It’s a familiar situation. There are a few splashes of spirit left in the bottle you took to pres last night, and whilst it’s not enough to get you through the next night out, it certainly doesn’t deserve to get thrown out. It might sit on the kitchen counter for a week or so before you decant it into another not-quite-empty bottle, or attempt an ‘own recipe’ cocktail. This doesn’t have to be the case. Next time you’re in this situation, try cooking with alcohol with one of the recipes listed below:
If you’ve got leftover vodka try…
We promise it doesn’t taste anything like vodka. Melt a little butter in a large pan over a medium-high heat, add a little pancetta if you fancy and let it saute until crisp and golden. Now add your vodka – around 75ml will do the job. Stir it with the pancetta and let it reduce by half, this should take about five minutes. Now add a can of whole plum (400g) tomatoes and 150ml of heavy cream. Keep stirring until the sauce thickens slightly, and voila.
A simple tomato pasta sauce that uses up a little left over vodka. Garnish with parmesan and basil leaves if you’re feeling especially fancy. Recipe serves four.
If you’ve got leftover red wine try…
Beef bourguignon is a classic. But probably not one you’re likely to be making at uni, given the usual long list of ingredients and the typical eight hour cooking times. But it doesn’t have to be so complicated.
Treat yourself to 400g grams of rump steak, and fry it in a pan for a couple of minutes until it gets a little colour. Remove it from the pan and then fry an onion (diced) and two garlic cloves (finely chopped). Fry these until they’re crisp and golden and smelling delicious.
Next add two glasses of red wine – that’s about 300ml if you don’t own a wine glass. At the same time add in 400g of chopped tomatoes and let it simmer for a good 10 minutes. Afterwards, add the sliced steak back into the pan and let it simmer for around 30 minutes; this will allow the steak to soak up all the flavours and leave you with a truly tasty meal. Recipe serves two.
If you’ve got leftover white wine try…
A delicious dish that’s so simple to make. Begin the risotto-making process as you usually would, boiling one and a half litres of vegetable stock. Sweat one chopped onion in a separate pan, melted in a knob of butter, and then add 300g of risotto rice into the pan with the onions and butter to coat all the rice in the butter.
Tip in one glass of white wine and stir it around with the rice. It will evaporate entirely – this is fine. Then add the stock, one cup at a time until the rice is soft and has absorbed the liquid.
When the risotto is entirely cooked, stir in 50g of finely grated parmesan, another knob of butter and a sprinkle of dried herbs of your choice. Season to your taste and enjoy. Recipe serves four.
If you’ve got leftover rum try…
A decadent recipe for gooey rum fudge. Granted, this only uses four tablespoons of rum, so you will have to make a few batches to use up all those leftovers.
Start by lining a square baking tray with parchment paper.
Heat up some water in a saucepan, but do not let it boil. You will not need much water as you won’t be cooking in this. Instead, find a bowl that balances on top of this pan, as so the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water below.
Into your balanced bowl add 450g of chocolate chopped into pieces (dark is best, but milk will work also). As this starts to melt a little add one can of condensed milk and four tablespoons of rum. Now is the time to mention this recipe will only work with dark rum, so don’t go trying it with Bacardi. Adding a teaspoon of vanilla extract is recommend for extra flavour but not necessary.
Once it’s all melted together you can take it off the heat and pour it into your lined baking tray. Leave it to set for several hours, or overnight.
[image: bluemime via Flickr]