind a rich flavour. I’ve compiled four possible ways you can spike your food! Don’t worry about buying the best booze for these dishes. A mid-range wine or cheap liquor will spice up a meal just as well as a pricier bottle. Add beer to chili Whether I’m making chili on the stove or in the slow cooker, | always sauté my finely-chopped veggies on the stove first. That’s when you can add the beer. I dice up onions, peppers, celery, whatever I have on hand, cook until soft, and then pour in most of a 355ml can of beer. Let it cook until the beer is half gone, or even fully evaporated to leave no trace of alcohol. The first recipe that suggested this method called for a Mexican beer like Corona or Dos Equis, but I had some stout on hand so IJ used that. It imparted a rich flavour on my chili and I really think it took it to the next level! Add white wine to risotto You may have heard that making risotto is scary, given that it involves hunching over a stove and stirring for an hour. At least, that’s what I used to think. However, while this creamy rice dish may be time-consuming, it is totally simple. The recipe I used didn’t call for wine, but my chef friend suggested I toss some white wine in at the beginning of the cooking process. Use a half a cup of a dry white wine, like pinot grigio, in place of whatever liquid your recipe calls for. It will cook off during the process and leave behind a touch of acidity that will add complexity to the finished risotto. Deglaze a pan with red wine You know when you sear or cook meat ina steel or cast-iron pan and youre left with what seems like little burnt bits on the pan? Well, those aren't actually ruined food. They’re like the shy person at the party who just needs a little bit of alcohol to be coaxed out. This is where deglazing comes in. You can deglaze with any liquid, like water or broth, but wine is also a great choice! While your pan is still hot but you have removed the meat to rest (or cook further in the oven), pour a cup or so of any red wine in the pan and scrape up all those little bits. You can make it into a delicious sauce to eat with your meal, or if the meat New Year, ‘new’ me? > How to handle your (inevitably) broken resolutions Jillian McMullen Staff Writer S. here we are, a few weeks into the “New Year,” and like many, you've probably made a few resolutions. I’ve found that these first few weeks of the year are always when people are the most committed to their resolutions; when whatever habit they are trying to develop is most likely to becomes an everyday norm. Unfortunately, that kind of sudden intensity isn’t always sustainable. According to a Forbes report, only about nine per cent of people who make resolutions actually keep them. So, if you've already slept through a few of those early morning boot camps or neglected some class readings for “just one more episode,” here’s some steps to healthily approach failure—crying on the couch over a (second) bow] of ice cream not included. The first thing you should do is acknowledge the shortcomings of making resolutions. We make resolutions to fix problems, so making resolutions inherently suggests you have a problem which you must resolve. Obviously, resolutions are not often born out of positivity, they are born out of insecurity regarding a personal trait or behavior someone decided is somehow undesirable. There’s a lot riding, then, on the success or failure of these resolutions. Your personal sense of value becomes wrapped up in whether or not you change that “undesirable” trait, and that’s why we feel a lot of guilt when that change simply doesn’t happen. For those reasons, I haven't made a resolution in a few years now and I actually think that, coupled with a shift in intention, I’ve been able to accomplish more without them. My suggestion for failing resolutions is to simply not make them. Rather, set reasonable goals instead. I know it sounds like the same thing dressed up in different clothing, and honestly—it is! But it is the attitude you have when approaching these goals that becomes important. Find something youd like to accomplish this year, and make sure it’s something you actually want to do. Personally, my goal is to save up enough money to go travel in Southeast Asia by next winter. I’m reaching towards an experience I'll really enjoy, so I am already appreciating the work I’m doing to get myself there as I’ve taken the “chore aspect” out of it. Once you've found that thing you'd like to accomplish, break it down. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan, and a plan supported with a commitment to it becomes attainable. What I like to do is plan out what steps I can take ona 6C Photo via SeriousEats.com Using beer, wine, or liquor in your dishes is a great way to add depth and flavour to your meal. you were cooking was for a stew or chili, add the deglazed liquid to your pot. Marinade meat with liquor Marinating a cheap cut of meat can be easily done with whatever flavourful liquids you have on hand, and if you add gin, vodka, rum, or whiskey to that daily, weekly, and monthly basis to reach my goal because that’s how you form habits. Habits are what keep you reaching and moving forward even when life inevitably throws an obstacle in your way. And that’s the last thing to remember: The road towards accomplishing your goal isn’t a one-way street. Don’t be discouraged if it feels like things are working against you— marinade, it helps add flavour to the dish and tenderizes the meat even more! I marinade my cuts of meat for at least 30 minutes before cooking. Don’t add too much liquor, but start with just a half ounce for a few steaks or chicken breast. Use light coloured liquors for white meats, and dark liquors for beef or venison. Illustration by Cara Seccafien even if one of those things happens to be yourself. You're allowed to mess up and youre allowed to do things that aren't determined by the goal you have set for yourself. The way that I look at it is that a goal is supposed to work for you, not the other way around. It is healthy to have something you're aiming towards, but it’s definitely okay if you end up landing somewhere else.