Cooking with wine can be magical

You've seen the impressive demonstrations: While tossing some fancy sounding dish in a saute pan with one hand, a chef pours something out of a bottle with the other -- a flame jumps up from the pan as if it's some sort of magic trick. When you get to taste the dish, you wonder if it was magic. The dish just seems to have something extra.

Of course, the chef was adding wine, and not just for the spectacle of it. Wine adds both subtle fruit flavors and acidity, which is a key to bringing out flavors in food. And the good news is, you can use it at home, but when cooking with wine there are a few guidelines you should know.

First, be safe: Don't add wine to a pan while it's over heat, and don't hold your head over the pan either. You might get that flash like the chefs do, but it's only cool until you scorch your ceiling or singe your eyebrows.

Give your dish time to cook most of the alcohol out. Too much residual alcohol will add bitterness to the dish. And be warned, not all alcohol will cook out. If that's an issue for whatever reason, find an alternative, such as verjus (the juice of unripe grapes).

The flavors in the wine you use will concentrate as you cook. The general purpose of cooking with wine is to add acidity and fruit flavors, so it's best to use lighter, fruity (but not sweet) wines. You may love that oaky Chardonnay, but unless you want oak flavors concentrated in your dish, it's probably better to stick with a simple Pinot Grigio or Sauvignon Blanc.

Despite what some famous chefs with a big expense account say, don't use an expensive wine to cook with. It's a waste of both money and wine.